minikube: minikube start - Error starting host, machine does not exist

Vitals: Windows 7 x64 minikube v0.7.1

Behavior:

BMarks@BMARKS-LT MINGW64 /c/Users/BMarks
$ minikube delete
Deleting local Kubernetes cluster...
Machine deleted.

BMarks@BMARKS-LT MINGW64 /c/Users/BMarks
$ rm -fr ~/.minikube/

BMarks@BMARKS-LT MINGW64 /c/Users/BMarks
$ minikube start
Starting local Kubernetes cluster...
E0805 13:03:09.591146    6184 start.go:78] Error starting host:  Error getting state for host: machine does not exist

The frustrating thing is that I had minikube up and running earlier with no problems before deleting, but now no matter what I do I always get this error.

About this issue

  • Original URL
  • State: closed
  • Created 8 years ago
  • Reactions: 49
  • Comments: 60 (3 by maintainers)

Most upvoted comments

On macOS Sierra rm -rf ~/.minikube fixed it for me. After that, minikube start worked as expected.

minikube version v0.12.0

@bmarks-mylo could you run “minikube delete”, then attach the output of “minikube start --show-libmachine-logs”?

I managed to solve a similar issue(see PR #431) on OSX 10.11 by removing the cached ISO manually:

rm ~/.minikube/cache/iso/minikube-0.5.iso

Then I downloaded a new ISO:

minikube start --iso-url="https://storage.googleapis.com/minikube/minikube-0.5.iso"

[SOLVED]

I get the following error: $ minikube start E0116 01:49:45.855208 2991 start.go:102] Error starting host: Error getting state for host: machine does not exist

And, I solved doing :

$ minikube delete .

I only did:

$ rm -rf ~/.minikube $ minikube start

And it worked for me.

Ooooh, I think I got it. First of all I just learned, that Windows can handle Forward Slashes to navigate thru paths. Maybe it is because of the Shell extensions I installed with Git, but however. The trick is to be on the correct drive.

C:\Windows> cd /Users
C:\Users>
D:\Developer>cd /Users
The system cannot find the path specified.

I was always testing minikube while being on the D: drive, this is why it was not working. So the solution was not to use PowerShell, it was to be on the drive the Users directory is located on. After the first start the location does not seem to matter anymore. Maybe it is only a problem during the Virtualbox setup.

Same situation for me (Win 7 x64), minikube 0.7.1, VirtualBox 5.0.16. I removed .minikube folder completely and then:

>minikube start --iso-url="https://storage.googleapis.com/minikube/minikube-0.5.iso" --show-libmachine-logs --alsologtostderr
Starting local Kubernetes cluster...
Creating CA: C:\Users\xxx\.minikube\certs\ca.pem
Creating client certificate: C:\Users\xxx\.minikube\certs\cert.pem
Running pre-create checks...
Creating machine...
(minikubeVM) Downloading C:\Users\xxx\.minikube\cache\boot2docker.iso from file://C:/Users/xxx/.minikube/cache/iso/minikube-0.5.iso...
I0815 10:36:26.070738    9076 cluster.go:68] Machine exists!
I0815 10:36:26.155255    9076 cluster.go:76] Machine state:  Error
I0815 10:36:26.155755    9076 cluster.go:68] Machine exists!
I0815 10:36:26.236771    9076 cluster.go:76] Machine state:  Error
E0815 10:36:26.236771    9076 start.go:78] Error starting host:  Error getting state for host: machine does not exist

Also:

BMarks@BMARKS-LT MINGW64 /c/Users/BMarks
$ minikube delete
Deleting local Kubernetes cluster...
Machine deleted.

BMarks@BMARKS-LT MINGW64 /c/Users/BMarks
$ minikube start --show-libmachine-logs
Starting local Kubernetes cluster...
Running pre-create checks...
Creating machine...
(minikubeVM) Downloading H:\.minikube\cache\boot2docker.iso from file://H:/.minikube/cache/iso/minikube-0.5.iso...
E0805 13:17:21.087411    3788 start.go:78] Error starting host:  Error getting state for host: machine does not exist

$ rm -rf ~/.minikube Worked for me.
Thanx @carldowns

FWIW, I had the same error but my situation was caused by changing the minikube VM setup in VirtualBox UI.

My steps to rebuild minikube:

Delete the location there minikube downloads its ISO:

$ rm -rf ~/.minikube

update brew and reinstall minikube

$ brew update $ brew cask reinstall minikube

start minikube. The ISO is pulled down as ~/.minikube is rebuilt.

