Errors

The document describes errors when running vagga on various systems. The manual only includes errors which need more detailed explanation and troubleshooting. Most errors should be self-descriptive.

Could not read /etc/subuid or /etc/subgid

The full error might look like:

ERROR:vagga::container::uidmap: Error reading uidmap: Can't open /etc/subuid: No such file or directory (os error 2)
WARN:vagga::container::uidmap: Could not read /etc/subuid or /etc/subgid (see http://bit.ly/err_subuid)
error setting uid/gid mappings: Operation not permitted (os error 1)

This means there is no /etc/subuid file. It probably means you need to create one. The recommended contents are following:

your_user_name:100000:65536

You should also check /etc/subgid, add presumably the same contents to /etc/subgid (In subgid file the first field still contains your user name not a group name).

You may get another similar error:

ERROR:vagga::container::uidmap: Error reading uidmap: /etc/subuid:2: Bad syntax: "user:100000:100O"
WARN:vagga::container::uidmap: Could not read /etc/subuid or /etc/subgid (see http://bit.ly/err_subuid)
error setting uid/gid mappings: Operation not permitted (os error 1)

This means somebody has edited /etc/subuid and made an error. Just open the file (note it’s owned by root) and fix the issue (in the example the last character should be zero, but it’s a letter “O”).

Can’t find newuidmap or newgidmap

Full error usually looks like:

WARN:vagga::process_util: Can't find `newuidmap` or `newuidmap` (see http://bit.ly/err_idmap)
error setting uid/gid mappings: No such file or directory (os error 2)

There might be two reasons for this:

  1. The binaries are not installed (see below)
  2. The commands are not in PATH

In the latter case you should fix your PATH.

The packages for Ubuntu >= 14.04:

$ sudo apt-get install uidmap

The Ubuntu 12.04 does not have the package. But you may use the package from newer release (the following version works fine on 12.04):

$ wget http://gr.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/pool/main/s/shadow/uidmap_4.1.5.1-1ubuntu9_amd64.deb
$ sudo dpkg -i uidmap_4.1.5.1-1ubuntu9_amd64.deb

Most distributions (known: Nix, Archlinux, Fedora) have binaries as part of “shadow” package, so have them installed on every system.

You should not run vagga as root

Well, sometimes users get some permission denied errors and try to run vagga with sudo. Running as root is never an answer.

Here is a quick check list on permission checks:

  • Check owner (and permission bits) of .vagga subdirectory if it exists, otherwise the directory where vagga.yaml is (project dir). In case you have already run vagga as root just do sudo rm -rf .vagga
  • Could not read /etc/subuid or /etc/subgid
  • Can’t find newuidmap or newgidmap
  • Check uname -r to have version of 3.9 or greater
  • Check sysctl kernel.unprivileged_userns_clone the setting must either not exist at all or have value of 1
  • Check zgrep CONFIG_USER_NS /proc/config.gz or grep CONFIG_USER_NS "/boot/config-`uname -r`" (ubuntu) the setting should equal to y

The error message might look like:

You should not run vagga as root (see http://bit.ly/err_root)

Or it might look like a warning:

WARN:vagga::launcher: You are running vagga as a user different from the owner of project directory. You may not have needed permissions (see http://bit.ly/err_root)

Both show that you don’t run vagga with the user that owns the project. The legitimate reasons to run vagga as root are:

  • If you run vagga in container (i.e. in vagga itself) and the root is not a real root
  • If your project dir is owned by root (for whatever crazy reason)

Both cases should inhibit the warning automatically, but as a last resort you may try vagga --ignore-owner-check. If you have good case where this works, please file an issue and we might make the check better.