unsupported image type for %s: %q. %s does not natively supp

Error message

unsupported image type for %s: %q. %s does not natively support importing SquashFS images; please convert the image to a tar archive before importing

What it means

WSL2 cannot import SquashFS images directly; the rootfs must be provided as a tar archive. When the image location matches the squashfsRegex but not the tar regex, validateConfig returns this error advising conversion to tar.

Source

Thrown at pkg/driver/wsl2/wsl_driver_windows.go:140

	if cfg.VMType != nil {
		if cfg.Images != nil && cfg.Arch != nil {
			// TODO: real filetype checks
			tarFileRegex := regexp.MustCompile(`\.(tar|tgz|txz|tbz2|tzst|tar\.(gz|xz|bz2|zstd|zst))$`)
			unsupportedVMImgRegex := regexp.MustCompile(`\.(qcow2|raw|img|iso|ipsw)(\.(gz|xz|bz2|zstd|zst))?$`)
			squashfsRegex := regexp.MustCompile(`\.squashfs(\.(gz|xz|bz2|zstd|zst))?$`)
			for i, image := range cfg.Images {
				if unknown := reflectutil.UnknownNonEmptyFields(image, "File", "Variant", "ArchVariant"); len(unknown) > 0 {
					logrus.Warnf("Ignoring: vmType %s: images[%d]: %+v", *cfg.VMType, i, unknown)
				}
				if image.Arch == *cfg.Arch {
					location := image.Location
					if !tarFileRegex.MatchString(location) {
						if unsupportedVMImgRegex.MatchString(location) {
							return fmt.Errorf("unsupported image type for %s: %q. %s only supports importing tar archive root filesystems, not standard VM disk images", *cfg.VMType, location, *cfg.VMType)
						}
						if squashfsRegex.MatchString(location) {
							return fmt.Errorf("unsupported image type for %s: %q. %s does not natively support importing SquashFS images; please convert the image to a tar archive before importing", *cfg.VMType, location, *cfg.VMType)
						}
						return fmt.Errorf("unsupported image type for %s: %q. A tar archive root filesystem (.tar, .tar.gz, .tar.xz, etc.) is required", *cfg.VMType, location)
					}
				}
			}
		}

		if cfg.Mounts != nil {
			for i, mount := range cfg.Mounts {
				if unknown := reflectutil.UnknownNonEmptyFields(mount); len(unknown) > 0 {
					logrus.Warnf("Ignoring: vmType %s: mounts[%d]: %+v", *cfg.VMType, i, unknown)
				}
			}
		}

		if cfg.Networks != nil {
			for i, network := range cfg.Networks {
				if unknown := reflectutil.UnknownNonEmptyFields(network); len(unknown) > 0 {

View on GitHub (pinned to dd909d0973)

Solutions

Convert the SquashFS image to a tar archive (unsquashfs then tar the extracted rootfs)
Download a tar-format rootfs for the distro instead
Switch vmType to a driver that accepts SquashFS images

Example fix

# before
images:
  - location: https://example.org/distro/rootfs.squashfs
# after
# convert: unsquashfs rootfs.squashfs && tar -C squashfs-root -czf rootfs.tar.gz .
images:
  - location: ./rootfs.tar.gz

Defensive patterns

Strategy: validation

Validate before calling

var sqfsRe = regexp.MustCompile(`\.squashfs$`)
func hasSquashfsImage(cfg *limatype.LimaYAML) bool {
	if cfg.Images == nil { return false }
	for _, img := range cfg.Images {
		if sqfsRe.MatchString(img.Location) { return true }
	}
	return false
}
// convert to tar before Configure

Type guard

func isSquashfs(location string) bool {
	return strings.HasSuffix(location, ".squashfs")
}

Try / catch

if err := driver.Configure(ctx, cfg); err != nil {
	if strings.Contains(err.Error(), "SquashFS") {
		// convert: unsquashfs + tar, update location, retry
	}
	return err
}

Prevention

Prefer tar rootfs artifacts when building distro images
Add a template check rejecting .squashfs locations for wsl2
Document conversion steps (unsquashfs + tar) for users

When it happens

Trigger: An images[] entry for the matching arch with a .squashfs (or similar) location while vmType is wsl2; hit during Configure/Validate.

Common situations: Using images designed for live-ISO/immutable distros (Fedora/Centrum-style squashfs root images), or pointing at a distro's squashfs artifact from a mirror.

Related errors

AI-assisted analysis of lima-vm/lima@dd909d0973 (2026-09-01). Data as JSON: /api/errors/2e52baada9991dee. Report an issue: GitHub.