snapcraft fails to locate multipass (inside a multipass session)
Metadata
Current evaluation
Snapcraft 3.0.1 falsely reported Multipass missing inside a Multipass guest; Darwin-only detection in e9ae8d29f addressed the old path, but the Launchpad record remains open.
Suggested action: close resolved
Reason: Commit e9ae8d29f (snapcraft#2427), titled "lifecycle: query for multipass install on darwin," changed the affected lifecycle path so installation is queried only on Darwin, matching the false prompt in this Linux Multipass guest. Current Snapcraft no longer contains the reported 3.0.1 message and defaults Linux builds to LXD.
Evaluated by: mr-cal-bot
Impact:
35
Quick Win:
21
Complexity:
30
Confidence:
86
Actionability:
86
Issue body
snapcraft failed to find my multipass and proceeded to dropping me in a multipass shell...
$ snapcraft --version
snapcraft, version 3.0.1
$ snapcraft --debug
Launching a VM.
snapcraft 3.0.1 from Canonical✓ installed
You need multipass installed to build snaps which use the base keyword.
Would you like to install it now? [y/N]:
multipass is required to continue.
root@snapcraft-multipass:~# exit
# ^^^ dropped in multipass shell ^^^
$ 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, enabled, inactive
multipass.multipassd: simple, enabled, inactive
snap-id: mA11087v6dR3IEcQLgICQVjuvhUUBUKM
tracking: edge
refresh-date: 3 days ago, at 12:36 CET
channels:
stable: –
candidate: –
beta: 2018.10.1 (461) 104MB classic
edge: 2018.10.1-114-g0d6831a (509) 109MB classic
installed: 2018.10.1-114-g0d6831a (509) 109MB classic
$ which multipass
/snap/bin/multipass
Evaluation history
| Date | Model | Scores | Action | Summary |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| stealth/space-bunny-alpha |
Impact:
35
Quick Win:
21
Complexity:
30
Confidence:
86
Actionability:
86
|
close resolved | Snapcraft 3.0.1 falsely reported Multipass missing inside a Multipass guest; Darwin-only detection in e9ae8d29f addressed the old path, but the Launchpad record remains open. | |
| qwen/qwen3.6-35b-a3b |
Impact:
5
Quick Win:
4
Complexity:
5
Confidence:
85
Actionability:
90
|
close resolved | Snapcraft v3.0.1 fails to detect installed multipass in PATH, incorrectly prompting to install it again inside a VM. Issue is ~8 years old with no maintainer response. | |
| qwen/qwen3.8-27b |
Impact:
15
Quick Win:
10
Staleness:
95
Complexity:
35
Confidence:
72
Support Request:
15
|
close stale | 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. | |
| qwen/qwen3.6-35b-a3b |
Staleness:
95
Complexity:
20
Confidence:
90
Support Request:
10
|
close stale | Report that snapcraft 3.0.1 fails to detect installed multipass inside a VM, dropping user into a shell instead. Issue is extremely stale with no maintainer interaction or updates for over seven years. | |
| qwen/qwen3.6-35b-a3b |
Staleness:
98
Complexity:
15
Confidence:
90
Support Request:
10
|
close stale | snapcraft v3.0.1 fails to detect multipass when running inside a multipass VM. Unaddressed for over 7 years with no maintainer interaction. | |
| qwen3.6-35b-a3b-mtp-q6 |
Staleness:
98
Complexity:
20
Confidence:
90
Support Request:
10
|
close stale | snapcraft 3.0.1 fails to detect installed multipass when run inside a multipass VM, dropping into a shell instead. Inactive for over 7 years. |
Update history
| Date | Change |
|---|---|
| created |
Related work
-
Related To:
snapcraft (launchpad)#1803708
(confidence 90%)
That request to reject running Snapcraft inside Multipass was closed because such use is legitimate, indicating detection should improve rather than prohibit the session.
-
Likely Fixed By:
snapcraft#2427
(confidence 88%)
Commit e9ae8d29f limits the lifecycle Multipass installation query to Darwin, directly matching this false missing-installation report.
Related issues
| Issue | Project | State | Summary | Similarity |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| #5145 snapcraft fails to launch multipass instance when multipass isn't pre-installed | snapcraft | open | Snapcraft emits cryptic 'Remote "snapcraft" is unknown or unreachable / exit code 2' when Multipass can't launch the build instance; maintainer traced it to image-server unavailability or non-amd64 hosts, fix tracked in craft-providers#211 | |
| #1810915 snapcraft can't tell when multipass is installed but disabled | snapcraft (launchpad) | open | Snapcraft misclassified an installed but disabled Multipass snap as missing, prompting installation before failing. The 2018 report remains untriaged, and its behavior needs validation against the current provider architecture. | |
| #1813979 snapcraft cleanbuild wants to install multipass but it's already installed | snapcraft (launchpad) | closed | Deb-packaged Snapcraft 2.43.1 failed while Multipass worked in 3.0.1. Legacy cleanbuild was later removed because builds are clean by default. | |
| #1794955 snapcraft erroneously errors when deleting non-existent multipass container | snapcraft (launchpad) | open | snapcraft clean treats an absent Multipass instance as a deletion error after Multipass was reinstalled; the report is concrete but untriaged and may need validation against the current clean path. | |
| #1869542 snapcraft unable to find snap/snapcraft.yaml file | snapcraft (launchpad) | open | Snapcraft 3.11 on Multipass intermittently lost the project dir in the VM ('Could not find snap/snapcraft.yaml'), only fixable by `snapcraft clean`. Reproducer never supplied; reporter redirected it to the Multipass tracker and never followed up. | |
| #1791821 multipass should use snapcraft defined environments | snapcraft (launchpad) | closed | Multipass now launches Snapcraft-defined build images; fixed by canonical/snapcraft#2258 (commit 5ffefbf96), including a Darwin launch workaround. | |
| #1803708 Snapcraft should detect being run inside multipass and error | snapcraft (launchpad) | closed | Rejected: maintainers chose to allow running Snapcraft inside Multipass, so no environment-detection error was added. | |
| #1975468 Snapcraft build fails, because multipass cannot download cloudimg | snapcraft (launchpad) | closed | Snapcraft core20 builds were disrupted by Multipass cloud-image download failures; Launchpad closed the report without documenting a fix, resolving PR, commit, or follow-up. | |
| #4106 Error 2 on snapcraft on linux with multipass: | snapcraft | closed | Multipass's Snapcraft image remote recovered; CI and the reporter succeeded again, and the reporter closed the report as solved without a Snapcraft code change. | |
| #1807125 After snapcraft refresh, old multipass containers no longer work | snapcraft (launchpad) | open | Snapcraft 3.0.1 could reuse incompatible Multipass VMs after a 3.0.0 refresh, causing a misleading missing-project error until snapcraft clean; the report is untriaged. |