How to disable cloud-init in Ubuntu

README.md

How to disable cloud-init in Ubuntu

Prevent start

• Create an empty file to prevent the service from starting

    sudo touch /etc/cloud/cloud-init.disabled
  

Uninstall

• Disable all services (uncheck everything except "None"):

    sudo dpkg-reconfigure cloud-init
  

• Uninstall the package and delete the folders

    sudo dpkg-reconfigure cloud-init
    sudo apt-get purge cloud-init
    sudo rm -rf /etc/cloud/ && sudo rm -rf /var/lib/cloud/
  

• Restart the computer

    sudo reboot
  

Sources

• https://cloudinit.readthedocs.io/en/latest/topics/boot.html#generator
• https://www.blackmoreops.com/2019/04/19/remove-cloud-init-from-ubuntu/

Ubuntu 24.04 server (minimal configuration) comes with the following at file /etc/netplan/50-cloud-init.yaml

# To disable cloud-init's network configuration capabilities, write a file
# /etc/cloud/cloud.cfg.d/99-disable-network-config.cfg with the following:
# network: {config: disabled}