diff --git a/packer/http/ubuntu-12.04/preseed.cfg b/packer/http/ubuntu-12.04/preseed.cfg
index 0a4d4939b..5282b5811 100644
--- a/packer/http/ubuntu-12.04/preseed.cfg
+++ b/packer/http/ubuntu-12.04/preseed.cfg
@@ -21,7 +21,7 @@ d-i passwd/user-uid string 900
 d-i passwd/user-password password vagrant
 d-i passwd/user-password-again password vagrant
 d-i passwd/username string vagrant
-d-i pkgsel/include string openssh-server cryptsetup build-essential libssl-dev libreadline-dev zlib1g-dev linux-source dkms nfs-common
+d-i pkgsel/include string openssh-server cryptsetup build-essential libssl-dev zlib1g-dev linux-source nfs-common
 d-i pkgsel/install-language-support boolean false
 d-i pkgsel/update-policy select unattended-upgrades
 d-i pkgsel/upgrade select full-upgrade
diff --git a/packer/scripts/ubuntu/update.sh b/packer/scripts/ubuntu/update.sh
index 06efcf5c1..91fc0c523 100644
--- a/packer/scripts/ubuntu/update.sh
+++ b/packer/scripts/ubuntu/update.sh
@@ -1,5 +1,12 @@
 #!/bin/bash -eux
 
+UBUNTU_VERSION=`lsb_release -r | awk '{print $2}'`
+# on 12.04 work around bad cached lists
+if [[ "$UBUNTU_VERSION" == '12.04' ]]; then
+  apt-get clean
+  rm -rf /var/lib/apt/lists
+fi
+
 # Update the package list
 apt-get update
 
@@ -16,3 +23,8 @@ start on networking
 task
 exec /usr/bin/apt-get update
 EOF
+
+# on 12.04 manage broken indexes on distro disc 12.04.5
+if [[ $UBUNTU_VERSION == '12.04' ]]; then
+  apt-get -y install libreadline-dev dpkg
+fi