snapcraft fails to launch multipass instance when multipass isn't pre-installed
Metadata
Current evaluation
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.
Suggested action: keep open
Reason: Maintainer mr-cal triaged it on 2024-11-19, explaining the failure occurs on non-amd64 platforms or when image servers are unavailable, and explicitly linked the open tracking issue craft-providers#211 for improving how the error is presented. The issue is acknowledged and valid, with its actionable fix tracked in an open upstream issue, so it should remain open despite ~17 months of inactivity.
Issue body
Evaluation history
| Date | Model | Scores | Action | Summary |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| qwen/qwen3.8-27b |
Impact:
45
Quick Win:
27.0
Staleness:
70
Complexity:
40
Confidence:
80
Support Request:
20
|
keep 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. | |
| qwen/qwen3.6-35b-a3b |
Staleness:
45
Complexity:
30
Confidence:
85
Support Request:
10
|
keep open | snapcraft fails to launch multipass VM when multipass is installed on-demand. Error indicates unreachable image server or unknown remote. Acknowledged by maintainer, linked to craft-providers issue for better error messaging. | |
| qwen3.6-35b-a3b-mtp-q6 |
Staleness:
75
Complexity:
45
Confidence:
80
Support Request:
20
|
keep open | Snapcraft fails to launch a multipass instance when multipass isn't pre-installed, citing unreachable remote and instance naming mismatches. Maintainer acknowledged the error and linked it to a tracking issue for improved error messaging. | |
| qwen3.6-35b-a3b-mtp-q6 |
Staleness:
65
Complexity:
55
Confidence:
90
Support Request:
10
|
keep open | snapcraft fails to launch multipass VMs when multipass is not pre-installed, showing unclear remote unreachable errors. Acknowledged and linked to craft-providers issue #211 for better error messaging. Internal ticket CRAFT-3705 created for tracking. |
Update history
No update history recorded yet.
Related work
-
Related To:
snapcraft#4106
(confidence 85%)
Cited by the maintainer as a similar report; closed after the transient Multipass remote error resolved itself, confirming the image-availability root cause.
-
Blocked By:
craft-providers#211
(confidence 80%)
Maintainer's comment points to this open issue ('multipass: better error handling when images are unavailable') as where the error-presentation fix is tracked; it is still open.
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. | |
| #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. | |
| #4106 Error 2 on snapcraft on linux with multipass: | snapcraft | closed | Resolved as fixed after a temporary Multipass remote image unavailability cleared. The reporter closed the issue. | |
| #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. | |
| #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. | |
| #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. | |
| #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. | |
| #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. | |
| #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. | |
| #1975468 Snapcraft build fails, because multipass cannot download cloudimg | snapcraft (launchpad) | closed | Closed without resolution or comments. The Multipass cloud image download failure was not addressed, indicating the issue was abandoned or resolved externally. |