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I figured it out and blogged about it here. From that link:

#VirtualBox and cloud-init

In case somebody else wants to know:

• You can use cloud-init to configure VirtualBox virtual machines without too much trouble.

• One way of doing this is to use a “config drive”, i.e. to mount another virtual hard drive that (only) has the cloud-init configuration data on it.

• Here’s a way of creating it:

    # Create empty virtual hard drive file
    dd if=/dev/zero of=config.img bs=1 count=0 seek=2M
    # put correct filesystem and disk label on
    mkfs.vfat -n cidata config.img
    # mount it somewhere so you can put the config data on
    sudo mount config.img /mnt
  

• Now put your config data into /mnt/user-data and /mnt/meta-data,

• Example: /mnt/user-data. This will create a user ubos-admin with a ssh key so you can log on via ssh without a password.

    #cloud-config
    users:
     - name: ubos-admin
       gecos: UBOS administrative user
       ssh-authorized-keys:
        - insert ssh key here
       sudo: "ALL=(ALL) NOPASSWD: /usr/bin/ubos-admin *, /usr/bin/bash *"
  

• Example /mnt/meta-data:

    instance-id: my-instance-1
  

• Then, unmount:

    sudo umount /mnt
  

• and attach as second hard drive before you boot. If cloud-init is installed in the main image, it should pick up the configuration info - the .vmdk image file for this second hard drive can be created using the following commands:

   sudo apt-get install qemu-kvm
   qemu-img convert -O vmdk  config.img config.vmdk
  

I figured it out and blogged about it here. From that link:

#VirtualBox and cloud-init

In case somebody else wants to know:

• You can use cloud-init to configure VirtualBox virtual machines without too much trouble.

• One way of doing this is to use a “config drive”, i.e. to mount another virtual hard drive that (only) has the cloud-init configuration data on it.

• Here’s a way of creating it:

    # Create empty virtual hard drive file
    dd if=/dev/zero of=config.img bs=1 count=0 seek=2M
    # put correct filesystem and disk label on
    mkfs.vfat -n cidata config.img
    # mount it somewhere so you can put the config data on
    sudo mount config.img /mnt
  

• Now put your config data into /mnt/user-data and /mnt/meta-data,

• Example: /mnt/user-data. This will create a user ubos-admin with a ssh key so you can log on via ssh without a password.

    #cloud-config
    users:
     - name: ubos-admin
       gecos: UBOS administrative user
       ssh-authorized-keys:
        - insert ssh key here
       sudo: "ALL=(ALL) NOPASSWD: /usr/bin/ubos-admin *, /usr/bin/bash *"
  

• Example /mnt/meta-data:

    instance-id: my-instance-1
  

• Then, unmount:

    sudo umount /mnt
  

• and attach as second hard drive before you boot. If cloud-init is installed in the main image, it should pick up the configuration info.

• The .vmdk image file for this second hard drive can be created using the following commands, if you are on a Linux distro that uses apt:

   sudo apt-get install qemu-kvm
   qemu-img convert -O vmdk  config.img config.vmdk
  

I figured it out and blogged about it here. From that link:

#VirtualBox and cloud-init

In case somebody else wants to know:

• You can use cloud-init to configure VirtualBox virtual machines without too much trouble.

• One way of doing this is to use a “config drive”, i.e. to mount another virtual hard drive that (only) has the cloud-init configuration data on it.

• Here’s a way of creating it:

    # Create empty virtual hard drive file
    dd if=/dev/zero of=config.img bs=1 count=0 seek=2M
    # put correct filesystem and disk label on
    mkfs.vfat -n cidata config.img
    # mount it somewhere so you can put the config data on
    sudo mount config.img /mnt
  

• Now put your config data into /mnt/user-data and /mnt/meta-data,

• Example: /mnt/user-data. This will create a user ubos-admin with a ssh key so you can log on via ssh without a password.

    #cloud-config
    users:
     - name: ubos-admin
       gecos: UBOS administrative user
       ssh-authorized-keys:
        - insert ssh key here
       sudo: "ALL=(ALL) NOPASSWD: /usr/bin/ubos-admin *, /usr/bin/bash *"
  

• Example /mnt/meta-data:

    instance-id: my-instance-1
  

• Then, unmount:

    sudo umount /mnt
  

• and attach as second hard drive before you boot. If cloud-init is installed in the main image, it should pick up the configuration info.

