abiosoft/colima · error

error occurred installing dependencies for '%s': %w

Error message

error occurred installing dependencies for '%s': %w

What it means

processDeps.Install walks every daemon process's Dependencies() and calls Install on any dependency whose Installed() is false — for colima this means the sudoers file (embedded.InstallSudoers), the vmnet binaries extracted into /opt/colima, and the /opt/colima/run directory. The first failure wraps as "error occurred installing dependencies for '<process name>'"; on a first rootful start '<name>' is almost always 'vmnet'.

Source

Thrown at daemon/process/process.go:78

	for _, process := range p {
		deps, _ := process.Dependencies()
		for _, d := range deps {
			if !d.Installed() {
				return false
			}
		}
	}

	return true
}

func (p processDeps) Install(host environment.HostActions) error {
	for _, process := range p {
		deps, _ := process.Dependencies()
		for _, d := range deps {
			if !d.Installed() {
				if err := d.Install(host); err != nil {
					return fmt.Errorf("error occurred installing dependencies for '%s': %w", process.Name(), err)
				}
			}
		}
	}

	return nil
}

View on GitHub (pinned to c3a5f9184d)

Solutions

1. retry `colima start --network-address` and complete the sudo password prompt when it appears
2. verify the sudoers entry exists and is intact: sudo cat /etc/sudoers.d/colima
3. clean a partial install then retry: sudo rm -rf /opt/colima
4. check the wrapped cause — it names which step (retrieving embedded file, temp file, mkdir, extraction) failed

deps, root := process.Dependencies(procs...)
if !deps.Installed() {
    if root {
        fmt.Println("sudo prompt upcoming — do not cancel")
    }
    if err := deps.Install(host); err != nil {
        return fmt.Errorf("dependency install failed: %w", err)
    }
}

if err := deps.Install(host); err != nil {
    if strings.Contains(err.Error(), "error occurred installing dependencies for") {
        // read inner cause: canceled sudo prompt vs tar failure vs /opt/colima perms;
        // retry is safe — Install is idempotent (Installed() gate)
    }
}

When it happens

Trigger: first `colima start --network-address`: the interactive sudo prompt canceled or mistyped during the RunInteractive('sudo ...') steps; tar extraction into /opt/colima failing; /opt/colima not creatable due to prior root-owned partial installs.

Common situations: aborting at the password prompt; sudoers misconfiguration blocking the scripted commands; leftovers in /opt/colima from a failed earlier attempt.

Related errors

• error extracting vmnet archive: %w
• dependency check failed for VM: %w
• error preparing colima privileged dir: %w
• %s not found, run 'brew install %s' to install
• dependency check failed for %s: %w

AI-assisted analysis of abiosoft/colima@c3a5f9184d (2026-08-15). Data as JSON: /api/errors/33a74ac6e9cce885. Report an issue: GitHub.