A custom “user-data” file is required for an unattended installation of Ubuntu. We will create this template file for use in our Ansible playbook to Generate Custom Unattended Ubuntu Install ISO.

The file below is in development

user-data.j2

#cloud-config
autoinstall:
  version: 1
  storage:
    layout:
      name: lvm
      match:
        size: largest
  locale: en_US.UTF-8
  keyboard:
    layout: us
  users:
    - name: {{ username }}
      primary_group: users
      groups: sudo
      lock_passwd: true
      # passwd: "$5$IWwNqL9VUSDoc4Jv$DEUGR.cZQcbz/QvdCOmU13fX5ZW0rANg8LqkAtX3nBA" # changeme
      shell: /bin/bash
      ssh_authorized_keys:
        - "{{ ssh_key }}"
      sudo: ALL=(ALL) NOPASSWD:ALL
  ssh:
    install-server: true
    # option "allow-pw" defaults to `true` if authorized_keys is empty, `false` otherwise.
    allow-pw: false
  apt:
    primary:
      - arches: [default]
        uri: http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/
  ansible:
    install_method: pip
    package_name: ansible
    #run_user: ansible
    galaxy:
      actions:
        - ["ansible-galaxy", "collection", "install", "community.general"]
  packages:
    - build-essential
    - network-manager
    - dkms
    - emacs-nox
  package_update: true
  package_upgrade: true
  late-commands:
    # randomly generate the hostname & show the IP at boot
    - echo nuc-ansible-$(openssl rand -hex 3) > /target/etc/hostname
    # dump the IP out at login screen
    - echo "Ubuntu 22.04 LTS \nIP - $(hostname -I)\n" > /target/etc/issue
    - echo '{{ username }} ALL=(ALL) NOPASSWD:ALL' > /target/etc/sudoers.d/ubuntu # Allow user to run sudo without password
    # Changing from networkd to NetworkManager
    # move existing config out of the way
    - find /target/etc/netplan/ -name "*.yaml" -exec sh -c 'mv "$1" "$1-orig"' _ {} \;
    # Create a new netplan and enable it
    - |
      cat <<EOF | sudo tee /target/etc/netplan/01-netcfg.yaml
      network:
        version: 2
        renderer: NetworkManager
      EOF
    - curtin in-target --target /target netplan generate
    - curtin in-target --target /target netplan apply
    - curtin in-target --target /target systemctl enable NetworkManager.service

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