cloud-init status --wait fails with yaml load error

[Jonas Jelten]

$ lxc init -c security.nesting=true ubuntu-daily:26.04 openldap-ppm-test --config=user.user-data='#cloud-config
runcmd:
  - echo '"'"'hai'"'"'
'
Creating openldap-ppm-test
$ lxc start openldap-ppm-test
$ lxc exec openldap-ppm-test -- cloud-init status --wait
2025-11-18 15:06:50,230 - util.py[WARNING]: Failed loading yaml blob. Yaml load allows (<class 'dict'>,) root types, but got str instead
...........status: done

this comes from /etc/cloud/cloud.cfg.d/90_dpkg_local_cloud_config.cfg with content:
# written by cloud-init-base debian package per preseed entry
#
10 cloud-init-base/local-cloud-config doesn't exist

which was created via /var/lib/dpkg/info/cloud-init-base.postinst handle_preseed_local_cloud_config() where
   process_debconf_setting local-cloud-config && ccfg="$RET" || :
seems to generate the failure message, which is just written down plainly as invalid yaml for cloud-init.

[Jonas Jelten (jj)]

workaround: before running cloud-init status --wait, do:
$ lxc exec openldap-ppm-test -- rm /etc/cloud/cloud.cfg.d/90_dpkg_local_cloud_config.cfg

[Chad Smith (chad.smith)]

Confirmed behavior on Ubuntu resolute with cloud-init 25.4~1gcb12e00e-0ubuntu1.
This is a packaging issue in resolute that doesn't affect other downstream Ubuntu series.

[Chad Smith (chad.smith)]

Upstream PR in review with this fix:
https://github.com/canonical/cloud-init/pull/6598

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

This bug was fixed in the package cloud-init - 25.4~1gcb12e00e-0ubuntu2

---------------
cloud-init (25.4~1gcb12e00e-0ubuntu2) resolute; urgency=medium

  * d/cloud-init-base.config and d/cloud-init-base.postinst:
    - fix debconf value migration error resulting in invalid config created
      by debian script (LP: #2131809)
    - address shellcheck failures

 -- Chad Smith <email address hidden> Wed, 03 Dec 2025 14:48:59 -0700