Lxc containers fail to start

LXD Support
1

Hi,
Might have messed something up in my system, now whenever I try to start a container it fails with the following error :

lxc start u1
Error: Failed to run:  forkstart u1 /var/snap/lxd/common/lxd/containers /var/snap/lxd/common/lxd/logs/u1/lxc.conf: exit status 1
Try `lxc info --show-log u1` for more info

the logs show this :

Name: u1
Status: STOPPED
Type: container
Architecture: x86_64
Created: 2025/08/08 11:58 BST
Last Used: 2025/08/08 12:09 BST

Log:

lxc u1 20250808110903.619 ERROR    cgfsng - ../src/src/lxc/cgroups/cgfsng.c:cgfsng_mount:2417 - No such file or directory - Failed to create cgroup at_mnt 24()
lxc u1 20250808110903.620 ERROR    conf - ../src/src/lxc/conf.c:lxc_mount_auto_mounts:655 - No such file or directory - Failed to mount "/sys/fs/cgroup"
lxc u1 20250808110903.620 ERROR    conf - ../src/src/lxc/conf.c:lxc_setup:3936 - Failed to setup remaining automatic mounts
lxc u1 20250808110903.620 ERROR    start - ../src/src/lxc/start.c:do_start:1273 - Failed to setup container "u1"
lxc u1 20250808110903.620 ERROR    sync - ../src/src/lxc/sync.c:sync_wait:34 - An error occurred in another process (expected sequence number 4)
lxc u1 20250808110903.625 WARN     network - ../src/src/lxc/network.c:lxc_delete_network_priv:3674 - Failed to rename interface with index 0 from "eth0" to its initial name "vethd5493c89"
lxc u1 20250808110903.625 ERROR    lxccontainer - ../src/src/lxc/lxccontainer.c:wait_on_daemonized_start:837 - Received container state "ABORTING" instead of "RUNNING"
lxc u1 20250808110903.625 ERROR    start - ../src/src/lxc/start.c:__lxc_start:2114 - Failed to spawn container "u1"
lxc u1 20250808110903.625 WARN     start - ../src/src/lxc/start.c:lxc_abort:1037 - No such process - Failed to send SIGKILL via pidfd 19 for process 46470
lxc 20250808110903.847 ERROR    af_unix - ../src/src/lxc/af_unix.c:lxc_abstract_unix_recv_fds_iov:218 - Connection reset by peer - Failed to receive response
lxc 20250808110903.847 ERROR    commands - ../src/src/lxc/commands.c:lxc_cmd_rsp_recv_fds:128 - Failed to receive file descriptors for command "get_init_pid"

I’ve removed, (also removed snaps’ snapshots) and reinstalled the LXD snap more than once but still getting the same error.

Anyone got any ideas on how to make sure it’s fully removed from my system, or what else I could try (might try removing snaps service itself and removing all snap related folders before reinstalling stuff.)

2

Hi @bill-s0l,

It’s difficult for me to tell exactly what’s going on here. @amikhalitsyn might have more ideas.

To remove LXD completely, you can snap remove lxd --purge and that should remove anything that is left over. You can also check for any orphaned lxc monitor processes with e.g. ps ax | grep 'lxc monitor'.

Cheers, Mark.

3

thanks for that,
I tried the purge command and still not working,

I even tried installing “incus” in case it was a “snap” issue, but nope getting the exact same error when starting a lxc container

Did a bit of playing around and narrowed it down to only “containers” that are having the issue. If I create things as VMs things run fine.

So it’s a workaround for now till I get around to wiping and reinstalling my Ubuntu Desktop when 25.10 is released or until I can work out what’s borked in my system :smiley: .

Thanks

4

No worries :slight_smile:

Also please take a look at https://documentation.ubuntu.com/lxd/latest/faq/#why-does-starting-containers-suddenly-fail

Containers can sometimes fail to do VPN configuration

Cheers, Mark.

5

Yes this line is commonly caused by a VPN client on the system incorrectly configuring cgroups in an incompatible way.

1 Like
6

Hi Thanks,
Found the solution in another forum, forgot I posted here.
My issue was my Proton VPN client, changed to Mullvad and now things work

1 Like
7

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