toolbox: configuring working container: toolbox: failed to create user root with UID 0

[pojntfx]

I just ran into this:

[pojntfx@thinkpadx1c3 k3s]$ toolbox create
toolbox: configuring working container: toolbox: failed to create user root with UID 0

Verbose output shows this:

[pojntfx@thinkpadx1c3 k3s]$ toolbox -v create
toolbox: Fedora generational core is f30
toolbox: base image is fedora-toolbox:30
toolbox: customized user-specific image is fedora-toolbox-root:30
toolbox: container is fedora-toolbox-root-30
toolbox: checking value /var/run/.heim_org.h5l.kcm-socket (Stream) of property Listen in sssd-kcm.socket
toolbox: parsing value /var/run/.heim_org.h5l.kcm-socket (Stream) of property Listen in sssd-kcm.socket
toolbox: checking if image fedora-toolbox-root:30 already exists
Error: error getting image "fedora-toolbox-root:30": unable to find a name and tag match for fedora-toolbox-root in repotags: no such image
toolbox: looking for image localhost/fedora-toolbox:30
toolbox: looking for image registry.fedoraproject.org/f30/fedora-toolbox:30
toolbox: base image fedora-toolbox:30 resolved to registry.fedoraproject.org/f30/fedora-toolbox:30
toolbox: trying to create working container toolbox-working-container-4a35bbfc-7242-11e9-9d8e-605718bba94a
toolbox: trying to configure working container toolbox-working-container-4a35bbfc-7242-11e9-9d8e-605718bba94a
useradd: user 'root' already exists
toolbox: failed to create user root with UID 0

Any idea what might be happening here? This is quite annoying and has been a bug from the point at which I've installed the system (Fedora Silverblue 30).

[debarshiray]

What are the outputs of:

$ echo $USER
$ id -ru

Do you happen to be running toolbox create as root by any chance?

[pojntfx]

Actually, I was! This is the output without root:

[pojntfx@thinkpadx1c3 ~]$ echo $USER
pojntfx

[pojntfx@thinkpadx1c3 ~]$ id -ru
1000

If I try to run toolbox create without root, the following error is being thrown:

[pojntfx@thinkpadx1c3 ~]$ toolbox create
toolbox: failed to pull base image fedora-toolbox:30

And with -v:

[pojntfx@thinkpadx1c3 ~]$ toolbox -v create
toolbox: Fedora generational core is f30
toolbox: base image is fedora-toolbox:30
toolbox: customized user-specific image is fedora-toolbox-pojntfx:30
toolbox: container is fedora-toolbox-pojntfx-30
toolbox: checking value /var/run/.heim_org.h5l.kcm-socket (Stream) of property Listen in sssd-kcm.socket
toolbox: parsing value /var/run/.heim_org.h5l.kcm-socket (Stream) of property Listen in sssd-kcm.socket
toolbox: checking if image fedora-toolbox-pojntfx:30 already exists
Error: error getting image "fedora-toolbox-pojntfx:30": unable to find a name and tag match for fedora-toolbox-pojntfx in repotags: no such image
toolbox: looking for image localhost/fedora-toolbox:30
ERRO[0000] exit status 1                                
toolbox: looking for image registry.fedoraproject.org/f30/fedora-toolbox:30
ERRO[0000] exit status 1                                
toolbox: failed to pull base image fedora-toolbox:30

This is quite cryptic to me, as the system is able to pull the images as root.

[debarshiray]

The inability to pull sounds like containers/buildah#1504

What do you get for rpm -q buildah on your host OS?

[pojntfx]

This is the output:

[pojntfx@thinkpadx1c3 ~]$ rpm -q buildah
buildah-1.7-18.git873f001.fc30.x86_64

I've just updated my system, but the following error still persists:

[pojntfx@thinkpadx1c3 ~]$ toolbox create
Image required to create toolbox container.
Download registry.fedoraproject.org/f30/fedora-toolbox:30 (500MB)? [y/N]: y
toolbox: failed to pull base image fedora-toolbox:30

And with -v:

[pojntfx@thinkpadx1c3 ~]$ toolbox -v create
toolbox: resolved absolute path for /usr/bin/toolbox to /usr/bin/toolbox
toolbox: TOOLBOX_PATH is /usr/bin/toolbox
toolbox: Fedora generational core is f30
toolbox: base image is fedora-toolbox:30
toolbox: customized user-specific image is fedora-toolbox-pojntfx:30
toolbox: container is fedora-toolbox-pojntfx-30
toolbox: checking value /var/run/.heim_org.h5l.kcm-socket (Stream) of property Listen in sssd-kcm.socket
toolbox: parsing value /var/run/.heim_org.h5l.kcm-socket (Stream) of property Listen in sssd-kcm.socket
toolbox: checking if image fedora-toolbox-pojntfx:30 already exists
toolbox: looking for image localhost/fedora-toolbox:30
ERRO[0000] exit status 1                                
toolbox: looking for image registry.fedoraproject.org/f30/fedora-toolbox:30
Image required to create toolbox container.
Download registry.fedoraproject.org/f30/fedora-toolbox:30 (500MB)? [y/N]: y
toolbox: pulling image registry.fedoraproject.org/f30/fedora-toolbox:30
ERRO[0000] exit status 1                                
toolbox: failed to pull base image fedora-toolbox:30

After some debugging, I think I've found out the root cause of the problem; a wrongly configured ${HOME}/.docker/config.json. As a "solution", I've simply deleted ${HOME}/.docker. It now works! Thanks for all the help.

[debarshiray]

Wow, I'd have never expected ~/.docker/config.json to have a role in this.

[pojntfx]

Yes, it's quite weird indeed. I've used the snap version of Docker for some time and I've used my own Docker registry, I guess that has been the problem. Found that out by pulling the mage manually with podman.

[debarshiray]

I see, but Toolbox doesn't use Docker at all. Only Podman. :)

[pojntfx]

Exactly. Is it possible that Podman has read the Docker config file and thus has failed?