diff --git a/doc/rtd/topics/datasources/nocloud.rst b/doc/rtd/topics/datasources/nocloud.rst
index d31f5d0f9a3..8ce656af0ef 100644
--- a/doc/rtd/topics/datasources/nocloud.rst
+++ b/doc/rtd/topics/datasources/nocloud.rst
@@ -61,35 +61,42 @@ You may also optionally provide a vendor-data file in the following format.
 
   /vendor-data
 
-Given a disk ubuntu 12.04 cloud image in 'disk.img', you can create a
+Given a disk ubuntu cloud image in 'disk.img', you can create a
 sufficient disk by following the example below.
 
 ::
 
-    ## create user-data and meta-data files that will be used
+    ## 1) create user-data and meta-data files that will be used
     ## to modify image on first boot
-    $ { echo instance-id: iid-local01; echo local-hostname: cloudimg; } > meta-data
+    $ echo "instance-id: iid-local01\nlocal-hostname: cloudimg" > meta-data
+    $ echo "#cloud-config\npassword: passw0rd\nchpasswd: { expire: False }\nssh_pwauth: True\n" > user-data
 
-    $ printf "#cloud-config\npassword: passw0rd\nchpasswd: { expire: False }\nssh_pwauth: True\n" > user-data
-
-    ## create a disk to attach with some user-data and meta-data
+    ## 2a) create a disk to attach with some user-data and meta-data
     $ genisoimage  -output seed.iso -volid cidata -joliet -rock user-data meta-data
 
-    ## alternatively, create a vfat filesystem with same files
-    ## $ truncate --size 2M seed.img
-    ## $ mkfs.vfat -n cidata seed.img
-    ## $ mcopy -oi seed.img user-data meta-data ::
+    ## 2b) alternatively, create a vfat filesystem with same files
+    ## $ truncate --size 2M seed.iso
+    ## $ mkfs.vfat -n cidata seed.iso
+
+    ## 2b) option 1: mount and copy files
+    ## $ sudo mount -t vfat seed.iso /mnt
+    ## $ sudo cp user-data meta-data /mnt
+    ## $ sudo umount /mnt
+
+    ## 2b) option 2: the mtools package provides mcopy, which can access vfat
+    ## filesystems without mounting them
+    ## $ mcopy -oi seed.iso user-data meta-data
 
-    ## create a new qcow image to boot, backed by your original image
-    $ qemu-img create -f qcow2 -b disk.img boot-disk.img
+    ## 3) create a new qcow image to boot, backed by your original image
+    $ qemu-img create -f qcow2 -b disk.img -F qcow2 boot-disk.img
 
-    ## boot the image and login as 'ubuntu' with password 'passw0rd'
+    ## 4) boot the image and login as 'ubuntu' with password 'passw0rd'
     ## note, passw0rd was set as password through the user-data above,
     ## there is no password set on these images.
     $ kvm -m 256 \
        -net nic -net user,hostfwd=tcp::2222-:22 \
        -drive file=boot-disk.img,if=virtio \
-       -drive file=seed.iso,if=virtio
+       -drive driver=raw,file=seed.iso,if=virtio
 
 **Note:** that the instance-id provided (``iid-local01`` above) is what is used
 to determine if this is "first boot".  So if you are making updates to