diff --git a/tests/vm/ubuntu.i386 b/tests/vm/ubuntu.i386
index 1570775335..c699eaf8d7 100755
--- a/tests/vm/ubuntu.i386
+++ b/tests/vm/ubuntu.i386
@@ -11,15 +11,22 @@
 # the COPYING file in the top-level directory.
 #
 
-import os
 import sys
-import subprocess
 import basevm
-import time
+import ubuntuvm
 
-class UbuntuX86VM(basevm.BaseVM):
+DEFAULT_CONFIG = {
+    'install_cmds' : "apt-get update,"\
+                     "apt-get build-dep -y qemu,"\
+                     "apt-get install -y libfdt-dev flex bison language-pack-en",
+}
+
+class UbuntuX86VM(ubuntuvm.UbuntuVM):
     name = "ubuntu.i386"
     arch = "i386"
+    image_link="https://cloud-images.ubuntu.com/releases/bionic/"\
+               "release-20191114/ubuntu-18.04-server-cloudimg-i386.img"
+    image_sha256="28969840626d1ea80bb249c08eef1a4533e8904aa51a327b40f37ac4b4ff04ef"
     BUILD_SCRIPT = """
         set -e;
         cd $(mktemp -d);
@@ -29,34 +36,5 @@ class UbuntuX86VM(basevm.BaseVM):
         make --output-sync {target} -j{jobs} {verbose};
     """
 
-    def build_image(self, img):
-        cimg = self._download_with_cache(
-            "https://cloud-images.ubuntu.com/releases/bionic/release-20191114/ubuntu-18.04-server-cloudimg-i386.img",
-            sha256sum="28969840626d1ea80bb249c08eef1a4533e8904aa51a327b40f37ac4b4ff04ef")
-        img_tmp = img + ".tmp"
-        subprocess.check_call(["cp", "-f", cimg, img_tmp])
-        self.exec_qemu_img("resize", img_tmp, "50G")
-        self.boot(img_tmp, extra_args = [
-            "-device", "VGA",
-            "-cdrom", self.gen_cloud_init_iso()
-        ])
-        self.wait_ssh()
-        self.ssh_root_check("touch /etc/cloud/cloud-init.disabled")
-        self.ssh_root_check("apt-get update")
-        self.ssh_root_check("apt-get install -y cloud-initramfs-growroot")
-        # Don't check the status in case the guest hang up too quickly
-        self.ssh_root("sync && reboot")
-        time.sleep(5)
-        self.wait_ssh()
-        # The previous update sometimes doesn't survive a reboot, so do it again
-        self.ssh_root_check("sed -ie s/^#\ deb-src/deb-src/g /etc/apt/sources.list")
-        self.ssh_root_check("apt-get update")
-        self.ssh_root_check("apt-get build-dep -y qemu")
-        self.ssh_root_check("apt-get install -y libfdt-dev flex bison language-pack-en")
-        self.ssh_root("poweroff")
-        self.wait()
-        os.rename(img_tmp, img)
-        return 0
-
 if __name__ == "__main__":
-    sys.exit(basevm.main(UbuntuX86VM))
+    sys.exit(basevm.main(UbuntuX86VM, DEFAULT_CONFIG))
diff --git a/tests/vm/ubuntuvm.py b/tests/vm/ubuntuvm.py
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..96f29dcc15
--- /dev/null
+++ b/tests/vm/ubuntuvm.py
@@ -0,0 +1,58 @@
+#!/usr/bin/env python3
+#
+# Ubuntu VM testing library
+#
+# Copyright 2020 Linaro
+#
+# Authors:
+#  Robert Foley <robert.foley@linaro.org>
+#
+# This code is licensed under the GPL version 2 or later.  See
+# the COPYING file in the top-level directory.
+
+import os
+import subprocess
+import basevm
+
+class UbuntuVM(basevm.BaseVM):
+
+    def __init__(self, args, config=None):
+        self.login_prompt = "ubuntu-{}-guest login:".format(self.arch)
+        basevm.BaseVM.__init__(self, args, config)
+
+    def build_image(self, img):
+        """Build an Ubuntu VM image.  The child class will
+           define the install_cmds to init the VM."""
+        os_img = self._download_with_cache(self.image_link,
+                                           sha256sum=self.image_sha256)
+        img_tmp = img + ".tmp"
+        subprocess.check_call(["cp", "-f", os_img, img_tmp])
+        self.exec_qemu_img("resize", img_tmp, "+50G")
+        ci_img = self.gen_cloud_init_iso()
+
+        self.boot(img_tmp, extra_args = [ "-device", "VGA", "-cdrom", ci_img, ])
+
+        # First command we issue is fix for slow ssh login.
+        self.wait_ssh(wait_root=True,
+                      cmd="chmod -x /etc/update-motd.d/*")
+        # Wait for cloud init to finish
+        self.wait_ssh(wait_root=True,
+                      cmd="ls /var/lib/cloud/instance/boot-finished")
+        self.ssh_root("touch /etc/cloud/cloud-init.disabled")
+        # Disable auto upgrades.
+        # We want to keep the VM system state stable.
+        self.ssh_root('sed -ie \'s/"1"/"0"/g\' '\
+                      '/etc/apt/apt.conf.d/20auto-upgrades')
+        self.ssh_root("sed -ie s/^#\ deb-src/deb-src/g /etc/apt/sources.list")
+
+        # If the user chooses not to do the install phase,
+        # then we will jump right to the graceful shutdown
+        if self._config['install_cmds'] != "":
+            # Issue the install commands.
+            # This can be overriden by the user in the config .yml.
+            install_cmds = self._config['install_cmds'].split(',')
+            for cmd in install_cmds:
+                self.ssh_root(cmd)
+        self.graceful_shutdown()
+        os.rename(img_tmp, img)
+        return 0
