rylagek
commented
2 years ago 18.04 and 20.04 have explicitly different auto-install processes. Installing a desktop package sounds good to me. If you're testing with an old 18.04 example, be sure to hcl2_upgrade
edit: hcl2_upgrade is the proper command
The iso appears to boot using the preseed, but it doesn't actually install ubuntu, so it drops into the "live" version of the OS.
According to this and other threads a much easier method is to use Ubuntu Server and install a desktop package, since there's now the cloud-init support and pre-seeding for ubuntu desktop is limited.
Apparently this person got it to work with 18.04 desktop, so I'll be trying to replicate that and then see if it transfers to 20.04. And if not, at least we'll have 18.04.