not sure if this is appropriate for this site but thought it could be a good place to start.

Question

How can I connect to a Google instance if I have no SSH keys and google user/final scripts will not run?

Problem Context

Google compute instance running Ubuntu 16.04 LTS.

I changed it's base version of python in order to install a python package that was very finicky with python's 'setup-tools'.

My theory is that this change broke the start up of google cloud scripts, which was the only way I had in past connected to the instance.

Problem Details

We can verify the server is on, as it is serving bad nginx networks here: http://35.201.199.224/

I have a server log I can share here if anyone is willing to help me read it here: https://pastebin.com/DF5wsLhH

The part I think is the most important is this snippet

Mar 21 17:21:50 instance-1 systemd[1]: Started Google Compute Engine Network Daemon.

Mar 21 17:21:51 instance-1 google_network_daemon[1340]: Traceback (most recent call last):

Mar 21 17:21:51 instance-1 google_network_daemon[1340]:   File "/usr/bin/google_network_daemon", line 9, in <module>

Mar 21 17:21:51 instance-1 google_network_daemon[1340]:     load_entry_point('google-compute-engine==2.8.4', 'console_scripts', 'google_network_daemon')()

Mar 21 17:21:51 instance-1 google_network_daemon[1340]:   File "/usr/lib/python3/dist-packages/pkg_resources/__init__.py", line 542, in load_entry_point

Mar 21 17:21:51 instance-1 google_network_daemon[1340]:     return get_distribution(dist).load_entry_point(group, name)

Mar 21 17:21:51 instance-1 google_network_daemon[1340]:   File "/usr/lib/python3/dist-packages/pkg_resources/__init__.py", line 2569, in load_entry_point

Mar 21 17:21:51 instance-1 google_network_daemon[1340]:     return ep.load()

Mar 21 17:21:51 instance-1 google_network_daemon[1340]:   File "/usr/lib/python3/dist-packages/pkg_resources/__init__.py", line 2229, in load

Mar 21 17:21:51 instance-1 google_network_daemon[1340]:     return self.resolve()

Mar 21 17:21:51 instance-1 google_network_daemon[1340]:   File "/usr/lib/python3/dist-packages/pkg_resources/__init__.py", line 2235, in resolve

Mar 21 17:21:51 instance-1 google_network_daemon[1340]:     module = __import__(self.module_name, fromlist=['__name__'], level=0)

Mar 21 17:21:51 instance-1 google_network_daemon[1340]:   File "/usr/lib/python3/dist-packages/google_compute_engine/networking/network_daemon.py", line 26, in <module>

Mar 21 17:21:51 instance-1 google_network_daemon[1340]:     from google_compute_engine import config_manager

Mar 21 17:21:51 instance-1 google_network_daemon[1340]:   File "/usr/lib/python3/dist-packages/google_compute_engine/config_manager.py", line 23, in <module>

Mar 21 17:21:51 instance-1 google_network_daemon[1340]:     from google_compute_engine.compat import parser

Mar 21 17:21:51 instance-1 google_network_daemon[1340]:   File "/usr/lib/python3/dist-packages/google_compute_engine/compat.py", line 23, in <module>

Mar 21 17:21:51 instance-1 google_network_daemon[1340]:     import distro

Mar 21 17:21:51 instance-1 google_network_daemon[1340]: ModuleNotFoundError: No module named 'distro'

I think it cannot find this module as it is looking in the wrong python version.

Conclusion

I do understand that I was inexcusably lazy connecting only by using Googles 'Connect By SSH button' but I assumed naively that the arguably best commercial developers in the western world would have everything under control from me.