← Back to issue list

Multipass/VMs by default discourages newcomers

View original Launchpad issue

Metadata

Project
snapcraft (launchpad)
Number
#1859424
Type
issue
State
open
Author
~lool
Labels
Created
Updated
Closed

Current evaluation

Snapcraft's default use of Multipass for builds frustrates newcomers (nested-VM failures on macOS/Windows, slow builds from silent LXD-to-Multipass switch); proposes warnings, KVM detection, docs, and release/debug defaults. Open 6.6 years, no labels, no comments, no maintainer response.

Suggested action: needs triage

Reason: The issue has zero comments, no labels, and no maintainer interaction in ~6.6 years, so it has never been triaged. It is not safe to close as stale: the underlying onboarding pain (default Multipass, nested virtualization, build-environment choice) is still a live area of snapcraft, and the reporter's concrete suggestions (prominent notice, KVM detection, LXD fallback, docs, release/debug defaults) remain actionable. A maintainer should assess which parts are already addressed (e.g. SNAPCRAFT_BUILD_ENVIRONMENT, --use-lxd) and which warrant work.

Impact: 55 Quick Win: 16.5 Staleness: 95 Complexity: 70 Confidence: 55 Support Request: 25

Issue body

Hi, Snapcraft by default will try to install and use multipass to build snaps. This is for reproducibility of the build, as to ensure the rootfs and the kernel are well defined when building a snap. I'm regularly introducing snapcraft to new persons and had a series of newcomers that struggled creating their first snap because of the multipass by default behavior. Recently, I had two persons on macOS running Ubuntu in a VM that spent hours figuring out why things were not working from their Ubuntu VM because they hadn't enabled nested virtualization and multipass couldn't create a nested VM in their manually managed VM. Today, a new snapcraft user running an Ubuntu VM under Windows was hit by the same thing. I also had a person in my team iterating over snap builds that found the builds super slow because he hadn't noticed that snapcraft switched from LXD to multipass behind the scenes. How could snapcraft do a better job? ⋅ snapcraft could make a prominent statement about the fact it's about to use multipass ⋅ snapcraft could detect availability of KVM extensions before trying to launch multipass or availability of a working multipass setup, or could fallback on LXD ⋅ documentation could be changed to explain the differences between running snapcraft natively vs running it in a VM and requirements for that VM setup ⋅ more ambitiously, snapcraft could distinguish between release and non-release builds and give a default fast/debug debug good for iterations with a fat warning that --release should be used for a release build Best, - Loïc Minier

Evaluation history

Date Model Scores Action Summary
qwen/qwen3.8-27b
Impact: 55
Quick Win: 16.5
Staleness: 95
Complexity: 70
Confidence: 55
Support Request: 25
needs triage Snapcraft's default use of Multipass for builds frustrates newcomers (nested-VM failures on macOS/Windows, slow builds from silent LXD-to-Multipass switch); proposes warnings, KVM detection, docs, and release/debug defaults. Open 6.6 years, no labels, no comments, no maintainer response.
qwen/qwen3.6-35b-a3b
Staleness: 95
Complexity: 30
Confidence: 80
Support Request: 10
needs triage External contributor reports Snapcraft's default Multipass/VM usage creates friction for newcomers, especially in nested virtualization setups. Suggests better warnings, availability checks, and documentation. Untriaged and inactive for over six years.
qwen/qwen3.6-35b-a3b
Staleness: 95
Complexity: 45
Confidence: 85
Support Request: 20
needs triage Issue reports that Snapcraft's default use of Multipass/VMs creates friction for newcomers, especially in nested VM environments. Suggests better warnings, fallbacks, and docs. Currently untriaged with no maintainer response after ~6.5 years.
qwen3.6-35b-a3b-mtp-q6
Staleness: 95
Complexity: 55
Confidence: 90
Support Request: 20
close stale Unaddressed feedback from over six years ago regarding Snapcraft's default Multipass usage discouraging newcomers. Suggests UX warnings, KVM checks, fallbacks, and documentation updates. No maintainer response or labels.
qwen3.6-35b-a3b-mtp-q6
Staleness: 95
Complexity: 65
Confidence: 85
Support Request: 20
close stale Reports Snapcraft's default Multipass/VM usage discourages newcomers due to nested virtualization issues and slow builds. Suggests UX improvements and fallbacks. Unlabeled, no maintainer response, inactive for over 6 years.

Update history

No update history recorded yet.

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.
72%
#1791821 multipass should use snapcraft defined environments snapcraft (launchpad) closed Closed without discussion or resolution, indicating the feature request was likely abandoned or superseded. The proposal to align multipass with snapcraft-defined build images received no further action.
71%