FAQ.md

FAQs

• FAQs
  • How does Colima compare to Lima?
  • Are M1 macs supported?
  • Can config file be used instead of cli flags?
    • Editing the config
    • Setting the default config
    • Specifying the config editor
  • Docker
    • Can it run alongside Docker for Mac?
    • Docker socket location
      • v0.3.4 or older
      • v0.4.0 or newer
      • Listing Docker contexts
      • Changing the active Docker context
    • Cannot connect to the Docker daemon at unix:///var/run/docker.sock. Is the docker daemon running?
    • How to customize Docker config e.g. add insecure registries?
    • Docker plugins are missing (buildx, scan)
      • Installing Buildx
      • Installing Docker Scan
  • How does Colima compare to minikube, Kind, K3d?
    • For Kubernetes
    • For Docker
  • Is another Distro supported?
    • Enabling Ubuntu layer
    • Accessing the underlying Virtual Machine
  • The Virtual Machine's IP is not reachable
    • Enable reachable IP address
  • How can disk space be recovered?
    • Automatic
    • Manual
  • Are Lima overrides supported?
  • Troubleshooting
    • Colima not starting
      • Broken status
      • FATA[0000] error starting vm: error at 'starting': exit status 1
    • Issues after an upgrade
    • Colima cannot access the internet.

How does Colima compare to Lima?

Colima is basically a higher level usage of Lima and utilises Lima to provide Docker, Containerd and/or Kubernetes.

Are M1 macs supported?

Colima supports and works on both Intel and M1 macs.

Feedbacks would be appreciated.

Can config file be used instead of cli flags?

Yes, from v0.4.0, Colima support YAML configuration file.

Editing the config

colima start --edit

For manual edit, the config file is located at $HOME/.colima/default/colima.yaml.

For other profiles, $HOME/.colima/<profile-name>/colima.yaml

Setting the default config

colima template

For manual edit, the template file is located at $HOME/.colima/_templates/default.yaml.

Specifying the config editor

Set the $EDITOR environment variable or use the --editor flag.

colima start --edit --editor code # one-off config
colima template --editor code # default config

Docker

Can it run alongside Docker for Mac?

Yes, from version v0.3.0 Colima leverages Docker contexts and can thereby run alongside Docker for Mac.

Colima makes itself the default Docker context on startup and should work straight away.

Docker socket location

v0.3.4 or older

Docker socket is located at $HOME/.colima/docker.sock

v0.4.0 or newer

Docker socket is located at $HOME/.colima/default/docker.sock

It can also be retrieved by checking status

colima status

Listing Docker contexts

docker context list

Changing the active Docker context

docker context use <context-name>

Cannot connect to the Docker daemon at unix:///var/run/docker.sock. Is the docker daemon running?

Colima uses Docker contexts to allow co-existence with other Docker servers and sets itself as the default Docker context on startup.

However, some applications are not aware of Docker contexts and may lead to the error.

This can be fixed by any of the following approaches. Ensure the Docker socket path by checking the socket location.

1. Setting application specific Docker socket path if supported by the application. e.g. JetBrains IDEs.

2. Setting the DOCKER_HOST environment variable to point to Colima socket.

   export DOCKER_HOST="unix://${HOME}/.colima/default/docker.sock"

3. Linking the Colima socket to the default socket path. Note that this may break other Docker servers.

   sudo ln -sf $HOME/.colima/default/docker.sock /var/run/docker.sock

How to customize Docker config e.g. add insecure registries?

• v0.3.4 or lower

  On first startup, Colima generates Docker daemon.json file at $HOME/.colima/docker/daemon.json. Modify the daemon.json file accordingly and restart Colima.

• v0.4.0 or newer

  Start Colima with --edit flag.

  colima start --edit

  Add the Docker config to the docker section.

  - docker: {}
  + docker:
  +   insecure-registries:
  +     - myregistry.com:5000
  +     - host.docker.internal:5000

Docker plugins are missing (buildx, scan)

Both buildx and scan can be installed as Docker plugins

Installing Buildx

ARCH=amd64 # change to 'arm64' for m1
VERSION=v0.8.2
curl -LO https://github.com/docker/buildx/releases/download/${VERSION}/buildx-${VERSION}.darwin-${ARCH}
mkdir -p ~/.docker/cli-plugins
mv buildx-${VERSION}.darwin-${ARCH} ~/.docker/cli-plugins/docker-buildx
chmod +x ~/.docker/cli-plugins/docker-buildx
docker buildx version # verify installation

Installing Docker Scan

Install Synk CLI

brew install snyk/tap/snyk

Install Docker Scan

ARCH=amd64 # change to 'arm64' for m1
VERSION=v0.21.0
curl -LO https://github.com/docker/scan-cli-plugin/releases/download/${VERSION}/docker-scan_darwin_${ARCH}
mkdir -p ~/.docker/cli-plugins
mv docker-scan_darwin_${ARCH} ~/.docker/cli-plugins/docker-scan
chmod +x ~/.docker/cli-plugins/docker-scan
mkdir -p ~/.docker/scan
echo "{}" > ~/.docker/scan/config.json # config file required by the docker scan plugin
docker scan --version # verify installation

How does Colima compare to minikube, Kind, K3d?

