Ubuntu 14.04 AWS Instance Store HVM build - actually worked - built and booted. Much thanks to: https://github.com/Lumida/packer/wiki/Building-Ubuntu-12.04-and-14.04-HVM-Instance-Store-AMIs

default_ami_setup.sh

#!/bin/bash

# server-jre-8u5-linux-x64.tar.gz

DEBIAN_FRONTEND=noninteractive
UCF_FORCE_CONFFNEW=true
export UCF_FORCE_CONFFNEW DEBIAN_FRONTEND

apt-get update
apt-get -y -o Dpkg::Options::="--force-confdef" -o Dpkg::Options::="--force-confnew" dist-upgrade
apt-get -y -o Dpkg::Options::="--force-confdef" -o Dpkg::Options::="--force-confnew" install ruby1.9.3
apt-get clean

# ec2-bundle-vol requires legacy grub and there should be no console setting
apt-get -y install grub
sed -i 's/console=hvc0/console=ttyS0/' /boot/grub/menu.lst
# the above is sufficient to fix 12.04 but 14.04 also needs the following
sed -i 's/LABEL=UEFI.*//' /etc/fstab

mkdir /var/tmp
cd /var/tmp
mkdir ami_tools java api_tools ec2
mkdir ec2/bin ec2/lib ec2/etc
export EC2_HOME=/var/tmp/ec2/bin
export JAVA_HOME=/var/tmp/java/jdk1.8.0_25/bin
export PATH=$PATH:$EC2_HOME:$JAVA_HOME
apt-get -y install unzip kpartx
cd java
wget -q https://supply.your.own.url/server-jre-8u25-linux-x64.gz
tar -xzf server-jre-8u25-linux-x64.gz
cd ../ami_tools
wget http://s3.amazonaws.com/ec2-downloads/ec2-ami-tools-1.5.3.zip
unzip ec2-ami-tools-1.5.3.zip
cd ../api_tools
wget http://s3.amazonaws.com/ec2-downloads/ec2-api-tools.zip
unzip ec2-api-tools.zip
cd ..
mv ami_tools/ec2-ami-tools*/bin/* api_tools/ec2-api-tools*/bin/* ec2/bin/
mv ami_tools/ec2-ami-tools*/lib/* api_tools/ec2-api-tools*/lib/* ec2/lib/
mv ami_tools/ec2-ami-tools*/etc/* api_tools/ec2-api-tools*/etc/* ec2/etc/

passwd -d ubuntu
rm /home/ubuntu/.ssh/authorized_keys

exit 0

gistfile1.json

{
  "variables": {
    "aws_access_key": "",
    "aws_secret_key": "",
    "aws_account_id": "{{env `AWS_ACCOUNT_ID`}}",
    "aws_x509_cert": "{{env `AWS_X509_CERT`}}",
    "aws_x509_key": "{{env `AWS_X509_KEY`}}",
    "chef_validation_key": "{{env `CHEF_VALIDATION_KEY`}}",
    "chef_server_url": "{{env `CHEF_SERVER_URL`}}",
    "chef_version": "{{env `CHEF_VERSION`}}"
  },

  "builders": [{
    "type": "amazon-instance",
    "access_key": "{{user `aws_access_key`}}",
    "secret_key": "{{user `aws_secret_key` }}",
    "account_id": "{{user `aws_account_id` }}",
    "region": "us-east-1",
    "source_ami": "ami-cc5229a4",
    "instance_type": "c3.large",
    "ssh_username": "ubuntu",
    "ami_name": "image-{{timestamp}}",
    "bundle_prefix": "image-{{timestamp}}",
    "s3_bucket": "baked-ami-storage",
    "x509_cert_path": "{{user `aws_x509_cert`}}",
    "x509_key_path": "{{user `aws_x509_key`}}",
    "ami_virtualization_type": "hvm",
    "bundle_vol_command": "sudo -n bash -c 'export EC2_HOME=/var/tmp/ec2 ; export JAVA_HOME=/var/tmp/java/jdk1.8.0_25 ; export PATH=$PATH:/sbin:/usr/sbin:/usr/local/sbin:$EC2_HOME/bin:$JAVA_HOME/bin ; ec2-bundle-vol -P mbr -k {{.KeyPath}} -u {{.AccountId}} -c {{.CertPath}} -r x86_64 -e /var/tmp/*,/tmp/* -p {{.Prefix}} --no-filter --no-filter --batch'",
    "bundle_upload_command": "sudo -n bash -c 'export EC2_HOME=/var/tmp/ec2 ; export JAVA_HOME=/var/tmp/java/jdk1.8.0_25 ; export PATH=$PATH:/sbin:/usr/sbin:/usr/local/sbin:$EC2_HOME/bin:$JAVA_HOME/bin ; ec2-upload-bundle -b {{.BucketName}} -m {{.ManifestPath}} -a {{.AccessKey}} -s {{.SecretKey}} -d {{.BundleDirectory}} --batch --retry'"
    }],

    "provisioners": [
      {
        "type": "shell",
        "script": "./packer/default_ami_setup.sh",
        "execute_command": "{{ .Vars }} sudo -E /bin/bash '{{ .Path }}'"
      }]
    }