Add configuration option for storage location

[daniel-lenz]

What are you trying to do?
Option or configuration needed to save instances/images on a custom path.

What's your proposed solution?
Add configuration file or configuration item (multipass set default.image.path=/some/path).

[Saviq]

Hi @daniel-lenz, have a look at #1215, it's now possible through the MULTIPASS_STORAGE environment variable. Moving it to a fully supported setting will be slightly trickier - do we move all the data, or only the images? Do we migrate existing VMs? Need to answer such questions.

[daniel-lenz]

Ok, wow! I'll give it a try now 👍

[daniel-lenz]

Is not working for me setting MULTIPASS_STORAGE in the override.conf is not working:
● snap.multipass.multipassd.service - Service for snap application multipass.multipassd
Loaded: loaded (/etc/systemd/system/snap.multipass.multipassd.service; enabled; vendor preset: enabled)
Drop-In: /etc/systemd/system/snap.multipass.multipassd.service.d
└─override.conf
Active: failed (Result: exit-code) since Sat 2022-01-29 17:34:27 CET; 3s ago
Process: 15170 ExecStart=/usr/bin/snap run multipass.multipassd (code=exited, status=1/FAILURE)
Main PID: 15170 (code=exited, status=1/FAILURE)

Jan 29 17:34:27 notebook systemd[1]: snap.multipass.multipassd.service: Scheduled restart job, restart counter is at 5.
Jan 29 17:34:27 notebook systemd[1]: Stopped Service for snap application multipass.multipassd.
Jan 29 17:34:27 notebook systemd[1]: snap.multipass.multipassd.service: Start request repeated too quickly.
Jan 29 17:34:27 notebook systemd[1]: snap.multipass.multipassd.service: Failed with result 'exit-code'.
Jan 29 17:34:27 notebook systemd[1]: Failed to start Service for snap application multipass.multipassd.

[daniel-lenz]

Now I can not use multipass at all:
launch failed: cannot connect to the multipass socket
Please ensure multipassd is running and '/var/snap/multipass/common/multipass_socket' is accessible
snap info multipass
name: multipass
summary: Instant Ubuntu VMs
publisher: Canonical✓
store-url: https://snapcraft.io/multipass
contact: https://github.com/CanonicalLtd/multipass/issues/new
license: GPL-3.0
description: |
Multipass is a tool to launch and manage VMs on Windows, Mac and Linux that simulates a cloud
environment with support for cloud-init. Get Ubuntu on-demand with clean integration to your IDE
and version control on your native platform.

Launch an instance (by default you get the current Ubuntu LTS)

 multipass launch --name foo

Run commands in that instance, try running bash (logout or ctrl-d to quit)

 multipass exec foo -- lsb_release -a

Pass a cloud-init metadata file to an instance on launch

 multipass launch -n bar --cloud-init cloud-config.yaml

See your instances

 multipass list

Stop and start instances

 multipass stop
 multipass start

Get help

 multipass help

commands:

• multipass.gui
• multipass
  services:
  multipass.multipassd: simple, enabled, inactive
  snap-id: mA11087v6dR3IEcQLgICQVjuvhUUBUKM
  tracking: latest/edge/pr1789
  refresh-date: today at 17:53 CET
  channels:
  latest/stable: 1.8.0 2021-10-27 (6130) 133MB -
  latest/candidate: 1.8.0 2021-12-02 (6286) 133MB -
  latest/beta: ↑
  latest/edge: 1.9.0-dev.346+gbd2f057c 2022-01-27 (6408) 134MB -
  installed: 1.9.0-dev.346+gbd2f057c (6408) 134MB -

