boot_command not sent properly

[budric]

I am using packer version 0.8.6, VirtualBox version 5.0.10 on Windows. I'm trying to build an ubuntu box.

The boot command gets broken up and typed incorrectly (see screenshot attached)

My boot command is:

"boot_command": "<esc><esc><enter><wait> /install/vmlinuz noapic preseed/url=http://{{ .HTTPIP }}: {{ .HTTPPort }}/ubuntu-server-15.10.cfg debian-installer=en_US auto locale=en_US kbd-chooser/method=us hostname={{user `hostname`}} fb=false debconf/frontend=noninteractive keyboard-configuration/modelcode=SKIP keyboard-configuration/layout=USA keyboard-configuration/variant=USA console-setup/ask_detect=false initrd=/install/initrd.gz -- <enter>"

I have also tried boot command split over multiple lines in a JSON array (array of strings is typically what tutorials give you). I have tried Packer 0.7.5 on Windows. I have tried Arch Linux and VirtualBox 5.0.8-3. I get exactly same error with breaks in the boot command in same places.

[rickard-von-essen]

I don't think this is actually a bug. It's probably due to VirtualBox + Ubuntu not agreeing on the width of your screen, but that should not cause any problems. Can you describe what the problem you have (I guess it don't start the preseed install) and supply a gist to your packer template + scripts to reproduce.

[budric]

It doesn't get to preseed or any of the provisioning scripts because the boot command is invalid and the screen goes back to "select language" screen of Ubuntu installer. Therefore I removed those lines from this test template. I'd appreciate someone confirming whether they see same problem on their end.

My template is:

{
    "variables": {
        "ssh_name": "vagrant",
        "ssh_pass": "vagrant",
        "hostname": "test",
        "domain": "lan"
    },
    "builders": [{
            "vm_name": "test.lan",
            "type": "virtualbox-iso",

            "iso_url": "c:/temp/ubuntu-15.10-server-amd64.iso",
            "iso_checksum": "fb4eef05edcabfc5cccd4cb44f3f9b48",
            "iso_checksum_type": "md5",

            "headless": false,

            "http_directory" : "http_server_dir",
            "http_port_min" : 9000,
            "http_port_max" : 9500,

            "ssh_username": "{{user `ssh_name`}}",
            "ssh_password": "{{user `ssh_pass`}}",
            "ssh_wait_timeout": "8000s",

            "shutdown_command": "echo {{user `ssh_pass`}} | sudo -S shutdown -P now",
            "guest_os_type": "Ubuntu_64",
            "vboxmanage": [
                ["modifyvm", "{{.Name}}", "--vram", "12"],
                ["modifyvm", "{{.Name}}", "--memory", "4096"],
                ["modifyvm", "{{.Name}}", "--nictype1", "virtio"],
                ["modifyvm", "{{.Name}}", "--cpus", "4"]
            ],
            "boot_command": "<esc><esc><enter><wait> /install/vmlinuz noapic preseed/url=http://{{ .HTTPIP }}:{{ .HTTPPort }}/ubuntu-server-15.10.cfg debian-installer=en_US auto locale=en_US kbd-chooser/method=us hostname={{user `hostname`}} fb=false debconf/frontend=noninteractive keyboard-configuration/modelcode=SKIP keyboard-configuration/layout=USA keyboard-configuration/variant=USA console-setup/ask_detect=false initrd=/install/initrd.gz -- <enter>"
        }],
    "post-processors": [{
            "type": "vagrant",
            "output": "./ubuntu-server-15.10-mysql-tomcat-x11.box",
            "only": ["virtualbox-iso"]
        }]
}

[budric]

I just noticed that I don't have this problem with 14.04.01 Ubuntu server iso I had lying around. Don't understand what's different.

[rickard-von-essen]

Got it, you hit a bug in the Ubuntu 15.10 installer.

Ubuntu text mode installer is broken and the boot_command from the workaround in boxcutter/ubuntu#22 (comment) is needed. See Ubuntu bugs - debian-installer #1505839 and boxcutter/ubuntu#22.

And see chef/bento#483 for a working Ubuntu 15.10 vagrant build.

[budric]

Thank you very much. That works.