Ubuntu Linux setup basics

For username "foo":

$ adduser foo

$ passwd foo

$ sudo usermod -aG sudo foo

$ mkdir -p /home/foo/.ssh

$ cat the_public_key.pem >> /home/foo/.ssh/authorized_keys

$ chown -R foo:foo /home/foo/.ssh

$ chmod 700 /home/foo/.ssh

$ chmod 600 /home/foo/.ssh/authorized_keys

Disable default account:

$ usermod -s /usr/sbin/nologin default_username

Notes:

Not useradd.
Even when logging in with just SSH key, user must have a password. It will only be used for sudo commands.

Sources:

https://unix.stackexchange.com/questions/210228/add-a-user-without-password-but-with-ssh-and-public-key