Ubuntu Server autoinstall with a physical machine

There is a great set of articles in the Ubuntu Server guide about how to achieve an unattended installation of Ubuntu Server:

• Automated Server installation
• Automated Server install quickstart
• Automated Server installer config file reference

And I followed those to test my minimal autoinstall file as follows.

#cloud-config
autoinstall:
  version: 1
  identity:
    hostname: ubuntu-server
    username: ubuntu
    # password=ubuntu
    password: "$6$exDY1mhS4KUYCE/2$zmn9ToZwTKLhCw.b4/b.ZRTIZM30JZ4QrOQ2aOXJ8yk96xpcCof0kxKwuX1kqLG/ygbJ1f8wxED22bTL4F46P0"
  ssh:
    install-server: yes  # https://launchpad.net/bugs/1974483
    allow-pw: no
  apt:
    geoip: false
  kernel:
    flavor: generic  # or hwe

It works flawlessly with the kvm command with:

-append 'autoinstall ds=nocloud-net;s=http://_gateway:3003/'

as per the document. However, when it comes to a physical machine installation with the vanilla 22.04 LTS ISO, the installer just stopped at the initial language selection step.

In the end, it was a subtle difference. Without escaping the semicolon, the URL to the autoinstall file is ignored. One missing backslash cost me more than an hour. I provided feedback to the document and I hope it’s a time saver for somebody.