hashicorp/packer

Enhancement: Floppy img builders

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#7,969 opened on Aug 10, 2019

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enhancementhelp wanted

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Description

Legacy operating systems like MS-DOS did not have official CD-ROM installation media (ISO) available, but rather floppy disks (IMG). For these older guests, it would be helpful for Packer to offer floppy-based builders (e.g. virtualbox-img rather than virtualbox-iso), so that these guests can be built directly from historical IMG files.

As a workaround, users can instruct Packer to boot an Ubuntu Live CD or similar, and use boot_command to launch a terminal, whereupon dd, shutdown -r, etc. can manipulate a floppy-based guest. It's not pretty.

Contributor guide

Research direction
Study Packer's builder interface in the source code (e.g., virtualbox iso builder) to understand the required methods. Create a new builder that reads IMG files and provisions them similarly to ISO builders, but tailored for floppy disk media. Consider using existing Go libraries for FAT12 filesystem handling if needed. Look at the 'boot command' and 'shutdown command' handling for non ISO booting. Test with a simple MS DOS IMG file.
Tech stack
go
Domain
devopsinfrastructure
Issue type
Feature
DifficultyEstimated implementation difficulty for a new contributor, from 1 for very small changes to 5 for expert-level work.
3
Estimated timeA rough time range for an experienced contributor to investigate, implement, test, and prepare a pull request.
3-5 days
Activity statusHow available the issue appears right now: fresh, active, stale, blocked, or waiting on maintainer input.
Active
ClarityHow clearly the issue explains the expected change, acceptance criteria, and next step.
Clear
Prerequisites
GoPacker development basics
Newbie friendlinessA 1-100 score estimating how approachable this issue is for first-time contributors.
35