$ minikube start

I am able to reproduce the error with OSX 10.11 and Minikube v0.7.1

just delete the previous created cluster $ minikube delete and then start the new cluster $ minikube start

on macOS high siera and kubernetes version 1.10.0 had the same problem. you should delet the cashed minikube ISO files rm -rf ~/.minikube after run minikube start

On Windows, I got to pass by run:

minikube delete

before:

minikube start

I’m also having this problem when starting, I’ve tried to delete the rm -rf ~/.minikube and run minikube start

$ minikube start
Starting local Kubernetes cluster...
Starting VM...
E0330 15:09:14.275923   19010 start.go:113] Error starting host: Error starting stopped host: Error setting up host only network on machine start: The host-only adapter we just created is not visible. This is a well known VirtualBox bug. You might want to uninstall it and reinstall at least version 5.0.12 that is is supposed to fix this issue.

 Retrying.
E0330 15:09:14.276755   19010 start.go:119] Error starting host:  Error starting stopped host: Error setting up host only network on machine start: The host-only adapter we just created is not visible. This is a well known VirtualBox bug. You might want to uninstall it and reinstall at least version 5.0.12 that is is supposed to fix this issue

When checking for virtualbox cfgs;

VBoxNetAdpCtl: Error while adding new interface: VBoxNetAdpCtl: ioctl failed for /dev/vboxnetctl: Inappropriate ioctl for devic.

Result Code:
NS_ERROR_FAILURE (0x80004005)
Component:
HostNetworkInterfaceWrap
Interface:
IHostNetworkInterface {455f8c45-44a0-a470-ba20-27890b96dba9}

vbox version: Version 5.1.14 r112924 (Qt5.5.1) minikube version: minikube version: v0.17.1

$ kubectl version
Client Version: version.Info{Major:"1", Minor:"6", GitVersion:"v1.6.0", GitCommit:"fff5156092b56e6bd60fff75aad4dc9de6b6ef37", GitTreeState:"clean", BuildDate:"2017-03-28T16:36:33Z", GoVersion:"go1.7.5", Compiler:"gc", Platform:"linux/amd64"}

kernel: Linux 4.8.0-44-generic #47~16.04.1-Ubuntu SMP Wed Mar 22 18:51:56 UTC 2017 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux

@r2dr Just because no one created a test case for this issue doesn’t mean it doesn’t have to be fixd. It is not acceptable for any package to not be able to find it’s own config directory, especially one that IT JUST CREATED. Why would the script assume it knows where the user profile is when it is so easy to just ask the system? Please re-open the issue. It is not “resolved”. There are half a dozen various workarounds, none of which work for everyone. I’ll be happy to make a test case for you.

OS: Windows, all supported versions Environment: fresh environment, Virtaul Box installed, VT-x/AMD-v enabled, minikube and kubectl in path Step 1: cd d Step 2: minikube start

Results: Error starting host: Error creating host: Error executing step: Creating VM. : open /Users/<user>/.minikube/cache/iso/minikube-v0.25.1.iso: The system cannot find the path specified…

Expected Results: Minikube started

Observatios: <UserHome>/.minikube folder exists, iso was just downloaded there, but system still can’t find it.

I’ve managed to fix this by not using virtualbox … so, installing KVM, removing old installation and start minikube with KVM: Install libvirt and qemu-kvm on your system

sudo curl -L https://github.com/dhiltgen/docker-machine-kvm/releases/download/v0.7.0/docker-machine-driver-kvm -o /usr/local/bin/docker-machine-driver-kvm
sudo chmod +x /usr/local/bin/docker-machine-driver-kvm
sudo apt install libvirt-bin qemu-kvm

Add yourself to the libvirtd group (use libvirt group for rpm based distros) so you don’t need to sudo

sudo usermod -a -G libvirtd $(whoami)

Update your current session for the group change to take effect

newgrp libvirtd

remove the old installation
rm -rf ~/.minikube

Start it again with KVM

minikube start --vm-driver kvm
Starting local Kubernetes cluster...
Starting VM...
Downloading Minikube ISO
 89.26 MB / 89.26 MB [==============================================] 100.00% 0s
SSH-ing files into VM...
Setting up certs...
Starting cluster components...
Connecting to cluster...
Setting up kubeconfig...
Kubectl is now configured to use the cluster.

Cheers.

Make Sure you are running as root or administrator.

brew is not a solution on Windows for which OS this issue was opened for

@pmentz Bingo, this works for me too!

Our company has some insane policy that our profile/home directory needs to be a drive mounted to some network share and it has created some serious headaches. So depending on the software and whether you are on the network half your profile is in H:\ and the other is in C:\users<username>. I’ll just add this issue to the list. </rant>

I’m had the same issue with Windows 10 Pro, a couple of days ago, for me it’s helps to run the cmd/powershell as administrator to getting minikube started.

@r2d4 - Sorry, I have to disagree. The “solution” is a workaround. This issue is still present and very easy to replicate.

Open a powershell / cmd on Windows. Change directory to a drive that is not the same drive where the “Users” directory is located and try install minikube. You end up with the error “system cannot find the path specified”. I ran into this issue now. My 2c.

