What is the difference between Cloud-Init and Autoinstall?

So I have been trying to essentially install Nixos from the official site with a Cloud-Init for Ubuntu Server 22.04. I want to really understand how to install packages that I potentially might have to compile or other ways of installing packages like with Curl or Wget within in the user-data.yaml file.

So far I have a user-data.yaml in which I am trying to use runcmd: to install Nox via the recommended way from there site.

My whole config is below and at the bottom is the runcmd: which I just can't get to install. The whole file looks like this.

#cloud-config
autoinstall:
  version: 1
  locale: en_GB.UTF-8
  refresh-installer:
    update: true
  keyboard:
    layout: "gb"
  apt:
    geoip: true
  identity:
    hostname: ubuntu-server
    password: "$6$exDY1mhS4KUYCE/2$zmn9ToZwTKLhCw.b4/b.ZRTIZM30JZ4QrOQ2aOXJ8yk96xpcCof0kxKwuX1kqLG/ygbJ1f8wxED22bTL4F46P0"
    username: ubuntu
  storage:
    layout:
      name: lvm
      match:
        size: largest
  packages:
    - libreoffice
    - sway
    - i3
    - kitty
  snaps:
    - name: firefox
  timezone: geoip
  manage_resolv_conf: true
  resolv_conf:
    nameservers:
      - 1.1.1.3
      - 8.8.8.8
  updates: all
  runcmd:
    - [mkdir, -m, 0755, /nix]
    - [chown, ubuntu, /nix]
    - [wget, "https://nixos.org/nix/install"]
    - [bash, install, --daemon]

If you run the installer via the command line you get prompt if you want to make the dir '/nix' hence the command for it. I'm at my wits end!

I have tried for the past 7 hours to get this package manager installed so I can install Wayland which would be a lot easier to install from here than installing it from source if I was to use RunCmd: the whole time.

Which from what I understand is the way to run bash commands

So far I have tried:

• Puting it to root so no \s\s before the runcmd: keyword
• Trying the commands in quotes like "sh -c 'curl ....'"
• Puting it in brackets like `[sh, -c, curl, "https://nixos.org/down.../install", |, bash]
• Other configuration of it in brackets like `[bash, -c, 'curl "https://nixos.org/down.../install" | bash'] *So many configurations!!
• Gone onto GitHub and search for examples of other people using runcmd:
• Following a DigitalOcean guide on Cloud-Init with runcmd: examples
• Read the reference for Cloud-init
• Read the reference for Autoinstall
• read the reference for Curtin

And I just don't know what to do next...

I'm using Qemu to test these configs with an Ubuntu 22.04 Jammy Server ISO.

How do I just install stuff from a setup file that has an install script from the web?

Thanks :)

What is the difference between Cloud-Init and Autoinstall?

Subiquity uses cloud-init, and it does so by overloading the cloud-init's config file with its own custom keys. This is why subiquity's docs (confusingly) call it a "cloud-config" - it is a cloud-config in the same way that most YAML files that start with #cloud-config are valid cloud-configs: undefined keys are ignored by cloud-init.

Cloud-init doesn't use the autoinstall key to configure anything, as described in the docs of both cloud-init and the subiquity autoinstaller.

My whole config is below and at the bottom is the runcmd: which I just can't get to install.

Maybe someone else might be able to help with subiquity in more detail, but a glance at subiquity's jsonschema, it looks like you're trying to use keys that aren't valid for the autoinstaller. I don't see runcmd in the jsonschema.

How do I just install stuff from a setup file that has an install script from the web?

I would recommend clarifying what, exactly, you're trying to ask.