diff -Nru cloud-init-17.2-35-gf576b2a2/debian/changelog cloud-init-17.2-35-gf576b2a2/debian/changelog
--- cloud-init-17.2-35-gf576b2a2/debian/changelog	2018-02-12 17:16:42.000000000 +0000
+++ cloud-init-17.2-35-gf576b2a2/debian/changelog	2018-03-01 23:03:46.000000000 +0000
@@ -1,3 +1,10 @@
+cloud-init (17.2-35-gf576b2a2-0ubuntu1~17.10.2) artful-proposed; urgency=medium
+
+  * cherry-pick 40e7738: GCE: fix reading of user-data that is not
+    base64 encoded. (LP: #1752711)
+
+ -- Chad Smith <chad.smith@canonical.com>  Thu, 01 Mar 2018 16:03:46 -0700
+
 cloud-init (17.2-35-gf576b2a2-0ubuntu1~17.10.1) artful-proposed; urgency=medium
 
   * New upstream snapshot. (LP: #1747059)
diff -Nru cloud-init-17.2-35-gf576b2a2/debian/patches/cpick-40e7738-GCE-fix-reading-of-user-data-that-is-not-base64-encoded cloud-init-17.2-35-gf576b2a2/debian/patches/cpick-40e7738-GCE-fix-reading-of-user-data-that-is-not-base64-encoded
--- cloud-init-17.2-35-gf576b2a2/debian/patches/cpick-40e7738-GCE-fix-reading-of-user-data-that-is-not-base64-encoded	1970-01-01 00:00:00.000000000 +0000
+++ cloud-init-17.2-35-gf576b2a2/debian/patches/cpick-40e7738-GCE-fix-reading-of-user-data-that-is-not-base64-encoded	2018-03-01 23:03:46.000000000 +0000
@@ -0,0 +1,88 @@
+From 40e77380e036a24fafe91a63d0cdefada4312348 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
+From: Scott Moser <smoser@ubuntu.com>
+Date: Thu, 1 Mar 2018 15:39:16 -0700
+Subject: [PATCH] GCE: fix reading of user-data that is not base64 encoded.
+
+Last set of changes to GCE datasource broke reading of user-data
+unless the user had base64 encoded their user-data and also set
+user-data-encoding to 'base64'.
+
+This fixes the issue.
+
+LP: #1752711
+---
+ cloudinit/sources/DataSourceGCE.py          | 15 +++++++--------
+ tests/unittests/test_datasource/test_gce.py | 20 +++++++++++++++++++-
+ 2 files changed, 26 insertions(+), 9 deletions(-)
+
+Index: cloud-init/cloudinit/sources/DataSourceGCE.py
+===================================================================
+--- cloud-init.orig/cloudinit/sources/DataSourceGCE.py
++++ cloud-init/cloudinit/sources/DataSourceGCE.py
+@@ -213,16 +213,15 @@ def read_md(address=None, platform_check
+     if md['availability-zone']:
+         md['availability-zone'] = md['availability-zone'].split('/')[-1]
+ 
+-    encoding = instance_data.get('user-data-encoding')
+-    if encoding:
++    if 'user-data' in instance_data:
++        # instance_data was json, so values are all utf-8 strings.
++        ud = instance_data['user-data'].encode("utf-8")
++        encoding = instance_data.get('user-data-encoding')
+         if encoding == 'base64':
+-            md['user-data'] = b64decode(instance_data.get('user-data'))
+-        else:
++            ud = b64decode(ud)
++        elif encoding:
+             LOG.warning('unknown user-data-encoding: %s, ignoring', encoding)
+-
+-    if 'user-data' in md:
+-        ret['user-data'] = md['user-data']
+-        del md['user-data']
++        ret['user-data'] = ud
+ 
+     ret['meta-data'] = md
+     ret['success'] = True
+Index: cloud-init/tests/unittests/test_datasource/test_gce.py
+===================================================================
+--- cloud-init.orig/tests/unittests/test_datasource/test_gce.py
++++ cloud-init/tests/unittests/test_datasource/test_gce.py
+@@ -38,11 +38,20 @@ GCE_META_ENCODING = {
+     'instance/hostname': 'server.project-baz.local',
+     'instance/zone': 'baz/bang',
+     'instance/attributes': {
+-        'user-data': b64encode(b'/bin/echo baz\n').decode('utf-8'),
++        'user-data': b64encode(b'#!/bin/echo baz\n').decode('utf-8'),
+         'user-data-encoding': 'base64',
+     }
+ }
+ 
++GCE_USER_DATA_TEXT = {
++    'instance/id': '12345',
++    'instance/hostname': 'server.project-baz.local',
++    'instance/zone': 'baz/bang',
++    'instance/attributes': {
++        'user-data': '#!/bin/sh\necho hi mom\ntouch /run/up-now\n',
++    }
++}
++
+ HEADERS = {'Metadata-Flavor': 'Google'}
+ MD_URL_RE = re.compile(
+     r'http://metadata.google.internal/computeMetadata/v1/.*')
+@@ -135,7 +144,16 @@ class TestDataSourceGCE(test_helpers.Htt
+         shostname = GCE_META_PARTIAL.get('instance/hostname').split('.')[0]
+         self.assertEqual(shostname, self.ds.get_hostname())
+ 
++    def test_userdata_no_encoding(self):
++        """check that user-data is read."""
++        _set_mock_metadata(GCE_USER_DATA_TEXT)
++        self.ds.get_data()
++        self.assertEqual(
++            GCE_USER_DATA_TEXT['instance/attributes']['user-data'].encode(),
++            self.ds.get_userdata_raw())
++
+     def test_metadata_encoding(self):
++        """user-data is base64 encoded if user-data-encoding is 'base64'."""
+         _set_mock_metadata(GCE_META_ENCODING)
+         self.ds.get_data()
+ 
diff -Nru cloud-init-17.2-35-gf576b2a2/debian/patches/series cloud-init-17.2-35-gf576b2a2/debian/patches/series
--- cloud-init-17.2-35-gf576b2a2/debian/patches/series	1970-01-01 00:00:00.000000000 +0000
+++ cloud-init-17.2-35-gf576b2a2/debian/patches/series	2018-03-01 23:03:46.000000000 +0000
@@ -0,0 +1 @@
+cpick-40e7738-GCE-fix-reading-of-user-data-that-is-not-base64-encoded