@kevin-smets you rock. That worked for me even though I’m on El Capitan. Thank

With minikube 0.8.0 I got the following message:

>minikube start
Starting local Kubernetes cluster...
E0818 09:45:09.801671    9656 start.go:83] Error starting host: Error creating. Error creating machine: Error in driver during machine creation: open /Users/xxx/.minikube/cache/iso/minikube-0.6.iso: The system cannot find the path specified.. Retrying.
E0818 09:45:09.907671    9656 start.go:83] Error starting host: Error getting state for host: machine does not exist. Retrying.
E0818 09:45:09.998171    9656 start.go:83] Error starting host: Error getting state for host: machine does not exist. Retrying.
E0818 09:45:09.998171    9656 start.go:89] Error starting host:  Error creating. Error creating machine: Error in driver during machine creation: open /Users/xxx/.minikube/cache/iso/minikube-0.6.iso: The system cannot find the path specified.
Error getting state for host: machine does not exist
Error getting state for host: machine does not exist

which looks akward, as minikube uses *nix paths for my user directory, like it is detecting the wrong environment. I previously did all my tests in cmd and bash, so I switched to the Windows PowerShell and there it was able to setup minikube appropriately and everything seems to work just fine.

I am able to reproduce the issue in Mac Os Mojave.

Performed the below 2 steps. No more issue.

  1. Remove the existing .minicube folder. api:~ Neel$ rm -rf .minikube

  2. Start the minikube api:~ Neel$ /usr/local/bin/minikube start

    Starting local Kubernetes v1.13.2 cluster… Starting VM… Downloading Minikube ISO 181.48 MB / 181.48 MB [============================================] 100.00% 0s Getting VM IP address… Moving files into cluster… Downloading kubeadm v1.13.2 Downloading kubelet v1.13.2 Finished Downloading kubeadm v1.13.2 Finished Downloading kubelet v1.13.2 Setting up certs… Connecting to cluster… Setting up kubeconfig… Stopping extra container runtimes… Starting cluster components… Verifying kubelet health … Verifying apiserver health … Kubectl is now configured to use the cluster. Loading cached images from config file.

Everything looks great. Please enjoy minikube!

Ooooh, I think I got it. First of all I just learned, that Windows can handle Forward Slashes to navigate thru paths. Maybe it is because of the Shell extensions I installed with Git, but however. The trick is to be on the correct drive.

C:\Windows> cd /Users
C:\Users>
D:\Developer>cd /Users
The system cannot find the path specified.

I was always testing minikube while being on the D: drive, this is why it was not working. So the solution was not to use PowerShell, it was to be on the drive the Users directory is located on. After the first start the location does not seem to matter anymore. Maybe it is only a problem during the Virtualbox setup.

@pmentz Thanks. I started to install the minikube on the d drive. After I uninstalled it and reinstalled it in the c drive, it worked fine.

[SOLVED]

I get the following error: $ minikube start E0116 01:49:45.855208 2991 start.go:102] Error starting host: Error getting state for host: machine does not exist

And, I solved doing :

$ minikube delete .

This solved my issue…Thanks

I’m getting the same issue on Windows 7. Previously I ran Powershell as an administrator, and today I have forgotten to run as administrator so minikube cannot start and display the message “machine does not exists”. Once i restart Powershell and ran as administrator, this works.

@thomasmodeneis this is an old issue which has long been resolved - minikube has been passing all tests on windows platforms for many versions now. If you’re still having issues with minikube on windows, please open up a different issue.

OP was able to resolve their particular issue with https://github.com/kubernetes/minikube/issues/459#issuecomment-240796185

brew cask install virtualbox also solved my issue on macOS Sierra 10.12.5 and Minikube v0.20.0 I wasn’t able to make it work with xhyve driver

If you are on another drive on Windows you will also get path does not exit error. E.g. D

D:\tmp> minikube start
...
Creating machine...
(minikube) Downloading C:\Users\username\.minikube\cache\boot2docker.iso from file://C:/Users/username/.minikube/cache/iso/minikube-0.7.iso...
E1121 10:09:18.183406    3616 start.go:92] Error starting host: Error creating host: Error creating machine: Error in driver during machine creation: open /Users/username/.minikube/cache/iso/minikube-0.7.iso: The system cannot find the path specified.. Retrying.

I was hoping that would work @dastergon but I get the same thing.

BMarks@BMARKS-LT MINGW64 /c/Users/BMarks
$ ls -lrth ~/.minikube/cache/iso/
total 36M
-rw-r--r-- 1 BMarks 1049089 36M Aug 11 08:42 minikube-0.5.iso

BMarks@BMARKS-LT MINGW64 /c/Users/BMarks
$ rm ~/.minikube/cache/iso/minikube-0.5.iso

BMarks@BMARKS-LT MINGW64 /c/Users/BMarks
$ minikube start --iso-url="https://storage.googleapis.com/minikube/minikube-0.5.iso"
Starting local Kubernetes cluster...
E0811 08:44:25.324392    8032 start.go:78] Error starting host:  Error getting state for host: machine does not exist