virtiofsd not found even though it is installed

[stkr22]

Great job translating this into something that works on Ubuntu!

I did a fresh install on Ubuntu 24.04. via deb install. It worked fine and I then installed dependencies for isolation but it is still not found:

❯ sudo apt install virtiofsd
[sudo] password for : 
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree... Done
Reading state information... Done
virtiofsd is already the newest version (1.10.0-1).
0 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 0 to remove and 2 not upgraded.

❯ claude-desktop --doctor
Claude Desktop Diagnostics
================================

[PASS] Installed version: 1.1.5749-1.3.17
[PASS] Display server: Wayland (WAYLAND_DISPLAY=wayland-0)
       Desktop: ubuntu:GNOME
       Mode: X11 via XWayland (default, for global hotkey support)
       Tip: Set CLAUDE_USE_WAYLAND=1 for native Wayland
            (disables global hotkeys)
       Menu bar mode: auto (default, Alt toggles visibility)
[PASS] Electron: found at /usr/lib/claude-desktop/node_modules/electron/dist/electron
[PASS] Chrome sandbox: permissions OK (/usr/lib/claude-desktop/node_modules/electron/dist/chrome-sandbox)
[PASS] SingletonLock: no lock file (OK)
[PASS] MCP config: valid JSON (/home//.config/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json)
       MCP servers configured: 0
[PASS] Node.js: v24.14.0
       Path: /usr/bin/node
[PASS] Desktop entry: /usr/share/applications/claude-desktop.desktop
[PASS] Disk space: 668108MB free

Cowork Mode
----------------
[PASS] KVM: accessible
[PASS] vsock: module loaded
[PASS] QEMU: found
[PASS] socat: found
[WARN] virtiofsd: not found
       Fix: sudo apt install virtiofsd
[PASS] bubblewrap: found
       VM image: not downloaded yet
       Cowork isolation: none (host-direct, no isolation)

[ecrevisseMiroir]

You might have it installed in /usr/libexec/virtiofsd . If that's the case then that directory is not part of PATH variable, thus causing the issue. To quickly resolve it you can create a symlink to /usr/bin and it should work.

[stkr22]

That did it, would have expected that this done automatically. Should have check myself, thanks for the fast response.

It detects it now but still chooses Cowork isolation: none (host-direct, no isolation). Am I missing something? In the readme is sounds like it would choose it automatically once everything is satisfied?

[jarrodcolburn]

I believe this is a duplicate. Please check
#287

[stkr22]

Sounds about right, my second issues is probably fixed here... #236

[aaddrick]

Closing this — both issues reported here are addressed:

1. virtiofsd not found: This is a duplicate of fix(doctor): detect virtiofsd installed outside PATH on Debian #287 (virtiofsd installed outside PATH on Debian/Ubuntu). PR fix(doctor): detect virtiofsd installed outside PATH on Debian #287 adds detection of well-known paths like /usr/libexec/virtiofsd. That PR needs a rebase but the fix is coming. In the meantime, the symlink workaround @ecrevisseMiroir suggested works.

2. Cowork isolation: none: This was the auto-launch issue tracked in Cowork VM daemon fails to auto-launch — "VM is not running. Start a conversation first." #236, now fixed. The daemon wasn't starting automatically. Current main has the auto-launch patch plus the full cowork overhaul (PRs fix: resolve Cowork VM 'starting up' blocker (#288) #300, fix: complete cowork KVM backend (bundlePath, hardening) #301, feat: extract smol-bin and plugin shim for Linux Cowork #302).

Both fixes will be in the next release.

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