abiosoft/colima · warning

error persisting Colima state: %w

Error message

error persisting Colima state: %w

What it means

Warning logged when configmanager.SaveToFile cannot persist the resolved VM configuration to the current profile's state file (config.CurrentProfile().StateFile()) during the post-start actions. The start itself already succeeded; only the on-disk state snapshot is lost, so colima logs and continues.

Source

Thrown at environment/vm/lima/lima.go:352

				}
			}
		}

		return nil
	})

	// replicate addresses when network address is disabled
	a.Add(func() error {
		if err := l.replicateHostAddresses(conf); err != nil {
			logrus.Warnln(fmt.Errorf("unable to assign host IP addresses to the VM: %w", err))
		}
		return nil
	})

	// preserve state
	a.Add(func() error {
		if err := configmanager.SaveToFile(conf, config.CurrentProfile().StateFile()); err != nil {
			logrus.Warnln(fmt.Errorf("error persisting Colima state: %w", err))
		}
		return nil
	})

	// save store settings
	a.Add(func() error {
		if len(l.limaConf.AdditionalDisks) == 0 {
			return nil
		}

		// startup is successful
		// if additional disk is present, then it must've been formatted correctly.
		if err := store.Set(func(s *store.Store) {
			s.DiskFormatted = true
		}); err != nil {
			// not fatal, but should be logged
			logrus.Warnln(fmt.Errorf("error persisting store settings: %w", err))
		}

View on GitHub (pinned to c3a5f9184d)

Solutions

1. Check free space with 'df -h ~' and free space if needed
2. Fix ownership of the profile directory: sudo chown -R $(whoami) ~/.colima
3. Ensure only one colima process touches the profile: 'colima list' then stop duplicates
4. Re-run 'colima start' after fixing; the state file is rewritten on each successful start

// ensure the state file's directory is writable before starting
func stateDirWritable(p config.Profile) error {
    dir := filepath.Dir(p.StateFile())
    if info, err := os.Stat(dir); err != nil || !info.IsDir() {
        return fmt.Errorf("state dir unavailable: %w", err)
    }
    probe := filepath.Join(dir, ".write-probe")
    return os.WriteFile(probe, nil, 0600)
}

In Go: wrap the start call and inspect the warning path indirectly — colima already downgrades this to a log. Callers should check errors.Is(err, fs.ErrPermission) / fs.ErrNoSpace only if surfacing the log, and continue since startup already succeeded.

When it happens

Trigger: configmanager.SaveToFile fails: no space left on the host filesystem holding ~/.colima/<profile>/*.state, permission/ownership problems in the profile directory, or two colima processes writing the same profile concurrently.

Common situations: Full disk on macOS home volume; ~/.colima owned by root after running with sudo once; running 'colima start' from two terminals against the same profile; antivirus/backup tool holding the state file open.

Related errors

• error preparing vmnet: %w
• error preparing daemon directory: %w
• error creating Lima config directory: %w
• error saving provisioning state: %w
• error writing store file: %w

AI-assisted analysis of abiosoft/colima@c3a5f9184d (2026-08-15). Data as JSON: /api/errors/baf2f4c8367c4988. Report an issue: GitHub.