Vagrant can install a virtual guest system in two minutes. Vagrant also configures guest SSH server automatically.
To use latest Ubuntu 16.04 LTS Xenial, you should use box bento/ubuntu-16.04.
$ vagrant init bento/ubuntu-16.04 $ vagrant up $ vagrant ssh
That’s it, you’re now connected to your new, headless box with SSH.
Background
The most obvious image, ubuntu/xenial64, does not work at the time of writing. For example, you can’t connect to the internet from the guest.
In the bug comments, Seth Vargo from HashiCorp, the makers of vagrant, recommends bento/* boxes instead of ubuntu/*. “[Ubuntu/* namespace 16.04 boxes] do not follow the recommended guides for how to build a Vagrant box, and they are missing key components such as guest additions, required packages, or they do things like hardcode the hostname to make running concurrent VMs impossible. [..] I would highly recommend trying the bento boxes instead.”
The point of using Vagrant is being able to get a running system instantly. Even if the problems with ubuntu/xenial64 box could be fixed, the benefit of vagrant would be lost in the manual bug bypasses.
Bento boxes work out of the box.
Update: clarified text.