Packer VisualBox builder fails with ssh: unable to authenticate, attempted methods [none password], no supported methods remain

[urmilajn]

I'm using ubuntu-20.04.5-live-server-amd64.iso alongside virtualbox builder. The VM starts successfully only to fail connecting to host's SSH with below error:

2023/01/26 14:41:48 packer-builder-virtualbox-iso plugin: [INFO] Attempting SSH connection to 127.0.0.1:2455...
2023/01/26 14:41:48 packer-builder-virtualbox-iso plugin: [DEBUG] reconnecting to TCP connection for SSH
2023/01/26 14:41:48 packer-builder-virtualbox-iso plugin: [DEBUG] handshaking with SSH
2023/01/26 14:41:51 packer-builder-virtualbox-iso plugin: [DEBUG] SSH handshake err: ssh: handshake failed: ssh: unable to authenticate, attempted methods [none password], no supported methods remain

packer version
# Packer v1.8.5

This is the user-data file I'm using where the username & password are ubuntu.

#cloud-config
autoinstall:
  version: 1
  early-commands:
    - systemctl stop ssh
  identity:
    hostname: ubuntu-server
    password: '$6$wdAcoXrU039hKYPd$508Qvbe7ObUnxoj15DRCkzC3qO7edjH0VV7BPNRDYK4QR8ofJaEEF2heacn0QgD.f8pO8SNp83XNdWG6tocBM1'
    username: ubuntu
  network:
    network:
      version: 2
      ethernets:
        ens33: {dhcp4: true, dhcp-identifier: mac}
  ssh:
    install-server: true
  late-commands:
    - sed -i 's/^#*\(send dhcp-client-identifier\).*$/\1 = hardware;/' /target/etc/dhcp/dhclient.conf

This is the .pkr.hcl file.

source "virtualbox-iso" "basic-example" {
  boot_command                 = ["<esc><wait><esc><wait><f6><wait><esc><wait>", "<bs><bs><bs><bs><bs>", "autoinstall ds=nocloud-net;s=http://{{ .HTTPIP }}:{{ .HTTPPort }}/ ", "--- <enter>"]
  boot_wait                    = "5s"
  pause_before_connecting      = "1m"
  guest_os_type                = "Ubuntu_64"
  http_directory               = "http"
  iso_checksum                 = "sha256:5035be37a7e9abbdc09f0d257f3e33416c1a0fb322ba860d42d74aa75c3468d4"
  iso_url                      = "/home/xxxxxx/Downloads/ubuntu-20.04.5-live-server-amd64.iso"
  disk_size                    = 10000
  memory                       = 1024
  ssh_username                 = "ubuntu"
  ssh_password                 = "ubuntu"
  ssh_timeout                  = "5m"
  shutdown_command             = "echo 'packer' | sudo -S shutdown -P now"
}

build {
  sources = ["sources.virtualbox-iso.basic-example"]

  provisioner "shell" {
    inline = ["while [ ! -f /var/lib/cloud/instance/boot-finished ]; do echo 'Waiting for cloud-init...'; sleep 1; done"]
  }
}

Are there any prerequisite steps that I'm missing?

[urmilajn]

After starting the build, sshing into the VM using ssh -p 2455 [email protected] just stalls the terminal.

[nkmadala-qumu]

Were you able to figure out the issue? I'm also having the same issue.

[urmilajn]

I had to drop this approach. All the solutions out there did not work for me. However, I haven't looked at it in a year now.