Snapcraft doesn't install snapcraft inside the lxd container
Metadata
Current evaluation
Snapcraft's LXD build provider failed to install the snapcraft snap inside the container, leaving 'snapcraft: not found'. Reported ~8 years ago with no maintainer interaction; the provider code has since been heavily refactored (craft-providers integration).
Suggested action: close stale
Reason: The issue is 2889 days old with zero comments, no labels, and no maintainer interaction. The build-provider code path it touches has since been substantially rewritten — commit 8a06cdbbd 'providers: integrate craft-providers support' and 841b41fa3 'build providers: improve handling in snap logic (#2507)' replaced the old in-container snap installation logic, and the SNAPCRAFT_BUILD_ENVIRONMENT_CHANNEL_SNAPCRAFT env var referenced in the report no longer appears anywhere in the current codebase. The original problem is no longer reproducible against the current architecture.
Impact:
40
Quick Win:
22.0
Staleness:
95
Complexity:
45
Confidence:
55
Support Request:
15
Issue body
$ SNAPCRAFT_BUILD_ENVIRONMENT=lxd snapcraft
Creating snapcraft-multipass
Device fuse added to snapcraft-multipass
Waiting for a network connection...
Network connection established
error: no changes of type "auto-refresh" found
snap "core" is not installed
SNAPCRAFT_BUILD_ENVIRONMENT_CHANNEL_SNAPCRAFT is set: installing snapcraft from latest/stable
snap "snapcraft" is not installed
Mounting /home/michal/dev/canonical/multipass/multipass into container
Device /root/build_multipass added to snapcraft-multipass
sh: 1: snapcraft: not found
Stopping local:snapcraft-multipass
Evaluation history
| Date | Model | Scores | Action | Summary |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| qwen/qwen3.8-27b |
Impact:
40
Quick Win:
22.0
Staleness:
95
Complexity:
45
Confidence:
55
Support Request:
15
|
close stale | Snapcraft's LXD build provider failed to install the snapcraft snap inside the container, leaving 'snapcraft: not found'. Reported ~8 years ago with no maintainer interaction; the provider code has since been heavily refactored (craft-providers integration). | |
| qwen/qwen3.6-35b-a3b |
Staleness:
98
Complexity:
20
Confidence:
95
Support Request:
10
|
close stale | Report of snapcraft failing to install itself inside an LXD build environment, causing a not found error. The issue is nearly 8 years old with no maintainer interaction or comments. | |
| qwen/qwen3.6-35b-a3b |
Staleness:
98
Complexity:
30
Confidence:
90
Support Request:
10
|
close stale | Reports snapcraft failing to install itself inside an LXD container when using SNAPCRAFT_BUILD_ENVIRONMENT=lxd. Zero activity in nearly 8 years; the reported behavior is obsolete due to significant changes in snapcraft's build environment handling. | |
| qwen3.6-35b-a3b-mtp-q6 |
Staleness:
98
Complexity:
20
Confidence:
90
Support Request:
10
|
close stale | Snapcraft fails to install itself inside an LXD build environment, causing the build to abort. The report is over seven years old with no maintainer interaction or updates. | |
| qwen3.6-35b-a3b-mtp-q6 |
Staleness:
98
Complexity:
35
Confidence:
90
Support Request:
25
|
close stale | LXD build environment fails to install snapcraft inside the container, causing build failure. Issue is inactive for over 7 years with no maintainer response. |
Update history
No update history recorded yet.
Related work
-
Likely Fixed By:
snapcraft (launchpad)#2507
(confidence 40%)
Commit 841b41fa3 'build providers: improve handling in snap logic' reworked the in-container snap installation logic that this issue reports as failing.
-
Related To:
snapcraft (launchpad)#3146
(confidence 35%)
Commit c15f0623d 'build providers: snap sw to channels if injecting' further changed how snapcraft is installed into the build container.
-
Related To:
snapcraft (launchpad)#1839399
(confidence 30%)
Similar LXD container snap-fetching failure reported separately; both reflect the same era of provider instability.
Related issues
| Issue | Project | State | Summary | Similarity |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| #1839399 snapcraft not pulling snap from lxd container | snapcraft (launchpad) | open | 2019 report that snapcraft 3.7.1 with --use-lxd built a snap inside the LXD container but never copied it back to the host. No labels, no maintainer interaction, 7 years old; the LXD provider has since been rewritten via craft-providers. | |
| #1896820 Snapcraft can't be run against a local or remote LXD project | snapcraft (launchpad) | open | Feature request from the LXD maintainer for snapcraft to support LXD projects (local/remote) for isolated or cluster-based builds. ~6 years old, no labels, zero comments, no maintainer response. Overlaps with remote LXD work tracked in snapcraft#4454. | |
| #1750642 Snapcraft fails in LXD container on Debian 9 | snapcraft (launchpad) | closed | Closed as stale. The Snapcraft LXD container build failure on Debian 9 was not resolved due to outdated Debian and Snapcraft versions no longer being supported. | |
| #1666735 snapcraft cleanbuild does not work with lxd installed via snap | snapcraft (launchpad) | closed | Closed without resolution or merge. The report notes snapcraft cleanbuild fails to detect LXD installed via snap, suggesting checks via snap list or lxc list instead of apt cache. No fix was implemented or documented. | |
| #1892551 snapcraft fails to run if it is installed as a try snap | snapcraft (launchpad) | open | Snapcraft 4.x fails when installed via 'snap try': the LXD build provider tries to download the host snapcraft snap file from snapd, which returns 400 for try snaps. Unlabelled, 0 comments, ~6 years old, never triaged. | |
| #1746612 Snapcraft cleanbuild doesn't work if you're not using the LXD snap | snapcraft (launchpad) | closed | Closed without resolution. Snapcraft hardcodes the LXD snap path during cleanbuild, causing failures with deb-installed LXD. The report appears abandoned or superseded by updated Snapcraft versions that dynamically detect LXD installations. | |
| #1825820 Snapcraft doesn't update the `snapcraft-project` disk source when the path is moved | snapcraft (launchpad) | open | Snapcraft --use-lxd fails after moving the project directory because the LXD disk source 'snapcraft-project' still points at the old path. Open ~7.4 years with no labels, comments, or maintainer interaction; LXD build support has since been removed from snapcraft. | |
| #1865230 snapcraft --use-lxd should have message about requring sudo | snapcraft (launchpad) | open | snapcraft 3.x --use-lxd (LXD provider, a technology preview) left LXD in a broken state when run without sudo; reporter suggests failing early. 6.5 years old, zero comments, no labels or maintainer interaction; LXD preview since superseded by Multipass. | |
| #1984223 Snapcraft on riscv64 tries to install non-existent multipass snap | snapcraft (launchpad) | open | Snapcraft on riscv64 prompts for multipass setup instead of using lxd as default provider. Issue is 4+ years old with no maintainer interaction. | |
| #4443 snapcraft on ARM 64 - stuck at lxd | snapcraft | closed | Resolved in Snapcraft 7.5.4 by implementing a network timeout instead of an infinite loop. The hang was caused by LXD container networking misconfigurations, often due to Docker or VPN conflicts. Closed as fixed. |