abiosoft/colima · warning

error retrieving containerd namespaces: %w

Error message

error retrieving containerd namespaces: %w

What it means

For runtime containerd, each volume poll begins by listing namespaces in the guest via `sudo nerdctl namespace list -q`. Failure is wrapped as 'error retrieving containerd namespaces' and logged by the poll goroutine, retried every 5 seconds. It is the containerd-runtime analogue of the docker fetch failure and is non-fatal.

Source

Thrown at daemon/process/inotify/volumes.go:39

	}

	fetch := func() ([]string, error) {
		var vols []string

		switch f.runtime {

		case docker.Name:
			vols, err := f.fetchVolumes(docker.Name)
			if err != nil {
				return nil, fmt.Errorf("error fetching docker volumes: %w", err)
			}
			return vols, nil

		case containerd.Name:
			var namespaces []string
			out, err := f.guest.RunOutput("sudo", "nerdctl", "namespace", "list", "-q")
			if err != nil {
				return nil, fmt.Errorf("error retrieving containerd namespaces: %w", err)
			}
			if out != "" {
				namespaces = strings.Fields(out)
			}

			for _, ns := range namespaces {
				v, err := f.fetchVolumes("sudo", "nerdctl", "--namespace", ns)
				if err != nil {
					return nil, fmt.Errorf("error retrieving containerd volumes: %w", err)
				}
				if len(v) > 0 {
					vols = append(vols, v...)
				}
			}

			return vols, nil
		}

View on GitHub (pinned to c3a5f9184d)

Solutions

1. wait out the boot window — the poll self-heals every 5s
2. run it by hand to see the guest-side error: `colima ssh -- sudo nerdctl namespace list -q`
3. restart colima if nerdctl/containerd in the guest is genuinely wedged

if _, err := guest.RunOutput("sudo", "nerdctl", "namespace", "list", "-q"); err != nil {
    return fmt.Errorf("containerd/nerdctl not ready in guest: %w", err)
}

if vols, err := fetch(); err != nil {
    if strings.Contains(err.Error(), "error retrieving containerd namespaces") {
        // nerdctl/containerd in guest not up — retry next 5s tick, no action
    }
}

When it happens

Trigger: nerdctl missing or broken in the guest image; containerd not yet started during VM boot; guest unreachable when the poll fires.

Common situations: VM boot window with --mount-inotify and runtime containerd; a partially provisioned VM after a failed start; containerd stopped inside the VM.

Related errors

• error retrieving containerd volumes: %w
• nerdctl only supports %s runtime
• error fetching docker volumes: %w
• error starting %s: %w
• error initiating container runtime: %w

AI-assisted analysis of abiosoft/colima@c3a5f9184d (2026-08-15). Data as JSON: /api/errors/8656595e905b2097. Report an issue: GitHub.