Kali cloud-init user-data prevents networking on first boot #2653

Describe the bug

Creating a native arm64 Kali machine with Cloud-init user-data fails during first boot:

create 'kali': setup: machine didn't start in 30s (missing IP address)

The failed machine is automatically deleted.

A plain Kali machine created without --user-data boots and gets IPv4/IPv6 addresses normally. An Ubuntu machine created with the same provisioning flow also gets an IP and completes creation.

The Kali boot log shows:

systemd 261.1-2 running in system mode
Detected virtualization lxc.
Detected architecture arm64.
Detected first boot.
...
Starting cloud-init-main.service - Cloud-init: Single Process...
...
Started cloud-init-main.service - Cloud-init: Single Process.
Starting cloud-init-local.service - Cloud-init: Local Stage (pre-network)...
cloud-init[156]: Cloud-init v. 26.2 running 'init-local'
Finished cloud-init-local.service - Cloud-init: Local Stage (pre-network).
Reached target network-pre.target - Preparation for Network.
Starting systemd-networkd.service - Network Management...
Started systemd-networkd.service - Network Management.
Starting systemd-networkd-wait-online.service - Wait for Network to be Online...
Job systemd-networkd-wait-online.service/start running...

No address is assigned before OrbStack's 30-second creation timeout.

This may be related to the Cloud-init 26.x NoCloud network-config compatibility change documented here:

https://docs.cloud-init.io/en/latest/reference/breaking_changes.html#addition-of-nocloud-network-config

That documentation says a NoCloud installation which does not provide network-config can experience a retry/timeout during boot, and that an empty network-config restores previous behavior.

To Reproduce

1. On an Apple Silicon Mac, save an ordinary #cloud-config user-data file (for example, installing openssh-server and zsh and configuring a user).

2. Run:

   orb create --arch arm64 --user gt --user-data user-data.yml kali kali

3. Creation fails after 30 seconds:

   create 'kali': setup: machine didn't start in 30s (missing IP address)
   

Control tests:

• orb create --arch arm64 --user gt kali kali succeeds.
• Ubuntu with the same Cloud-init provisioning flow gets an IP and completes creation.

A post-boot workaround also succeeds: create Kali without --user-data, then provision it using orbctl run -m kali -u root ....

Expected behavior

Kali should obtain an IP address and apply the supplied Cloud-init user-data, as other supported distributions do.

Diagnostic report (REQUIRED)

OrbStack info:
Version: 2.2.3
Commit: c83556b0ef8f1ba9a33abbb194622b6b7a1c0307 (v2.2.3)

System info:
macOS: 26.5.2 (25F84)
CPU: arm64, 10 cores
CPU model: Apple M1 Max
Model: MacBookPro18,4
Memory: 32 GiB

Full report (private to OrbStack developers):
https://orbstack.dev/_admin/diag/orbstack-diagreport_2026-08-13T20-43-44.478468Z.zip

Screenshots and additional context (optional)

The OrbStack manager log shows the contrast directly:

agent:kali: cloud-init / early boot starts
scon: waiting for network before setup
scon: machine is missing IP addresses
scon: machine didn't start in 30s (missing IP address)
scon: deleting container

A previous plain Kali creation on the same host/network reached:

network is up container=kali ips="[192.168.139.202 ...]"
running initial setup
container created

Ubuntu with Cloud-init reached network is up in approximately three seconds.