lima-vm/lima · error

failed to unregister the autostart entry for instance %#q: %

Error message

failed to unregister the autostart entry for instance %#q: %w

What it means

startAtLoginAction wraps failures from autostart.UnregisterFromStartAtLogin with this message when disabling autostart (--enabled not set). The registered check succeeded but actually removing the systemd user unit or launchd agent failed.

Source

Thrown at cmd/limactl/start-at-login_unix.go:56

	if err != nil {
		return err
	}
	if registered, err := autostart.IsRegistered(ctx, inst); err != nil {
		return fmt.Errorf("failed to check if the autostart entry for instance %#q is registered: %w", inst.Name, err)
	} else if startAtLogin {
		verb := "create"
		if registered {
			verb = "update"
		}
		if err := autostart.RegisterToStartAtLogin(ctx, inst); err != nil {
			return fmt.Errorf("failed to %s the autostart entry for instance %#q: %w", verb, inst.Name, err)
		}
		logrus.Infof("The autostart entry for instance %#q has been %sd", inst.Name, verb)
	} else {
		if !registered {
			logrus.Infof("The autostart entry for instance %#q is not registered", inst.Name)
		} else if err := autostart.UnregisterFromStartAtLogin(ctx, inst); err != nil {
			return fmt.Errorf("failed to unregister the autostart entry for instance %#q: %w", inst.Name, err)
		} else {
			logrus.Infof("The autostart entry for instance %#q has been unregistered", inst.Name)
		}
	}

	return nil
}

View on GitHub (pinned to dd909d0973)

Solutions

1. Run `systemctl --user status lima-<instance>` (Linux) to see why disable/stop fails, then stop it manually
2. Fix ownership/permissions of the autostart unit/plist (avoid managing it with sudo)
3. Retry after ensuring a healthy user session: `systemctl --user daemon-reload`
4. As a last resort remove the unit file (~/.config/systemd/user) or plist (~/Library/LaunchAgents) manually and daemon-reload

Example fix

// before: root-owned unit blocking removal
sudo limactl start-at-login default   # created root-owned files
// after
sudo chown -R $USER ~/.config/systemd/user && limactl start-at-login default

systemctl --user is-failed 'lima-*' >/dev/null 2>&1 && systemctl --user reset-failed 'lima-*'

if ! limactl start-at-login "$inst" 2>err.log; then
  grep -q 'unregister' err.log && {
    systemctl --user daemon-reload
    rm -f ~/.config/systemd/user/lima-*.service
    limactl start-at-login "$inst"
  }
fi

When it happens

Trigger: Running `limactl start-at-login <instance>` without --enabled while a registered autostart entry exists, and UnregisterFromStartAtLogin fails: unit file deletion denied, `systemctl --user disable/stop` erroring, or launchd unload failing.

Common situations: Unit file manually edited/locked or owned by root after sudo misuse; service currently active and refusing stop; dbus/systemd user session degraded; macOS launchd unload errors due to label mismatch.

Related errors

• failed to %s the autostart entry for instance %#q: %w
• failed to check if the autostart entry for instance %#q is r
• failed to check if the autostart entry for instance %#q is r
• failed to check if the autostart entry for instance %#q is r
• failed to disable the autostart entry for instance %#q: %w

AI-assisted analysis of lima-vm/lima@dd909d0973 (2026-09-01). Data as JSON: /api/errors/a476d99e9865cd64. Report an issue: GitHub.