Okay, so today I decided to mess around with Packer, specifically to try and get a basic image built for the upcoming “playoffs” – whatever that means in this context, haha. I’ve used Packer before, but it’s been a while, so I figured a refresher was in order.
First things first, I installed Packer. Pretty straightforward, just grabbed the right package for my system and followed the instructions. I already had it, so no big change there.
Getting Started
Next, I needed a basic configuration file. I’m keeping it super simple for now, just a basic Ubuntu image. I found some example configs online and cobbled together something that looked like it would work. It defined a builder (I’m using the qemu one because it’s easy), and a provisioner to do some basic setup.
- Created a file named .
- Pasted in some boilerplate configuration from the Packer docs and examples.
- Edited the Source Path, SSH username, and other basic settings.
The Build Process
With the config file in place, I ran packer init .. This downloads any necessary plugins. Then it was time for the main event: packer build *.
And… it started building! I could see the virtual machine booting up in the QEMU window, and Packer was spitting out a bunch of logs. It took a little while, probably around 10-15 minutes, but that’s expected. I went and grabbed a coffee while it chugged along.
There were a few hiccups along the way. I had a typo in my provisioner script at first (classic!), which caused it to fail. Packer’s error messages were pretty helpful, though, so I was able to fix it quickly. I’m pretty sure it was a missing closing bracket. Always check the simple things.
Success!
Eventually, the build completed successfully! Packer told me where it had saved the resulting image file. Now, I’ve got a basic Ubuntu image ready to go. I didn’t do anything fancy with it yet, just installed some basic packages and updates in the provisioner. But it’s a starting point!
Next steps? Well, I need to figure out what I actually need for these “playoffs.” Probably some specific software and configurations. But for now, I’m happy I got a basic Packer build working again. It’s always good to keep these skills sharp, you never know when you’ll need to spin up a custom image.
