diff --git a/templates/cluster-template.yaml b/templates/cluster-template.yaml
index 45fa2126d..df156df6f 100644
--- a/templates/cluster-template.yaml
+++ b/templates/cluster-template.yaml
@@ -62,7 +62,7 @@ spec:
             key: kubeadm-pre-init.sh
         permissions: "0500"
     preKubeadmCommands:
-      - /kubeadm-pre-init.sh '{{ ds.meta_data.label }}' ${KUBERNETES_VERSION#[vV]}
+      - /kubeadm-pre-init.sh '{{ ds.meta_data.label }}' ${KUBERNETES_VERSION}
     clusterConfiguration:
       apiServer:
         extraArgs:
@@ -91,11 +91,11 @@ metadata:
 spec:
   template:
     spec:
-      image: ${LINODE_OS:=""}
+      image: ${LINODE_OS:="linode/ubuntu22.04"}
       type: ${LINODE_CONTROL_PLANE_MACHINE_TYPE}
       region: ${LINODE_REGION}
       authorizedKeys:
-        - ${LINODE_SSH_KEY:=""}
+        - ${LINODE_SSH_KEY}
 ---
 apiVersion: cluster.x-k8s.io/v1beta1
 kind: MachineDeployment
@@ -127,11 +127,11 @@ metadata:
 spec:
   template:
     spec:
-      image: ${LINODE_OS:=""}
+      image: ${LINODE_OS:="linode/ubuntu22.04"}
       type: ${LINODE_MACHINE_TYPE}
       region: ${LINODE_REGION}
       authorizedKeys:
-        - ${LINODE_SSH_KEY:=""}
+        - ${LINODE_SSH_KEY}
 ---
 apiVersion: bootstrap.cluster.x-k8s.io/v1beta1
 kind: KubeadmConfigTemplate
@@ -163,7 +163,7 @@ spec:
               key: kubeadm-pre-init.sh
           permissions: "0500"
       preKubeadmCommands:
-        - /kubeadm-pre-init.sh '{{ ds.meta_data.label }}' ${KUBERNETES_VERSION#[vV]}
+        - /kubeadm-pre-init.sh '{{ ds.meta_data.label }}' ${KUBERNETES_VERSION}
       joinConfiguration:
         nodeRegistration:
           kubeletExtraArgs:
@@ -199,7 +199,8 @@ stringData:
     export DEBIAN_FRONTEND=noninteractive
     hostnamectl set-hostname "$1" && hostname -F /etc/hostname
     mkdir -p -m 755 /etc/apt/keyrings
-    VERSION=$${2%.*}
+    VERSION=$${2#[v]}
+    VERSION=$${VERSION%.*}
     curl -fsSL "https://pkgs.k8s.io/core:/stable:/v$VERSION/deb/Release.key" | sudo gpg --dearmor -o /etc/apt/keyrings/kubernetes-apt-keyring.gpg
     echo "deb [signed-by=/etc/apt/keyrings/kubernetes-apt-keyring.gpg] https://pkgs.k8s.io/core:/stable:/v$VERSION/deb/ /" | sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/kubernetes.list
     apt-get update -y