abiosoft/colima · warning

error starting network: %w

Error message

error starting network: %w

What it means

A non-fatal warning logged when the daemon chain failed, network dependencies WERE installed, but the daemon's status (ctx statusKey) reports the daemon overall is not Running — i.e. the network daemon process died or never launched after installation. Distinguished from 'error setting up network dependencies' by the installed flag being true here.

Source

Thrown at environment/vm/lima/daemon.go:120

		})
	}

	// network failure is not fatal
	if err := a.Exec(); err != nil {
		if useVmnet {
			func() {
				installed, _ := ctx.Value(networkInstalledKey).(bool)
				if !installed {
					log.Warnln(fmt.Errorf("error setting up network dependencies: %w", err))
					return
				}

				status, ok := ctx.Value(statusKey).(daemon.Status)
				if !ok {
					return
				}
				if !status.Running {
					log.Warnln(fmt.Errorf("error starting network: %w", err))
					return
				}

				for _, p := range status.Processes {
					// TODO: handle inotify separate from network
					if p.Name == inotify.Name {
						continue
					}
					if !p.Running {
						ctx = context.WithValue(ctx, daemon.CtxKey(p.Name), false)
						log.Warnln(fmt.Errorf("error starting %s: %w", p.Name, err))
					}
				}
			}()
		}
	}

	// check if inotify is running

View on GitHub (pinned to c3a5f9184d)

Solutions

1. Check daemon vitals in the guest: 'colima ssh -- ps aux | grep -i daemon' and its logs to find why it exited after install.
2. Restart cleanly to re-spawn the daemon: 'colima stop -f && colima start --network-address'.
3. After macOS upgrades, reinstall helpers and recreate: 'brew reinstall socket_vmnet' then 'colima delete -f && colima start --network-address'.
4. If you don't need addressable VMs, drop the flag — 'colima start' — and the warning path is skipped entirely.

// probe daemon liveness before declaring failure
if s, err := l.daemon.Running(ctx, conf); err == nil && s.Running {
    // safe to proceed with network-dependent steps
} else {
    log.Warnln("network daemon not running; addressable networks unavailable")
}

status, ok := ctx.Value(statusKey).(daemon.Status)
if ok && !status.Running {
    // one re-spawn attempt before warning
    if s2, err := l.daemon.Running(ctx, conf); err != nil || !s2.Running {
        log.Warnln(fmt.Errorf("error starting network: %w", err))
    }
}

When it happens

Trigger: 'colima start --network-address' where installation succeeded but the root daemon immediately exits: vmnet interface creation denied by macOS, the daemon binary crashing (version mismatch after upgrade), OOM, or its runtime dependencies missing; the status probe then reports Running=false and this warning fires instead of a fatal error because network is best-effort.

Common situations: macOS upgrades breaking vmnet; colima upgraded while the VM was resumed (old daemon binary path); concurrent starts racing over the daemon socket; security software killing the privileged helper.

Related errors

• error setting up network dependencies: %w
• error starting %s: %w
• error preparing vmnet: %w
• error preparing daemon directory: %w
• error checking vmnet process: %w

AI-assisted analysis of abiosoft/colima@c3a5f9184d (2026-08-15). Data as JSON: /api/errors/e35b4a0630694d56. Report an issue: GitHub.