Rancher Desktop Fails to Start

Actual Behavior

Kubernetes Error Error: /Applications/Rancher Desktop.app/Contents/Resources/resources/darwin/lima/bin/limactl exited with code 1

Last command run: limactl --debug start --tty=false 0

Context: Starting virtual machine

Some recent logfile lines:

time="2022-03-06T17:28:35-08:00" level=info msg="Starting switch daemon for \"bridged_en1\" network"
time="2022-03-06T17:28:35-08:00" level=debug msg="Running: [sudo --user root --group wheel --non-interactive /bin/mkdir -m 775 -p /private/var/run/rancher-desktop-lima]"
time="2022-03-06T17:28:35-08:00" level=fatal msg="\"/private/var/run/rancher-desktop-lima\" doesn't seem to be writable by the daemon (gid:1) group"
2022-03-07T01:28:35.250Z: + limactl --debug start --tty=false 0
2022-03-07T01:28:35.250Z: Error: /Applications/Rancher Desktop.app/Contents/Resources/resources/darwin/lima/bin/limactl exited with code 1
2022-03-07T01:28:35.250Z: Error starting lima: Error: /Applications/Rancher Desktop.app/Contents/Resources/resources/darwin/lima/bin/limactl exited with code 1
    at ChildProcess.<anonymous> (/Applications/Rancher Desktop.app/Contents/Resources/app.asar/dist/app/background.js:1:8692)
    at ChildProcess.emit (node:events:394:28)
    at Process.ChildProcess._handle.onexit (node:internal/child_process:290:12)

Steps to Reproduce

Machine config:

• macOS Monterey
• Version 12.3 Beta
• Processor 2.7 Ghz 24 Core Intel Xeon W
• Memory 384 Gb

Rancher Desktop Version 1.1.1

Log Data:

Background.log

2022-03-07T01:44:19.580Z: event settings-read in main: [object Object]

update.log

2022-03-07T01:27:58.950Z: Staged version 1.1.1 not greater than current version 1.1.1, skipping. 2022-03-07T01:27:58.951Z: Checking for update 2022-03-07T01:27:58.951Z: update: checking for update 2022-03-07T01:27:59.736Z: Update for version 1.1.1 is not available (latest version: v1.1.1, downgrade is disallowed). 2022-03-07T01:27:59.736Z: update: not available: { files: [ { url: ‘https://github.com/rancher-sandbox/rancher-desktop/releases/download/v1.1.1/Rancher.Desktop-1.1.1-mac.x86_64.zip’, size: 407722097, sha512: ‘cUXx61cgoOvxOUa5FAtfxs8CSDgCXhc4o1kH3OwncOMCXlGvqiZZ3O4tb6uck/j8ct8NyjZ6pZ2ANvhSs55HFQ==’, isAdminRightsRequired: false } ], version: ‘v1.1.1’, path: ‘’, sha512: ‘’, releaseName: ‘Rancher Desktop 1.1.1’, releaseNotes: ‘This is the 1.1.1 release of Rancher Desktop, an open source desktop application to bring Kubernetes and container management to Mac, Windows, and Linux. The release contains 2 bug fixes:\r\n’ + ‘\r\n’ + ‘- DNS not working correctly in some Windows environments\r\n’ + ‘- The docker-buildx symlink was incorrect\r\n’ + ‘\r\n’ + ‘You can connect with the developers via:\r\n’ + ‘\r\n’ + ‘- The issue queue\r\n’ + ‘- Rancher Users Slack in the #rancher-desktop channel\r\n’ + ‘\r\n’ + ‘## Changelog\r\n’ + ‘\r\n’ + ‘The full version changelog, from v1.1.0, can be found using GitHub compare and the details of the release can be found in the v1.1.1 milestone.’, releaseDate: ‘2022-03-04T20:25:49Z’, nextUpdateTime: 1646617432410 } 2022-03-07T01:43:52.526Z: Checking for update 2022-03-07T01:43:52.526Z: update: checking for update 2022-03-07T01:43:53.791Z: Update for version 1.1.1 is not available (latest version: v1.1.1, downgrade is disallowed). 2022-03-07T01:43:53.791Z: update: not available: { files: [ { url: ‘https://github.com/rancher-sandbox/rancher-desktop/releases/download/v1.1.1/Rancher.Desktop-1.1.1-mac.x86_64.zip’, size: 407722097, sha512: ‘cUXx61cgoOvxOUa5FAtfxs8CSDgCXhc4o1kH3OwncOMCXlGvqiZZ3O4tb6uck/j8ct8NyjZ6pZ2ANvhSs55HFQ==’, isAdminRightsRequired: false } ], version: ‘v1.1.1’, path: ‘’, sha512: ‘’, releaseName: ‘Rancher Desktop 1.1.1’, releaseNotes: ‘This is the 1.1.1 release of Rancher Desktop, an open source desktop application to bring Kubernetes and container management to Mac, Windows, and Linux. The release contains 2 bug fixes:\r\n’ + ‘\r\n’ + ‘- DNS not working correctly in some Windows environments\r\n’ + ‘- The docker-buildx symlink was incorrect\r\n’ + ‘\r\n’ + ‘You can connect with the developers via:\r\n’ + ‘\r\n’ + ‘- The issue queue\r\n’ + ‘- Rancher Users Slack in the #rancher-desktop channel\r\n’ + ‘\r\n’ + ‘## Changelog\r\n’ + ‘\r\n’ + ‘The full version changelog, from v1.1.0, can be found using GitHub compare and the details of the release can be found in the v1.1.1 milestone.’, releaseDate: ‘2022-03-04T20:25:49Z’, nextUpdateTime: 1646621032807 }

