snapcraft can't build while I'm also running virtual box
Metadata
Current evaluation
snapcraft build fails with a Multipass 'Another virtual machine manager is currently running' error when VirtualBox is active. Reporter self-identifies it as a fundamental multipass/hypervisor conflict. 5 years old, zero comments, no labels, no maintainer interaction.
Suggested action: close not a bug
Reason: The reporter's own conclusion — 'I guess this is a fundamental multipass issue' — points to a hypervisor-level conflict (two VMMs running at once) that snapcraft does not control, making this a support/usage question rather than a snapcraft bug. The resolution is to shut down VirtualBox or use a different multipass driver, i.e. working-as-intended behavior resolvable via configuration. With 1816 days of inactivity, no labels, and no maintainer response, there is no open snapcraft work to track.
Impact:
25
Quick Win:
16.25
Staleness:
92
Complexity:
35
Confidence:
78
Support Request:
75
Issue body
Tried running snapcraft while I had a virtualbox instance running, got this error:
SNAPCRAFT_BUILD_ENVIRONMENT_MEMORY=8G snapcraft
Launching a VM.
start failed: Another virtual machine manager is currently running. Please shut it down before starting a Multipass instance.
An error occurred with the instance when trying to start with 'multipass': returned exit code 2.
Ensure that 'multipass' is setup correctly and try again.
I guess this is a fundamental multipass issue.
Evaluation history
| Date | Model | Scores | Action | Summary |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| qwen/qwen3.8-27b |
Impact:
25
Quick Win:
16.25
Staleness:
92
Complexity:
35
Confidence:
78
Support Request:
75
|
close not a bug | snapcraft build fails with a Multipass 'Another virtual machine manager is currently running' error when VirtualBox is active. Reporter self-identifies it as a fundamental multipass/hypervisor conflict. 5 years old, zero comments, no labels, no maintainer interaction. | |
| qwen/qwen3.6-35b-a3b |
Staleness:
98
Complexity:
10
Confidence:
95
Support Request:
85
|
close stale | User reports snapcraft build fails when VirtualBox is running due to a Multipass conflict. Issue has been inactive for nearly five years with zero maintainer interaction. | |
| qwen/qwen3.6-35b-a3b |
Staleness:
95
Complexity:
20
Confidence:
85
Support Request:
65
|
close stale | User reports snapcraft fails to build when VirtualBox is running due to a Multipass hypervisor conflict. The report is unlabelled, has no comments, and is nearly five years old. | |
| qwen3.6-35b-a3b-mtp-q6 |
Staleness:
95
Complexity:
10
Confidence:
90
Support Request:
85
|
close stale | Snapcraft fails to start Multipass when VirtualBox is running due to a known hypervisor conflict. Issue is inactive for over four years with no maintainer response. | |
| qwen3.6-35b-a3b-mtp-q6 |
Staleness:
95
Complexity:
15
Confidence:
90
Support Request:
85
|
close not a bug | Snapcraft fails to build when VirtualBox runs due to a Multipass conflict with other VM managers. The report remains unassigned, has zero comments, and has been inactive for nearly five years, awaiting triage. |
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. | |
| #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. | |
| #1810915 snapcraft can't tell when multipass is installed but disabled | snapcraft (launchpad) | open | 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. | |
| #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. |