EDIT: tldr - I was having issues creating a VM using Virtual Machine Manager on Bazzite Linux. Several responders chimed in that it’s likely because I’m using the flatpak version of VMM. I probably still could make it work on Bazzite somehow, perhaps w/ the help of distrobox, but instead I’ve fired up a VM on an old laptop running Linux Mint and everything is smooth sailing. Thanks to all who took some time to help me find a solution.
Original body:
Background: I’m looking to set up a virtual Debian server using Virtual Machine Manager, but I’m stuck on creating my first VM. I’m running Bazzite on my host machine if that makes any difference.
Steps to Reproduce the Issue:
- Launch Virtual Machine Manager.
- Click File > New Virtual Machine, which opens the “New VM - Step 1” window.
- Select “Local install media” and click Forward, which brings me to “New VM - Step 2.”
- Click “Browse…” which opens the “Locate ISO media volume” window:
- Click “Browse Local,” which opens the file browser.
- Choose ISO file (in my case, I’m using
debian-12.11.0-amd64-netinst.iso) and click Select, which returns me to the “New VM - Step 2” window. - Because the OS is not detected automatically, I uncheck the “Automatically detect from the installation media / source” checkbox, start typing the word “debian” in the text box above it, and select Debian 12 from the pop-up selection menu.
- Click Forward.
Actual behavior:
Input Error - Error setting installer parameters. Validating install media ‘/run/user/1000/doc/c0a3c3fc/debian-12.11.0-amd64-netinst.iso’ failed. Could not start storage pool: cannot open directory ‘/run/usr/1000/doc/c0a3c3fc’: Permission denied.
Expected behavior: Create the VM and boot into the ISO that I selected in previous steps.
What am I doing wrong? Thanks!
Well, what are the permissions of /run/usr/1000/doc/c0a3c3fc and what user are you running VMM as?
Here are the results of some commands that I believe answer your questions. When I run the
lscommand against that directory, it says no such file or directory. Could this have something to do w/ the fact that Virtual Machine Manager is running as a flatpak? (as the other commenter @[email protected] has hinted)Here’s what I tried:
myusername@fedora:~$ ls -la /run/usr/1000/doc ls: cannot access '/run/usr/1000/doc': No such file or directorymyusername@fedora:~$ ps aux | grep virt-manager myusername 17995 0.0 0.0 3688 2048 ? S 13:05 0:00 /usr/bin/bwrap --args 40 -- virt-manager myusername 18011 0.0 0.0 3788 1396 ? S 13:05 0:00 /usr/bin/bwrap --args 40 -- virt-manager myusername 18013 1.5 0.3 889968 101424 ? Sl 13:05 0:00 python3 /app/bin/virt-manager myusername 18147 0.0 0.0 230340 2224 pts/0 S+ 13:06 0:00 grep --color=auto virt-managerEDIT: I got past this issue by opening up Flatseal and granting access to all system files for Virtual Machine Manager; however, now I’m getting stuck on another permission issue after I choose how much RAM, CPU, and disk space to allocate. Reference my response to @[email protected]’s comment.
WOW, yes, your problem is almost certainly Flatpak-related. I’m surprised you even got as far as you did. Flatpak is often great but does not tend to play well with applications that need less common capabilities.
I’d recommend installing VMM in a different way if that’s an option for you; I expect that will likely make your problem go away.