Unable to test podman on mac with provider applehv due to vfkit missing

[adrianriobo]

Issue Description

Trying to start a podman machine on macos with applehv it ends up on error due to missing vfkit binary

Steps to reproduce the issue

Steps to reproduce the issue

1. export CONTAINERS_MACHINE_PROVIDER= applehv
2. podman machine init
3. podman machine start

Describe the results you received

Got an error:

Error: could not find "vfkit" in one of {[/opt/podman/qemu/bin $BINDIR/../libexec/podman /usr/local/opt/podman/libexec/podman /opt/homebrew/opt/podman/libexec/podman /opt/homebrew/bin /usr/local/bin /usr/local/libexec/podman /usr/local/lib/podman /usr/libexec/podman /usr/lib/podman] {<nil>}}.  To resolve this error, set the helper_binaries_dir key in the `[engine]` section of containers.conf to the directory containing your helper binaries.

Describe the results you expected

Podman machine running successfully with applehv provider

podman info output

podman v4.8.2 installed from pkg

Podman in a container

No

Privileged Or Rootless

Rootless

Upstream Latest Release

Yes

Additional environment details

Additional environment details

Additional information

Additional information like issue happens only occasionally or issue happens with a particular architecture or on a particular setting

[benoitf]

hello, for now the podman installer is not installing vfkit

you need to install it on your own using https://github.com/crc-org/vfkit/releases

[rhatdan]

@gbraad @baude @ashley-cui PTAL

[gbraad]

@rhatdan I also noticed this; but it is more a question if when this becomes the default. Adding this to the installer is an easy step.

Note: also need to be signed:
https://github.com/crc-org/crc/blob/c7fcb5a417a3bcf8b3ba312482165b0ea507c853/packaging/darwin/macos-pkg-build-and-sign.sh#L53C1-L53C26

[rhatdan]

I think the goal is podman 5.0

[jfrantzius]

@rhatdan following your advice from #20776 (comment) , I erased anything podman-related from brew (because I also had the frozen applehv machine startup), and used the Podman Desktop .dmg installer.

Does your comment above mean applehv without manually installing vfkit will work only with Podman 5.0 upwards?

[rhatdan]

Yes, that is my understanding.

[jfrantzius]

I'm worrying a bit when applehv will be easily consumable for our developers, as 5.0 sounds a bit far off... Is there perhaps some release planning happening in the open that you are aware of? Maybe 5.0 will then have applehv as default?

On the other hand, I hope brew will still be supported (maybe less appropriate for early testing). Is vfkit then a brew dependency of Podman? I'm asking because I got applehv to start and say hello via brew (before it broke down)

[rhatdan]

podman 5.0 is scheduled for February. There are fixes comming soon for the QEMU issues, I have been told.

[gbraad]

Right, a fix for qemu is on it's way. But for vfkit, we are currently looking at how to handle the inclusion of the vfkit driver binary. @cfergeau and @baude might have more information on how to handle this.

[ashley-cui]

I can take a look at including it in the pkginstaller

[jfrantzius]

Hi @ashley-cui , is vfkit per chance now included in the 4.9 .pkg installer?

[ashley-cui]

@jfrantzius Haven't gotten to it yet, I'll try to get to it asap. In the meantime, VKFit can be installed via

brew tap cfergeau/crc
brew install vfkit

[Luap99]

This is fixed with the 5.0 installers I assume