snapcraft can't tell when multipass is installed but disabled
Metadata
Current evaluation
Snapcraft fails to detect a disabled multipass snap, prompting to install it and then erroring out. Reported against multipass 2018.12.1 / ~2019 snapcraft; untriaged, 0 comments, no labels, inactive for ~7.6 years.
Suggested action: close stale
Reason: The report is 2792 days old with 0 comments, no labels, and no maintainer interaction, and it targets multipass 2018.12.1 and a ~2019 snapcraft release that are long unsupported. Modern snapcraft (8.x) delegates multipass management to craft-providers, so the detection path described here has been substantially reworked and the original scenario is no longer applicable to current versions.
Impact:
30
Quick Win:
18.0
Staleness:
95
Complexity:
40
Confidence:
62
Support Request:
20
Issue body
I sometimes `snap disable multipass` because I want to quickly shut it all down so I can use virtualbox instead. (the two conflict). If I forget to `snap enable multipass` and run snapcraft, it thinks multipass isn't installed and asks to install it. Maybe the wording needs tweaking, or it could detect a disabled multipass?
$ snapcraft
You need multipass installed to build snaps which use the base keyword.
Would you like to install it now? [y/N]: y
Waiting for multipass...
Sorry, an error occurred in Snapcraft.
We would appreciate it if you anonymously reported this issue.
No other data than the traceback ('/tmp/tmpnnhkury7/trace.txt') and the version of snapcraft in use will be sent.
Would you like to send this error data? (Yes/No/Always) [no]: ^C
$ snap info multipass
name: multipass
summary: Ubuntu at your fingertips
publisher: Canonical✓
license: unset
description: |
Multipass gives you Ubuntu VMs in seconds. Just run `multipass launch` and it'll do all the setup
for you. Check out `multipass find` for a list of available images. More details you can find
under `multipass help`.
commands:
- multipass
- multipass.virsh
services:
multipass.libvirt-bin: simple, disabled, inactive
multipass.multipassd: simple, disabled, inactive
snap-id: mA11087v6dR3IEcQLgICQVjuvhUUBUKM
tracking: beta
channels:
stable: –
candidate: –
beta: 2018.12.1 (572) 111MB classic
edge: 2018.12.1-22-g09335ce (578) 111MB classic
installed: 2018.12.1 (572) 111MB disabled,classic
Evaluation history
| Date | Model | Scores | Action | Summary |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| qwen/qwen3.8-27b |
Impact:
30
Quick Win:
18.0
Staleness:
95
Complexity:
40
Confidence:
62
Support Request:
20
|
close stale | Snapcraft fails to detect a disabled multipass snap, prompting to install it and then erroring out. Reported against multipass 2018.12.1 / ~2019 snapcraft; untriaged, 0 comments, no labels, inactive for ~7.6 years. | |
| qwen/qwen3.6-35b-a3b |
Staleness:
98
Complexity:
15
Confidence:
90
Support Request:
10
|
close stale | Snapcraft fails to detect when Multipass is installed but disabled, prompting to reinstall and failing. Untriaged, inactive for ~7.5 years. | |
| qwen/qwen3.6-35b-a3b |
Staleness:
98
Complexity:
15
Confidence:
90
Support Request:
10
|
close stale | Snapcraft fails to detect when multipass is installed but disabled, prompting to reinstall and failing. Unaddressed for over 7 years. | |
| qwen3.6-35b-a3b-mtp-q6 |
Staleness:
98
Complexity:
20
Confidence:
90
Support Request:
10
|
close stale | snapcraft prompts to install multipass and crashes when the snap is installed but disabled. The report is over 7 years old with no maintainer engagement or updates. | |
| qwen3.6-35b-a3b-mtp-q6 |
Staleness:
100
Complexity:
20
Confidence:
85
Support Request:
0
|
close stale | Snapcraft fails to detect when multipass is installed but disabled, prompting installation and crashing instead. Unaddressed for over 7 years with no maintainer response. |
Update history
No update history recorded yet.
Related work
-
Related To:
snapcraft (launchpad)#1813979
(confidence 70%)
Same class of bug: snapcraft wants to install multipass that is already installed; closed without resolution.
-
Related To:
snapcraft (launchpad)#1806083
(confidence 60%)
Related multipass detection failure (inside a multipass session); also open and long inactive.
-
Related To:
snapcraft#5145
(confidence 55%)
Current-era multipass launch failure, showing multipass handling is now managed via craft-providers rather than the legacy inline logic.
Related issues
| Issue | Project | State | Summary | Similarity |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| #1806083 snapcraft fails to locate multipass (inside a multipass session) | snapcraft (launchpad) | open | snapcraft 3.0.1 fails to detect an installed multipass when run inside a multipass VM, prompting to install and dropping the user into a shell. No maintainer activity for ~7 years; affected version is long obsolete. | |
| #1813979 snapcraft cleanbuild wants to install multipass but it's already installed | snapcraft (launchpad) | closed | Closed without resolution. Likely abandoned or superseded by newer snapcraft and multipass versions that resolved the detection and launch failures. | |
| #5145 snapcraft fails to launch multipass instance when multipass isn't pre-installed | snapcraft | open | Snapcraft fails to launch a multipass VM with 'Remote snapcraft is unknown or unreachable' when multipass is installed on-demand. Maintainer triaged it as an image-server availability issue and linked craft-providers#211 for better error messaging; still open. | |
| #1794955 snapcraft erroneously errors when deleting non-existent multipass container | snapcraft (launchpad) | open | snapcraft clean fails with 'instance does not exist' when the multipass container is already gone; reporter suggests treating it as a no-op. Open since 2018, unlabeled, no maintainer activity for ~7.9 years. | |
| #1859427 'multipass' does not exist or is not available on the desired channel 'latest/beta' | snapcraft (launchpad) | closed | Abandoned after 135 days of inactivity. The report describes a snapcraft channel resolution error when installing multipass, though manual installation works. No fix or discussion was provided. | |
| #1904774 Snapcraft runs multipass setup but fails | snapcraft (launchpad) | closed | Abandoned. Snapcraft failed during multipass VM cleanup after reporting a missing instance. Closed without comments or fixes. | |
| #1856594 Snapcraft tutorial errors out on OSX with multipass error, "returned exit code 2" | snapcraft (launchpad) | open | Dec 2019 report: snapcraft 3.9 on macOS fails via multipass (apt 404s, mount exit code 2) and crashes with AttributeError on os.sched_getaffinity. No maintainer activity; that code path no longer exists in current snapcraft, and macOS support was dropped. | |
| #1803708 Snapcraft should detect being run inside multipass and error | snapcraft (launchpad) | closed | Rejected. Maintainers disagreed, noting users may legitimately run snapcraft inside multipass VMs. The issue was closed without implementation. | |
| #1807125 After snapcraft refresh, old multipass containers no longer work | snapcraft (launchpad) | open | snapcraft reuses outdated multipass containers after snap refresh, causing 'Could not find snap/snapcraft.yaml' errors until snapcraft clean is run; untriaged, no maintainer activity for ~7.7 years | |
| #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. |