Comment 5 for bug 1791185

can you run 'cloud-init collect-logs' and attach output?

cloud-init has a feature where it renames files in /var/lib/apt/lists from "archive.ubuntu.com" to "selected-mirror.tld. That could be the source of your pain, in that it is essentially making apt think that the data it got from archive.ubuntu.com is on selected-mirror.tld.

it does that because if you were delievered these 50+M of data in the image, then its proably better for everyone if we re-use it rather than just wasting them. But if selected-mirror.tld is older than archive.ubuntu.com it could have caused the problem.

Now, if you're using using dns to fake a mirror of archive.ubuntu.com, then you're somewhat getting what you deserve.

That said... I believe that we have started making images without anything in /var/lib/apt/lists. I've argued against that, as for a stable release pocket files (the largest set of them) are static for the life of the release.... so deleting them from the image means you're just going to cause someone to get them on first 'apt-get install'.