It doesn't give an error, but it doesn't work either. Here are the combustion logs:

May 06 18:34:37 myserver combustion[1503]: [INFO]  finding release for channel stable
May 06 18:34:38 myserver combustion[1503]: [INFO]  using v1.31.8+rke2r1 as release
May 06 18:34:38 myserver combustion[1503]: [INFO]  downloading checksums at <https://github.com/rancher/rke2/releases/download/v1.31.8%2Brke2r1/sha256sum-amd64.txt>
May 06 18:34:39 myserver combustion[1503]: [INFO]  downloading tarball at <https://github.com/rancher/rke2/releases/download/v1.31.8%2Brke2r1/rke2.linux-amd64.tar.gz>
May 06 18:34:42 myserver combustion[1503]: [INFO]  verifying tarball
May 06 18:34:42 myserver combustion[1503]: [INFO]  unpacking tarball file to /usr/local
May 06 18:34:43 myserver combustion[1503]: Running in chroot, ignoring command 'daemon-reload'

the time between the "Downloading tarball" and "verifying tarball" is almost instantaneous, so I very much doubt it's downloading anything serious, although the network is configured and working.

that's all there is to it. My combustion script follows:

#!/bin/bash
# combustion: network prepare

set -euxo pipefail

umask 077 # Required for NM config
mkdir -p /etc/NetworkManager/system-connections/
cat >/etc/NetworkManager/system-connections/static.nmconnection <<-EOF

[connection]
id=static
type=ethernet
interface-name=eth0
autoconnect=true

[ipv4]
method=manual
dns=1.1.1.1
address1=192.168.7.21/24,192.168.7.254
ignore_auto_dns=true

[ipv6]
dns-search=
addr-gen-mode=eui64
method=ignore
EOF


if [ "${1-}" = "--prepare" ]; then
  exit 0
fi

# Redirect output to the console
exec > >(exec tee -a /dev/tty0) 2>&1

systemctl enable sshd.service

curl -sfL <https://get.rke2.io> | sh -


# Leave a marker
echo "Configured with combustion" > /etc/issue.d/combustion

# Close outputs and wait for tee to finish.
exec 1>&- 2>&-; wait;

if this cannot be done with combustion, I'd like some method to run a script upon first boot, although I see that cloud-init doesn't seem to be supported either...

I suspect that the real problem is that you’re doing all this within the Combustion chroot, not on the actual OS filesystem itself. I am not sure if the chroot has /usr/local mounted or not.

note that you need to be using the public cloud images, those are the only ones that have cloud-init, as far as I know. Maybe that’s changed with 6.1

(sorry for not specifying it)

or just use the #cloud-config header in your userdata file, however you’re passing that to your bare metal install currently

ah, I see what you mean

so perhaps I can install cloud-init with zypper in combustion, then have cloud-init run on first boot...I can try

autoyast is also out of question, right?

so perhaps I can install cloud-init with zypper in combustion, then have cloud-init run on first boot...I can try

so this works reasonably well, still refining some details but it roughly works

thanks for sharing, but by now I'm 99% done with the cloud-init method

😀