Result

Rancher Desktop fails to start

Presenting the following Error Message as a popup:

Kubernetes Error

Error Starting Kubernetes

Error: /Applications/Rancher Desktop.app/Contents/Resources/resources/darwin/lima/bin/limactl exited with code 1

Last command run: limactl --debug start --tty=false 0

Context: Starting virtual machine

Some recent logfile lines: time=“2022-03-06T17:48:18-08:00” level=info msg=“Starting switch daemon for "shared" network” time=“2022-03-06T17:48:18-08:00” level=debug msg=“Running: [sudo --user root --group wheel --non-interactive /bin/mkdir -m 775 -p /private/var/run/rancher-desktop-lima]” time=“2022-03-06T17:48:18-08:00” level=fatal msg=“"/private/var/run/rancher-desktop-lima" doesn’t seem to be writable by the daemon (gid:1) group” 2022-03-07T01:48:18.168Z: + limactl --debug start --tty=false 0 2022-03-07T01:48:18.169Z: Error: /Applications/Rancher Desktop.app/Contents/Resources/resources/darwin/lima/bin/limactl exited with code 1 2022-03-07T01:48:18.169Z: Error starting lima: Error: /Applications/Rancher Desktop.app/Contents/Resources/resources/darwin/lima/bin/limactl exited with code 1 at ChildProcess.<anonymous> (/Applications/Rancher Desktop.app/Contents/Resources/app.asar/dist/app/background.js:1:8692) at ChildProcess.emit (node:events:394:28) at Process.ChildProcess._handle.onexit (node:internal/child_process:290:12)

Expected Behavior

Rancher Desktop install and runs

Additional Information

I’d expect /private/var/run/rancher-desktop-lima to contain:

ls -hal /private/var/run/rancher-desktop-lima total 32 drwxrwxr-x 8 root daemon 256B Mar 3 13:10 . drwxrwxr-x 35 root daemon 1.1K Mar 5 12:34 … drwxrwx— 13 daemon everyone 416B Mar 3 13:10 bridged_en0.ctl -rw-r–r-- 1 daemon daemon 5B Mar 3 13:10 bridged_en0_switch.pid -rw-r–r-- 1 root daemon 4B Mar 3 13:10 bridged_en0_vmnet.pid drwxrwx— 13 daemon everyone 416B Mar 3 13:10 shared.ctl -rw-r–r-- 1 daemon daemon 5B Mar 3 13:10 shared_switch.pid -rw-r–r-- 1 root daemon 4B Mar 3 13:10 shared_vmnet.pid

however on the machine in question I get this:

ls -hal /private/var/run/rancher-desktop-lima total 0 dr-xr-xr-x 2 root daemon 64B Mar 5 16:49 . drwxrwxr-x 48 root daemon 1.5K Mar 6 02:03 …

if I update the permissions manually

sudo --user root --group wheel --non-interactive /bin/mkdir -m 775 -p /private/var/run/rancher-desktop-lima

and then run:

/Applications/Rancher\ Desktop.app/Contents/Resources/resources/darwin/lima/bin/limactl --debug start --tty=false /Users/$USER/Library/Application\ Support/rancher-desktop/lima/_config/0.yaml

I get the following error:

DEBU[0000] interpreting argument “/Users/$USER/Library/Application Support/rancher-desktop/lima/_config/0.yaml” as a file path for instance “0” INFO[0000] Terminal is not available, proceeding without opening an editor FATA[0000] field networks[1].lima references network “bridged_en2” which is not defined in networks.yaml

Rancher Desktop Version

1.1.1

Rancher Desktop K8s Version

v1.21.10

Which container runtime are you using?

containerd (nerdctl)

What operating system are you using?

macOS

Operating System / Build Version

Version 12.3 Beta

What CPU architecture are you using?

x64

Linux only: what package format did you use to install Rancher Desktop?

No response

Windows User Only

No response

[planetf1]

Re: https://github.com/rancher-sandbox/rancher-desktop/issues/1441

sudo chmod 775 /private/var/run/rancher-desktop-lima

Seems to have fixed it…

[planetf1]

I removed again, and this time cleared out all rancher config under Application Support – same error