lima-vm/lima · error

unexpected audio device %#q

Error message

unexpected audio device %#q

What it means

attachAudio validates the audio.device field in the Lima config and throws this error when the value is not one of the recognized options ("", "none", or a supported device like "vboxhda"/"pcspk"). It is a user configuration validation error raised during createVM.

Source

Thrown at pkg/driver/vz/vm_darwin.go:801

	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)
	}
}

func attachOtherDevices(inst *limatype.Instance, vmConfig *vz.VirtualMachineConfiguration) error {
	entropyConfig, err := vz.NewVirtioEntropyDeviceConfiguration()
	if err != nil {
		return err
	}
	vmConfig.SetEntropyDevicesVirtualMachineConfiguration([]*vz.VirtioEntropyDeviceConfiguration{
		entropyConfig,
	})

	configuration, err := vz.NewVirtioTraditionalMemoryBalloonDeviceConfiguration()
	if err != nil {
		return err
	}
	vmConfig.SetMemoryBalloonDevicesVirtualMachineConfiguration([]vz.MemoryBalloonDeviceConfiguration{
		configuration,

View on GitHub (pinned to dd909d0973)

Solutions

1. Set audio.device to a supported value: "none" (default), "vboxhda", or "pcspk"
2. Remove the audio.device field entirely to use the default ("none")
3. Run `limactl validate <instance.yaml>` before starting to catch invalid enum values

Example fix

// before (lima.yaml)
audio:
  device: pulseaudio
// after
audio:
  device: none

validAudio := map[string]bool{"":true,"none":true,"vboxhda":true,"pcspk":true}
if !validAudio[audioDevice] {
    return fmt.Errorf("audio.device %q not supported", audioDevice)
}

if err := start(); err != nil && strings.Contains(err.Error(), "unexpected audio device") {
    // fix the audio.device field and retry
}

When it happens

Trigger: Config field audio.device is set to a string other than "", "none", "vboxhda", or "pcspk" (e.g. a typo or a value copied from a QEMU-oriented config).

Common situations: Typos like "scream" or "pulseaudio"; copying QEMU audio settings into a VZ-instance config; YAML indentation mistakes leaving an unexpected value.

Related errors

• failed to create virtio sound device configuration: %w
• configuration is nil
• field `mountType` must be %#q or %#q for VZ driver , got %#q
• field `tpm` is not supported on VZ driver
• currently Windows guest OS is only supported on QEMU

AI-assisted analysis of lima-vm/lima@dd909d0973 (2026-09-01). Data as JSON: /api/errors/98e667e760e4e598. Report an issue: GitHub.