[docs]: Incorrect guide for loading NoCloud config from local filesystem.

[MarekZydor]

Documentation request

As described, configuration can be loaded from the local filesystem using the following format:
ds=nocloud;s=file://path/to/directory/

But, the prefix file:// is inappropriate as it corrupts the path. The correct version is:
ds=nocloud;s=/path/to/directory/
Additionally, it would be good to mention that the only two configuration files are required:

• user-data
• meta-data (must exist even if empty)

---

Reported from: https://cloudinit.readthedocs.io/en/latest/reference/datasources/nocloud.html

[holmanb]

the prefix file:// is inappropriate as it corrupts the path

What do you mean by "corrupts"? Are you saying that this syntax doesn't work?

[MarekZydor]

Yes, this syntax doesn't work. I spent many hours trying to figure out why the config wouldn't load. Removing that prefix fixed it.

[aciba90]

@MarekZydor, in order to assess the problem, cloud you please attach the output of cloud-init collect-logs from an affected instance?

[MarekZydor]

@aciba90 Here you go.
cloud-init.tar.gz
You can check how I passed kernel command line parameters in dmesg.txt. Also, see run/cloud-init/status.json file, which says that file::// seed is unknown.

[aciba90]

Thanks, @MarekZydor, and apologies for the delayed response. It looks there that the seed is incorrectly specified. Your kernel cmdline is:

KERNEL_CMDLINE=BOOT_IMAGE=/casper/vmlinuz autoinstall ds=nocloud;s=file://cdrom/nocloud/ ---

Your path is missing a leading slash, it should be:

file:///cdrom/nocloud/

As is, the parsing logic is splitting after the first / after removing the schema part (file://), and considering /nocloud as the seed directory.