[daniel-lenz]

seems to be a permission problem:
snap logs multipass
2022-01-29T18:08:07+01:00 systemd[1]: Stopped Service for snap application multipass.multipassd.
2022-01-29T18:08:07+01:00 systemd[1]: Started Service for snap application multipass.multipassd.
2022-01-29T18:08:07+01:00 multipassd[12691]: Caught an unhandled exception: unable to create directory '/vms/cache'
2022-01-29T18:08:07+01:00 systemd[1]: snap.multipass.multipassd.service: Main process exited, code=exited, status=1/FAILURE
2022-01-29T18:08:07+01:00 systemd[1]: snap.multipass.multipassd.service: Failed with result 'exit-code'.
2022-01-29T18:08:08+01:00 systemd[1]: snap.multipass.multipassd.service: Scheduled restart job, restart counter is at 5.
2022-01-29T18:08:08+01:00 systemd[1]: Stopped Service for snap application multipass.multipassd.
2022-01-29T18:08:08+01:00 systemd[1]: snap.multipass.multipassd.service: Start request repeated too quickly.
2022-01-29T18:08:08+01:00 systemd[1]: snap.multipass.multipassd.service: Failed with result 'exit-code'.
2022-01-29T18:08:08+01:00 systemd[1]: Failed to start Service for snap application multipass.multipassd.

[daniel-lenz]

still getting:
2022-01-29T19:08:50+01:00 multipassd[5492]: Caught an unhandled exception: unable to create directory '/media/cache'

my fstab:
/dev/sda1 on /media type ext4 (rw,relatime)

[daniel-lenz]

dmesg tells me:
[ 24.322499] audit: type=1400 audit(1643480065.310:84): apparmor="DENIED" operation="mkdir" profile="snap.multipass.multipassd" name="/media/cache/" pid=1469 comm="multipassd" requested_mask="c" denied_mask="c" fsuid=0 ouid=0

[Saviq]

@daniel-lenz you need to connect the removable-media interface: sudo snap connect multipass:removable-media. Otherwise confinement won't allow access.

https://snapcraft.io/docs/removable-media-interface

[daniel-lenz]

@Saviq saving multipass data on "/media" worked now, but not on another mount point e.g. "/vms". I also disabled apparmor=0 intermediately in grub defaults and activated it again, rebooted and now I am unsure that apparmor.service is running correctly, so I opened an issue with the apparmor-devs here: https://gitlab.com/apparmor/apparmor/-/issues/212

[daniel-lenz]

ok, apparmor developers checked the service configuration and all looks as it should.
The only thing to do was manually, temporary disable apparmor with adding the grub default parameter "apparmor=0" and reboot. Then multipass service was able to create the directories below my /media-mountpoint.

Afterward removing the parameter "apparmor=0" from grub default and reboot. Multipass works as expected.

Good job!

[Saviq]

Glad to hear. I'll leave it open for the full multipass set local.storage=… experience.

[daniel-lenz]

yeah, great @Saviq keep it coming 👍

[daniel-lenz]

@daniel-lenz you need to connect the removable-media interface: sudo snap connect multipass:removable-media. Otherwise confinement won't allow access.

https://snapcraft.io/docs/removable-media-interface

OMG, shout RTFM to me, my bad! 👍

[cpressland]

Unfortunately it looks like we can no longer set environment variables on macOS using the method described in the documentation.

$ launchctl setenv MULTIPASS_STORAGE "/Volumes/WD2/multipass"
Could not set environment: 150: Operation not permitted while System Integrity Protection is engaged

So that multipass set local.storage= option would be really really helpful for macOS users right about now.

EDIT: As a workaround I've executed the following:

$ launchctl unload /Library/LaunchDaemons/com.canonical.multipassd.plist
$ cd /var/root/Library/Application Support
$ rm -rf multipassd
$ ln -s /Volumes/WD2/multipass/data multipassd
$ launchctl load /Library/LaunchDaemons/com.canonical.multipassd.plist

[huyz]

Same as @cpressland . As of macOS 13.4 (Ventura), it looks like launchctl setenv requires disabling System Integrity Protection. So the docs at https://multipass.run/docs/configure-multipass-storage#heading--macos need to be updated with the symlink workaround (I use /Library/Application\ Support/multipassd/data)

[giuliazanchi]

The workaround is documented in https://multipass.run/docs/configure-multipass-storage