Colima does not start on Github actions Ubuntu runner

[cristianrgreco]

Description

I run Colima without issue on my local Ubuntu machine.

I am trying to create a Github actions pipeline using Colima on a Ubuntu runner, but it does not start. It times out with the message "[hostagent] Waiting for the essential requirement 1 of 5: \"ssh\""

The step is simply this:

- name: Setup Colima
  run: |
    curl -L https://nixos.org/nix/install | sh -s -- --daemon
    nix-env -iA nixpkgs.colima
    colima start --runtime docker

Is there some example of Colima running on Linux in Github actions? I've tried several different things from other issues (such as installing qemu, different cpu types, etc), but nothing works.

I'm able to run it on macos, but the performance of the macos machines in GHA is terrible. The build takes on average 3x longer than on a linux machine.

Any help greatly appreciated.

Version

Colima Version: 0.5.4
Lima Version: 0.15.0
Qemu Version: 7.2.1

Operating System

• macOS Intel <= 12 (Monterrey)
• macOS Intel >= 13 (Ventura)
• macOS M1 <= 12 (Monterrey)
• macOS M1 >= 13 (Ventura)
• Linux

Output of colima status

N/A, cannot start.

Reproduction Steps

1. Create a github action with the YAML in the description.

Expected behaviour

Colima should start.

Additional context

No response

[abiosoft]

@cristianrgreco can you use the --verbose flag and check the logs?

[abiosoft]

Is virtualization enabled by default on Github actions for Linux?
e.g. on Github codespaces, I either need to add the user to the kvm group or modify the permissions on /dev/kvm.

[cristianrgreco]

Thanks for your reply @abiosoft. This is the output when providing --very-verbose:

time="2023-04-18T17:52:01Z" level=trace msg="cmd [\"limactl\" \"info\"]"
time="2023-04-18T17:52:01Z" level=trace msg="cmd [\"limactl\" \"list\" \"colima\" \"--json\"]"
time="2023-04-18T17:52:01Z" level=trace msg="error retrieving running instance: instance 'colima' does not exist"
time="2023-04-18T17:52:01Z" level=info msg="starting colima"
time="2023-04-18T17:52:01Z" level=info msg="runtime: docker"
time="2023-04-18T17:52:01Z" level=info msg="creating and starting ..." context=vm
time="2023-04-18T17:52:01Z" level=trace msg="cmd [\"limactl\" \"start\" \"--tty=false\" \"/tmp/colima.yaml\"]"
time="2023-04-18T17:52:01Z" level=info msg="Terminal is not available, proceeding without opening an editor"
time="2023-04-18T17:52:01Z" level=info msg="Attempting to download the image from \"[https://github.com/abiosoft/alpine-lima/releases/download/colima-v0.5.0-2/alpine-lima-clm-3.16.2-x86_64.iso\](https://github.com/abiosoft/alpine-lima/releases/download/colima-v0.5.0-2/alpine-lima-clm-3.16.2-x86_64.iso/)"" digest="sha512:e9e118498f3a0745574ffc3686105d2c9777f7142164fe50ee47909dabd504c80ac29aeb76f9582706173310d1488d3b6f0ee9018e2a6aadc28eefb7767b63ec"
290.00 MiB / 290.00 MiB (100.00%) ? p/stime="2023-04-18T17:52:03Z" level=info msg="Downloaded the image from \"[https://github.com/abiosoft/alpine-lima/releases/download/colima-v0.5.0-2/alpine-lima-clm-3.16.2-x86_64.iso\](https://github.com/abiosoft/alpine-lima/releases/download/colima-v0.5.0-2/alpine-lima-clm-3.16.2-x86_64.iso/)""
time="2023-04-18T17:52:05Z" level=info msg="[hostagent] Starting QEMU (hint: to watch the boot progress, see \"/home/runner/.lima/colima/serial.log\")"
time="2023-04-18T17:52:05Z" level=info msg="SSH Local Port: 33367"
time="2023-04-18T17:52:06Z" level=info msg="[hostagent] Waiting for the essential requirement 1 of 5: \"ssh\""
time="2023-04-18T17:52:06Z" level=info msg="[hostagent] Driver stopped due to error: \"exit status 1\""
time="2023-04-18T17:52:06Z" level=info msg="[hostagent] Shutting down the host agent"
time="2023-04-18T17:52:06Z" level=warning msg="[hostagent] failed to exit SSH master"
time="2023-04-18T17:52:06Z" level=info msg="[hostagent] Shutting down QEMU with ACPI"
time="2023-04-18T17:52:06Z" level=warning msg="[hostagent] failed to open the QMP socket \"/home/runner/.lima/colima/qmp.sock\", forcibly killing QEMU"
time="2023-04-18T17:52:06Z" level=warning msg="[hostagent] failed to kill QEMU"
time="2023-04-18T17:52:16Z" level=info msg="[hostagent] Waiting for the essential requirement 1 of 5: \"ssh\""
time="2023-04-18T17:52:26Z" level=info msg="[hostagent] Waiting for the essential requirement 1 of 5: \"ssh\""
time="2023-04-18T17:52:36Z" level=info msg="[hostagent] Waiting for the essential requirement 1 of 5: \"ssh\""

I've just looked into whether GHA Linux runners support nested virtualisation, it seems only the larger ones are capable as of 2 months ago: https://github.blog/changelog/2023-02-23-hardware-accelerated-android-virtualization-on-actions-windows-and-linux-larger-hosted-runners/

Does this mean that Colima cannot run on the normal Linux runners?

[abiosoft]

Does this mean that Colima cannot run on the normal Linux runners?

Yeah, colima utilises VMs on Linux as well.

[cristianrgreco]

Hopefully in the future GH will either fix the performance of their MacOS runners, or support nested virtualisation on their normal runners.

Thanks for your time @abiosoft