lima-vm/lima · error

failed to create host audio output stream

Error message

failed to create host audio output stream: %w

What it means

attachAudio builds a virtio sound device for the vz driver; creation of the host output stream via vz.NewVirtioSoundDeviceHostOutputStreamConfiguration failed and Lima wraps the framework error. The Virtualization framework could not instantiate the host audio output stream on this machine.

Solutions

1. Disable audio in lima.yaml (set audio device to "none" / omit the audio section)
2. Update macOS to a version with full virtio sound support and ensure a host audio output device exists
3. Downgrade expectations: run with audio disabled on headless/CI hosts

Example fix

// before
audio:
  device: "vz"
// after
audio:
  device: "none"   # or remove the audio block

// On headless/CI macOS hosts, pre-emptively disable audio:
if isHeadless() {
    cfg.Audio = nil // or device: "none"
}

if err := startInstance(cfg); err != nil {
    if strings.Contains(err.Error(), "host audio output stream") {
        // retry with audio disabled (device: none)
    }
}

When it happens

Trigger: audio device set to "vz"/"default" and vz.NewVirtioSoundDeviceHostOutputStreamConfiguration() errors — typically on macOS versions/hosts where the host output stream API fails (no audio subsystem available, framework limitation).

Common situations: CI/headless Macs without an audio output device; older macOS versions with incomplete VirtioSoundDevice support; running in VMs where host audio is unavailable.

Related errors

• failed to create virtio sound device configuration
• cannot enable nested virtualization
• failed to create a new rosetta directory share caching…
• failed to create disk attachment for extra disk %#q
• failed to create new virtio block device config for extra…

AI-assisted analysis of lima-vm/lima@dd909d0973 (2026-09-01). Data as JSON: /api/errors/3feb4bef3215aebc. Report an issue: GitHub.

Appendix: source

Thrown at pkg/driver/vz/vm_darwin.go:786

	y := inst.Config

	if y.Audio.Device == nil || y.Audio.Interface == nil {
		return nil
	}

	audioDev := *y.Audio.Device
	audioInterface := *y.Audio.Interface

	// If the user explicitly asks for HDA, we gracefully ignore it.
	if audioInterface == "hda" {
		logrus.Warn("VZ driver natively uses virtio-sound. Ignoring 'hda' interface request.")
	}

	switch audioDev {
	case "vz", "default":
		outputStream, err := vz.NewVirtioSoundDeviceHostOutputStreamConfiguration()
		if err != nil {
			return fmt.Errorf("failed to create host audio output stream: %w", err)
		}

		soundDeviceConfiguration, err := vz.NewVirtioSoundDeviceConfiguration()
		if err != nil {
			return fmt.Errorf("failed to create virtio sound device configuration: %w", err)
		}
		soundDeviceConfiguration.SetStreams(outputStream)
		config.SetAudioDevicesVirtualMachineConfiguration([]vz.AudioDeviceConfiguration{
			soundDeviceConfiguration,
		})
		return nil
	case "", "none":
		return nil
	default:
		return fmt.Errorf("unexpected audio device %#q", *inst.Config.Audio.Device)
	}
}

View on GitHub (pinned to dd909d0973)