Snapcraft fails in LXD container on Debian 9
Metadata
Current evaluation
Closed as stale in September 2026 because Debian 9 and the reported Snapcraft version were outdated; no fixing PR or commit was identified.
Resolution: closed stale
Reason: Maintainer @~mr-cal explicitly closed the report as stale on 2026-09-10, citing the obsolete Debian and Snapcraft versions. No resolving PR or commit was cited.
Evaluated by: mr-cal-bot
No scores available.
Issue body
# OS information
* Distribution: Debian
* Distribution version: 9
`lxc info`
```
driver: lxc
driver_version: 2.1.1
kernel: Linux
kernel_architecture: x86_64
kernel_version: 4.9.0-5-amd64
server: lxd
server_pid: 12509
server_version: "2.21"
storage: btrfs
storage_version: "4.4"
```
# Issue description
Running `SNAPCRAFT_CONTAINER_BUILDS=1 snapcraft` results in
```
Looking up assertion ['account-key', 'public-key-sha3-384=BWDEoaqyr25nF5SNCvEv2v7QnM9QsfCc0PBMYD_i2NGSQ32EF2d4D0hqUel3m8ul']
Looking up assertion ['snap-declaration', 'snap-name=core']
Looking up assertion ['snap-revision', 'snap-revision=4017', 'snap-id=99T7MUlRhtI3U0QFgl5mXXESAiSwt776']
Adding assertion core_4017.assert
Installing /run/core_4017.snap
error: cannot perform the following tasks:
- Mount snap "core" (4017) ([start snap-core-4017.mount] failed with exit status 1: Job for snap-core-4017.mount failed. See "systemctl status snap-core-4017.mount" and "journalctl -xe" for details.
)
Stopping local:snapcraft-rstudio
The following command failed to run: 'snap install /run/core_4017.snap' exited with 1
```
# Steps to reproduce
1. install `snapd` on Debian 9 (`sudo apt-get install snapd`)
2. Install `lxd` using `snap install lxd`
3. Add yourself to group "lxd" and logout/login
4. Clone any project that contains a `snapcraft.yaml` file, e.g. https://github.com/pat-s/rstudio
5. Run `SNAPCRAFT_CONTAINER_BUILDS=1 snapcraft` on the project root
# Note
This approach works fine in 16.04 and 17.10
Evaluation history
| Date | Model | Scores | Action | Summary |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| stealth/space-bunny-alpha | — | closed stale | Closed as stale in September 2026 because Debian 9 and the reported Snapcraft version were outdated; no fixing PR or commit was identified. | |
| stealth/space-bunny-alpha | — | closed stale | Debian 9 LXD container builds failed installing core (snap-core-4017.mount unit failed). No snapcraft fix was made; ~ogra linked bug 1628289 (snapd), ~daveparrish reported the same on Arch, and ~mr-cal closed it stale in Sep 2026. | |
| stealth/space-bunny-alpha | — | closed stale | Closed as stale: the maintainer noted that Debian 9 and the reported Snapcraft version are very outdated; no resolving PR or commit was cited. | |
| qwen/qwen3.6-35b-a3b | — | — | 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. | |
| qwen/qwen3.8-27b |
Impact:
10
Quick Win:
7
Staleness:
95
Complexity:
30
Confidence:
85
Support Request:
15
|
close stale | Snapcraft container build on Debian 9 fails when snapd inside the LXD container cannot mount the core snap. Report is 8+ years old with 0 comments, targets an EOL OS, and has had no maintainer activity. | |
| qwen/qwen3.6-35b-a3b |
Staleness:
98
Complexity:
45
Confidence:
90
Support Request:
15
|
close stale | Snapcraft container builds fail on Debian 9 due to snapd mount errors. The report is over eight years old, targets an EOL OS, and has seen no maintainer activity or updates. | |
| qwen/qwen3.6-35b-a3b |
Staleness:
98
Complexity:
30
Confidence:
90
Support Request:
10
|
close stale | Snapcraft fails to mount core snap in LXD container on Debian 9. No maintainer response, 8 years old, Debian 9 is EOL. | |
| qwen3.6-35b-a3b-mtp-q6 |
Staleness:
98
Complexity:
20
Confidence:
90
Support Request:
10
|
close stale | Snapcraft build fails in LXD container on Debian 9 due to snap core mount error. Issue is over 8 years old with no maintainer response. |
Update history
| Date | Change |
|---|---|
| created |
Related work
-
Related To:
snapcraft (launchpad)#1628289
(confidence 30%)
A commenter suggested bug 1628289 might be related, but it was not cited as the resolution.
Related issues
| Issue | Project | State | Summary | Similarity |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| #5420 Snapcraft 7 fails to launch a LXD container based on host apt sources entries | snapcraft | closed | Closed as a duplicate of canonical/snapcraft#4408; no separate fix was made for this report. | |
| #719 Snapcraft fails initialization of build container | craft-providers | closed | LXD startup race was fixed by waiting for instance readiness in craft-providers PR #720; the fix shipped via Snapcraft PR #5247 in Snapcraft 8.6.2. | |
| #1867052 Snapcraft crashes while creating snap for ssh-audit | snapcraft (launchpad) | closed | Closed as stale after prolonged inactivity; no Snapcraft PR or commit was cited as resolving the ssh-audit FileNotFoundError. | |
| #1795827 Snapcraft doesn't install snapcraft inside the lxd container | snapcraft (launchpad) | open | Historical LXD builds failed because Snapcraft was not injected into the container; the modern Craft Providers LXD path injects Snapcraft and resolves the legacy failure. | |
| #1746612 Snapcraft cleanbuild doesn't work if you're not using the LXD snap | snapcraft (launchpad) | closed | Closed after the missing hostfs behavior was fixed upstream in lxc/lxd#4183. Snapcraft PR #1912 offered a workaround but was not merged. | |
| #4300 snapcraft fails for python projects if there is no setup.py | snapcraft | closed | Closed as stale in April 2025 without a Snapcraft fix. The reproducer declared bin/cos-alerter, but its packaging metadata did not define a console script; no resolving PR or commit was linked. | |
| #4443 snapcraft on ARM 64 - stuck at lxd | snapcraft | closed | The ARM64 hang was traced to missing LXD container networking, not a Snapcraft architecture defect; Snapcraft 7.5.4 added a timeout instead of looping indefinitely. | |
| #4408 Snapcraft 7 fails with inline deb822 signing blocks | snapcraft | open | Snapcraft 7's core20 LXD fallback failed on valid inline deb822 Signed-By keys; the affected legacy/core20 code has since been removed. | |
| #1825820 Snapcraft doesn't update the `snapcraft-project` disk source when the path is moved | snapcraft (launchpad) | open | LXD builds reportedly fail after moving a project because the instance retains the old disk source. LXD remains supported, but this untriaged report needs verification against the current craft-providers integration. | |
| #1999321 Snapcraft is stuck on "launching instance..." indefinitely | snapcraft (launchpad) | open | Endless LXD startup on failed container DNS now times out via craft-providers; Snapcraft 7.5.4 is recorded as fixing the wait. Multipass arm64 and Docker diagnostics remain separately tracked. |