ubuntu-live-server installation through PXE user-data config error

Question

I am trying to install Ubuntu live server. Everything works fine till the system requests the cloud-init configs. I have tried to change my user-data file several times. Ether it throughs an error "An error occurred. Press enter to start shell (image 1)

then I change the configuration file user-data file, it passes from waiting for cloud-init step and loads (I suppose ) user data file then it throws another error:

Here is my user-data file:

#cloud-config

# Locale and Timezone
locale: en_US.UTF-8
timezone: UTC

# Preserve the hostname
preserve_hostname: true

# Users configuration
users:
  - name: user
    gecos: ubuntu-server
    groups: adm, cdrom, dip, lxd, plugdev, sudo
    lock_passwd: false
    passwd: some-hashed-password
    sudo: ALL=(ALL) NOPASSWD:ALL
    shell: /bin/bash
    ssh_pwauth: true

# Disk setup for flexible sizes
# The partitioning will use the entire disk size
disk_setup:
  /dev/sda:
    table_type: gpt
    layout: true
    overwrite: false
    partition:
      - size: 1024        # 1GB for /boot
        type: 0xEF00      # EFI System Partition
      - size: 2048        # 2GB for /boot
        type: 0x8300      # Linux Filesystem for /boot
      - size: -1          # Use remaining space for root (LVM)

# LVM setup to use remaining disk space
lvm:
  vg:
    ubuntu-vg:
      devices:
        - /dev/sda3  # Third partition is for LVM

fs_setup:
  - label: boot
    filesystem: ext4
    device: /dev/sda2  # Boot partition

  - label: root
    filesystem: ext4
    device: /dev/mapper/ubuntu--vg-ubuntu--lv  # LVM root partition

# Mount points configuration
mounts:
  - [ /dev/sda2, /boot ]
  - [ /dev/mapper/ubuntu--vg-ubuntu--lv, / ]

# Growpart to automatically resize partitions
growpart:
  mode: 'auto'
  devices: ['/']

resize_rootfs: true  # Automatically resize the root filesystem

# Network setup (adjust the interface as needed)
network:
  version: 2
  ethernets:
    ens160:
      dhcp4: true

# Packages to install
packages:
  - openssh-server
  - htop
  - curl

# Run custom commands after first boot
runcmd:
  - echo "System successfully initialized!"
  - apt-get update && apt-get upgrade -y

# Reboot after cloud-init is done
power_state:
  mode: reboot

# Final message after boot
final_message: "The system is ready! You can now log in."

Could someone suggest me how to figure it out and make it work?

Answer 1

ssh_pwauth is not a per-user config key, but a top-level config key. So:

users:
  - name: user
    gecos: ubuntu-server
    groups: adm, cdrom, dip, lxd, plugdev, sudo
    lock_passwd: false
    passwd: some-hashed-password
    sudo: ALL=(ALL) NOPASSWD:ALL
    shell: /bin/bash

# separated from the users object
ssh_pwauth: true

And like @schrodingerscatcuriosity said in the comments, run the user-data file through cloud-init schema --config-file user_data.yaml to validate it to find the error(s) in the file.