Colima fails to start: FATA[0600] error starting vm: error at 'creating and starting': exit status 1

[arielnmz]

Description

Colima fails to start unless --arch x86_64 --cpu-type max args are passed.

Simply running colima start fails with the following output:

INFO[0000] starting colima                              
INFO[0000] runtime: docker                              
INFO[0000] creating and starting ...                     context=vm
> [hostagent] Waiting for the essential requirement 1 of 5: "ssh"
> [hostagent] Waiting for the essential requirement 1 of 5: "ssh"
> [hostagent] Waiting for the essential requirement 1 of 5: "ssh"
> [hostagent] Waiting for the essential requirement 1 of 5: "ssh"
> [hostagent] Waiting for the essential requirement 1 of 5: "ssh"
> did not receive an event with the "running" status
FATA[0600] error starting vm: error at 'creating and starting': exit status 1

Sometimes it also fails with an error about QEMU not exiting in 3m0s or something like that, I haven't got that in a while...

Version

colima version 0.6.5
git commit: a3adebfcd9da8c85614d81030033d02f04908a79

runtime: docker
arch: x86_64
client: v24.0.7
server: v24.0.7
limactl version 0.18.0
qemu-img version 8.1.3
Copyright (c) 2003-2023 Fabrice Bellard and the QEMU Project developers

Operating System

• [ ] macOS Intel <= 13 (Ventura)
• [ ] macOS Intel >= 14 (Sonoma)
• [ ] Apple Silicon <= 13 (Ventura)
• [X] Apple Silicon >= 14 (Sonoma)
• [ ] Linux

Apple M2 Max Chip
32 GB RAM
1 TB SSD
Sonoma 14.1.1

Output of colima status

FATA[0003] error retrieving current runtime: empty value

Reproduction Steps

1. brew install colima
2. colima start

Tried this too:

1. colima delete
2. colima start

Expected behaviour

Colima to start normally. The only way I can make it work is using these args after a delete or a fresh install:

colima start --cpu 4 --memory 8 --arch x86_64 --cpu-type max

Additional context

Following an unsuccessful start, attempting to start it again with different args will fail with:

WARN[0000] already running, ignoring

Stopping colima fails with this other error:

INFO[0000] stopping colima                              
WARN[0002] error retrieving runtimes: error retrieving current runtime: empty value 
INFO[0002] stopping ...                                  context=vm
> [hostagent] Waiting for the essential requirement 2 of 5: "user session is ready for ssh"
> [hostagent] Waiting for the essential requirement 2 of 5: "user session is ready for ssh"
> [hostagent] Waiting for the essential requirement 2 of 5: "user session is ready for ssh"
> [hostagent] Waiting for the essential requirement 2 of 5: "user session is ready for ssh"
> [hostagent] Waiting for the essential requirement 2 of 5: "user session is ready for ssh"
> did not receive an event with the "exiting" status
FATA[0182] error stopping vm: error at 'stopping': exit status 1

Attempting to start it again after the unsuccessful stop using known working params will fail with the original error.

> [hostagent] Waiting for the essential requirement 1 of 5: "ssh"
> did not receive an event with the "running" status
FATA[0600] error starting vm: error at 'starting': exit status 1

The serial*.log logs only show stuff like:

BdsDxe: failed to load Boot0001 "UEFI QEMU QEMU CD-ROM " from PciRoot(0x0)/Pci(0x1,0x0)/Scsi(0x0,0x0): Not Found
BdsDxe: loading Boot0002 "UEFI Misc Device" from PciRoot(0x0)/Pci(0xA,0x0)

Synchronous Exception at 0x000000023C308000

[arielnmz]

Just tried on another device with an M1 Pro that I hadn't updated in a while and it still works fine after colima delete.

colima version 0.5.5
git commit: 6251dc2c2c5d8197c356f0e402ad028945f0e830
limactl version 0.16.0
qemu-img version 8.0.2
Copyright (c) 2003-2022 Fabrice Bellard and the QEMU Project developers

Then updated it (brew remove colima → brew install colima) and it stopped working.

[cellulosa]

You already tried with

rm -rf ~/Library/Caches/colima
rm -rf ~/Library/Caches/lima
rm -rf /opt/colima
rm -rf ~/.colima

brew uninstall colima
brew uninstall lima

Then restart your Mac and reinstall with brew install colima and if it still throws errors you can also try and run colima delete

PS. Make sure to backup your ~/.colima/default/colima.yaml if you have done any tweaking to it

[arielnmz]

Will try tomorrow. What does this try to achieve? I read somewhere the problem was the switch from alpine to ubuntu as the init image or something like that, how is this related?

[cellulosa]

Not sure if it's because I had a different issue, but by doing a clean install as outlined I was able to run the latest version of colima smoothly using brew (whereas I had errors like those above after upgrade)

[mironnn]

Doesn't work for me either. I tried, didn't help

rm -rf ~/Library/Caches/colima
rm -rf ~/Library/Caches/lima
rm -rf /opt/colima
rm -rf ~/colima

brew uninstall colima
brew uninstall lima

[AkihiroSuda]

Upgrading qemu may solve the issue

• https://github.com/Homebrew/homebrew-core/pull/155476/commits/d7415c31f3015d6607362894533d9bd7dc9208ac

[elisagia]

this workaround worked for me: colima delete colima start --vm-type vz