abiosoft/colima · warning

error retrieving macOS version: %w

Error message

error retrieving macOS version: %w

What it means

minMacOSVersion asks sw_vers for the host version; on failure it logs this warning via logrus and conservatively returns false, so the gated capability (e.g. MacOS15OrNewer, nested virtualization support) is treated as unsupported. Nothing aborts — this is graceful degradation, and the root cause is one of errors 277/278.

Source

Thrown at util/macos.go:45

// MacOS13OrNewer returns if the current OS is macOS 13 or newer.
func MacOS13OrNewer() bool { return minMacOSVersion("13.0.0") }

// MacOS15OrNewer returns if the current OS is macOS 15 or newer.
func MacOS15OrNewer() bool { return minMacOSVersion("15.0.0") }

// MacOSNestedVirtualizationSupported returns if the current device supports nested virtualization.
func MacOSNestedVirtualizationSupported() bool {
	return IsMxOrNewer(3) && MacOS15OrNewer()
}

func minMacOSVersion(version string) bool {
	if !MacOS() {
		return false
	}
	ver, err := macOSProductVersion()
	if err != nil {
		logrus.Warnln(fmt.Errorf("error retrieving macOS version: %w", err))
		return false
	}

	cver, err := semver.NewVersion(version)
	if err != nil {
		logrus.Warnln(fmt.Errorf("error parsing version: %w", err))
		return false
	}

	return cver.Compare(*ver) <= 0
}

// IsMxOrNewer returns true if the machine is Apple Silicon M{n} where n >= min
// e.g. IsMxOrNewer(3) returns true for M3, M4, M5, ...
func IsMxOrNewer(min int) bool {
	chip, err := chipDetector.GetChipType()
	if err != nil {
		logrus.Trace(fmt.Errorf("error getting chip type: %w", err))

View on GitHub (pinned to c3a5f9184d)

Solutions

1. Run sw_vers -productVersion by hand to confirm it works in that environment
2. Ensure /usr/bin is on PATH for daemonized execution
3. Accept the degraded answer: features gated on macOS version report unsupported
4. Fix the underlying 277/278 cause if the feature is required

// never gate hard on macOS version detection: it degrades to false on failure
if !util.MacOS15OrNewer() {
    // take the code path that does not require macOS 15+
    // (detection failure already landed here conservatively)
}

When it happens

Trigger: On macOS, macOSProductVersion() fails while code evaluates a version gate such as MacOS15OrNewer() or MacOSNestedVirtualizationSupported().

Common situations: Sandboxed or MDM-locked environments blocking subprocess spawn; minimal PATH when the check runs from a launchd/GUI context.

Related errors

• failed to execute %v: %w
• failed to parse macOS version %q: %w
• error in config: %w
• invalid mountType: '%s'
• error preparing colima privileged dir: %w

AI-assisted analysis of abiosoft/colima@c3a5f9184d (2026-08-15). Data as JSON: /api/errors/412cff678e04c9a4. Report an issue: GitHub.