I figured it out and blogged about it here. From that link:

#VirtualBox and cloud-init

In case somebody else wants to know:

• You can use cloud-init to configure VirtualBox virtual machines without too much trouble.

• One way of doing this is to use a “config drive”, i.e. to mount another virtual hard drive that (only) has the cloud-init configuration data on it.

• Here’s a way of creating it:

    # Create empty virtual hard drive file
    dd if=/dev/zero of=config.img bs=1 count=0 seek=2M
    # put correct filesystem and disk label on
    mkfs.vfat -n cidata config.img
    # mount it somewhere so you can put the config data on
    sudo mount config.img /mnt
  

• Now put your config data into /mnt/user-data and /mnt/meta-data,

• Example: /mnt/user-data. This will create a user ubos-admin with a ssh key so you can log on via ssh without a password.

    #cloud-config
    users:
     - name: ubos-admin
       gecos: UBOS administrative user
       ssh-authorized-keys:
        - insert ssh key here
       sudo: "ALL=(ALL) NOPASSWD: /usr/bin/ubos-admin *, /usr/bin/bash *"
  

• Example /mnt/meta-data:

    instance-id: my-instance-1
  

• Then, unmount:

    sudo umount /mnt
  

• and attach as second hard drive before you boot. If cloud-init is installed in the main image, it should pick up the configuration info - the .vmdk image file for this second hard drive can be created using the following commands:

   sudo apt-get install qemu-kvm
   qemu-img convert -O vmdk  config.img config.vmdk
  

I figured it out and blogged about it here: http://indieboxproject.org/blog/2014/10/virtualbox-and-cloud-init/. From that (now dead) link:

#VirtualBox and cloud-init

In case somebody else wants to know:

• You can use cloud-init to configure VirtualBox virtual machines without too much trouble.

• One way of doing this is to use a “config drive”, i.e. to mount another virtual hard drive that (only) has the cloud-init configuration data on it.

• Here’s a way of creating it:

    # Create empty virtual hard drive file
    dd if=/dev/zero of=config.img bs=1 count=0 seek=2M
    # put correct filesystem and disk label on
    mkfs.vfat -n cidata config.img
    # mount it somewhere so you can put the config data on
    sudo mount config.img /mnt
  

• Now put your config data into /mnt/user-data and /mnt/meta-data,

• Example: /mnt/user-data. This will create a user ubos-admin with a ssh key so you can log on via ssh without a password.

    #cloud-config
    users:
     - name: ubos-admin
       gecos: UBOS administrative user
       ssh-authorized-keys:
        - insert ssh key here
       sudo: "ALL=(ALL) NOPASSWD: /usr/bin/ubos-admin *, /usr/bin/bash *"
  

• Example /mnt/meta-data:

    instance-id: my-instance-1
  

• Then, unmount:

    sudo umount /mnt
  

• and attach as second hard drive before you boot. If cloud-init is installed in the main image, it should pick up the configuration info.

I figured it out and blogged about it here. From that link:

#VirtualBox and cloud-init

In case somebody else wants to know:

• You can use cloud-init to configure VirtualBox virtual machines without too much trouble.

• One way of doing this is to use a “config drive”, i.e. to mount another virtual hard drive that (only) has the cloud-init configuration data on it.

• Here’s a way of creating it:

    # Create empty virtual hard drive file
    dd if=/dev/zero of=config.img bs=1 count=0 seek=2M
    # put correct filesystem and disk label on
    mkfs.vfat -n cidata config.img
    # mount it somewhere so you can put the config data on
    sudo mount config.img /mnt
  

• Now put your config data into /mnt/user-data and /mnt/meta-data,

• Example: /mnt/user-data. This will create a user ubos-admin with a ssh key so you can log on via ssh without a password.

    #cloud-config
    users:
     - name: ubos-admin
       gecos: UBOS administrative user
       ssh-authorized-keys:
        - insert ssh key here
       sudo: "ALL=(ALL) NOPASSWD: /usr/bin/ubos-admin *, /usr/bin/bash *"
  

• Example /mnt/meta-data:

    instance-id: my-instance-1
  

• Then, unmount:

    sudo umount /mnt
  

• and attach as second hard drive before you boot. If cloud-init is installed in the main image, it should pick up the configuration info.