This repository contains various working Packer builds, based on hours of
head scratching, trial and error and ultimately inexplicable success. As you
have no doubt discovered, one of the fiddliest parts of a Packer build is
working out what incantations are best for a boot_command. That may even
be why you're here.
I hope that my efforts will be of help to others (even though this repo may date quickly). If you spot things that could be improved, feel free to send me a pull request. There are doubtless many aspects that are less than optimal. Just don't ask me to change the localisation from en_GB. ;-)
The builds are deliberately minimal, since I use Ansible to configure machines after provisioning. For Linux, I only include virtualisation tools and Python, which is required for Ansible.
The Oracle 8 and Ubuntu 20.04 plans are the most complete - they offer Hyper-V and VMware (free ESXi) builds.
Plans should work with Packer 1.7 and above.
The top-level directory of this repo contains a rough-and-ready PowerShell
script (New-PackerVM.ps1) intended to import a Packer build into Hyper-V (as a
new virtual machine). The script contains no error-checking and may not work in
your environment. But hopefully it will at least provide pointers to the
PowerShell incantations required to import a Packer build into Hyper-V.
VMware importing is left as an exercise for the user. ;-)
As you may well have found, getting to a working build involves lots of internet searching and piecing together snippets of information. I couldn't possibly reconstruct the names of all those whose own work helped mine - but thank you all, anyway! In a similar way, please don't feel you need to credit me if anything here helps you.
Happy Packing!
- Rob