diff --git a/.github/workflows/e2e.yaml b/.github/workflows/e2e.yaml
index b59573992f..82d42f62be 100644
--- a/.github/workflows/e2e.yaml
+++ b/.github/workflows/e2e.yaml
@@ -49,3 +49,14 @@ jobs:
         if [[ "$RUNNER_OS" == "Linux" ]]; then
           docker run ${testimg} --wait=false -f HEAD
         fi
+
+        # Check that using ldflags to set variables works.
+        cat > .ko.yaml << EOF
+        builds:
+        - id: test
+          main: ./test/
+          ldflags:
+          - "-X main.version=${{ github.sha }}"
+        EOF
+        docker run $(go run ./ publish ./test/ --platform=${GOOS}/${GOARCH}) --wait=false 2>&1 | grep "${{ github.sha }}"
+
diff --git a/.ko.yaml b/.ko.yaml
deleted file mode 100644
index 6ccd2d5eb9..0000000000
--- a/.ko.yaml
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1 +0,0 @@
-defaultBaseImage: gcr.io/distroless/static:nonroot
diff --git a/test/main.go b/test/main.go
index ae9ce230fb..aba10d995c 100644
--- a/test/main.go
+++ b/test/main.go
@@ -29,9 +29,14 @@ var (
 	wait = flag.Bool("wait", true, "Whether to wait for SIGTERM")
 )
 
+// This is defined so we can test build-time variable setting using ldflags.
+var version = "default"
+
 func main() {
 	flag.Parse()
 
+	log.Println("version =", version)
+
 	dp := os.Getenv("KO_DATA_PATH")
 	file := filepath.Join(dp, *f)
 	bytes, err := ioutil.ReadFile(file)