For Kubernetes

Yes, you can create a Kubernetes cluster with minikube (with Docker driver), Kind or K3d instead of enabling Kubernetes in Colima.

Those are better options if you need multiple clusters, or do not need Docker and Kubernetes to share the same images and runtime.

Colima with Docker runtime is fully compatible with Minikube (with Docker driver), Kind and K3d.

For Docker

Minikube with Docker runtime can expose the cluster's Docker with minikube docker-env. But there are some caveats.

• Kubernetes is not optional, even if you only need Docker.

• All of minikube's free drivers for macOS fall-short in one of performance, port forwarding or volumes. While port-forwarding and volumes are non-issue for Kubernetes, they can be a deal breaker for Docker-only use.

Is another Distro supported?

Colima uses a lightweight Alpine image with bundled dependencies. Therefore, user interaction with the Virtual Machine is expected to be minimal (if any).

However, Colima optionally provides Ubuntu container as a layer.

Enabling Ubuntu layer

• CLI

  colima start --layer=true
  

• Config

  - layer: false
  + layer: true

Accessing the underlying Virtual Machine

When the layer is enabled, the underlying Virtual Machine is abstracted and both the ssh and ssh-config commands routes to the layer.

The underlying Virtual Machine is still accessible by specifying --layer=false to the ssh and ssh-config commands, or by running colima in the SSH session.

The Virtual Machine's IP is not reachable

Reachable IP address is not enabled by default due to slower startup time.

Enable reachable IP address

NOTE: this is only supported on macOS

• CLI

  colima start --network-address
  

• Config

  network:
  -  address: false
  +  address: true

How can disk space be recovered?

Disk space can be freed in the VM by removing containers or running docker system prune. However, it will not reflect on the host on Colima versions v0.4.x or lower.

Automatic

For Colima v0.5.0 and above, unused disk space in the VM is released on startup. A restart would suffice.

Manual

For Colima v0.5.0 and above, user can manually recover the disk space by running sudo fstrim -a in the VM.

# '-v' may be added for verbose output
colima ssh -- sudo fstrim -a

Are Lima overrides supported?

Yes, however this should only be done by advanced users.

Overriding the image is not supported as Colima's image includes bundled dependencies that would be missing in the user specified image.

Troubleshooting

These are some common issues reported by users and how to troubleshoot them.

Colima not starting

There are multiple reasons that could cause Colima to fail to start.

Broken status

This is the case when the output of colima list shows a broken status. This can happen due to macOS restart.

colima list
PROFILE    STATUS     ARCH       CPUS    MEMORY    DISK     RUNTIME    ADDRESS
default    Broken    aarch64    2       2GiB      60GiB

This can be fixed by forcefully stopping Colima. The state will be changed to Stopped and it should start up normally afterwards.

colima stop --force

FATA[0000] error starting vm: error at 'starting': exit status 1

This indicates that a fatal error is preventing Colima from starting, you can enable the debug log with --verbose flag to get more info.

If the log output includes exiting, status={Running:false Degraded:false Exiting:true Errors:[] SSHLocalPort:0} then it is most certainly due to one of the following.

1. Running on a device without virtualization support.
2. Running an x86_64 version of homebrew (and Colima) on an M1 device.

Issues after an upgrade

The recommended way to troubleshoot after an upgrade is to test with a separate profile.

# start with a profile named 'debug'
colima start debug

If the separate profile starts successfully without issues, then the issue would be resolved by resetting the default profile.

colima delete
colima start

Colima cannot access the internet.

Failure for Colima to access the internet is usually down to DNS.

Try custom DNS server(s)

colima start --dns 8.8.8.8 --dns 1.1.1.1

Ping an internet address from within the VM to ascertain

colima ssh -- ping -c4 google.com
PING google.com (216.58.223.238): 56 data bytes
64 bytes from 216.58.223.238: seq=0 ttl=42 time=0.082 ms
64 bytes from 216.58.223.238: seq=1 ttl=42 time=0.557 ms
64 bytes from 216.58.223.238: seq=2 ttl=42 time=0.465 ms
64 bytes from 216.58.223.238: seq=3 ttl=42 time=0.457 ms

--- google.com ping statistics ---
4 packets transmitted, 4 packets received, 0% packet loss
round-trip min/avg/max = 0.082/0.390/0.557 ms