[Bug] WINBOAT is reporting that /dev/kvm is missing and kvm is not available.

[goatedpenguin]

What version of WinBoat are you running?

0.8.7

Your Environment

Linux mint Cinnamon DE Free rdp is from flatpak

Note I also have kvm, Vt-d and all the virtualization stuff that you would expect, setup.

Steps to Reproduce / Context

When installing Windows 11 it fails.

Logs

winboatLogs.txt

Expected Behavior

The installer shouldn't say that I don't have kvm and /dev/kvm don't exist when they do.

Current Behavior

The installer is falsely saying that kvm acceleration is disabled and that /dev/kvm is missing

Possible Solution

No response

Quality Notice

• [x] I have checked the issue tracker and verified that this bug is a unique case.

[JEREDEK]

I can also confirm this is the case on my setup. Exact same issue. I have also enabled virtualization and loaded appropriate modules.

Installed using appimage, FreeRDP is from AUR Specs: Garuda Linux x86_64 Kernel Linux 6.17.0-1-mainline KDE Plasma 6.4.5 w/ KWin Intel(R) Core(TM) i5-9600K (6) @ 4.60 GHz GPU AMD Radeon RX 6600 XT [Discrete] Vulkan 1.4.318 - radv [Mesa 25.2.4-arch1.1]

EDIT: included the wrong log file

[Levev]

Could you check what's in your compose? (located under ~/.winboat)

[eSPiYa]

I'm getting the same issue, and I can see that /dev/kvm is in the compose file.

name: "winboat"
volumes:
  data: 
services:
  windows:
    image: "ghcr.io/dockur/windows:5.07"
    container_name: "WinBoat"
    environment:
      VERSION: "11"
      RAM_SIZE: "6G"
      CPU_CORES: "2"
      DISK_SIZE: "200G"
      USERNAME: "<user>"
      PASSWORD: "<password>"
      HOME: "${HOME}"
      LANGUAGE: "English"
      HOST_PORTS: "7149"
      ARGUMENTS: "-qmp tcp:0.0.0.0:7149,server,wait=off"
    cap_add:
      - "NET_ADMIN"
    privileged: true
    ports:
      - "8006:8006"
      - "7148:7148"
      - "7149:7149"
      - "3389:3389/tcp"
      - "3389:3389/udp"
    stop_grace_period: "120s"
    restart: "on-failure"
    volumes:
      - "/home/<user>/winboat:/storage"
      - "/dev/bus/usb:/dev/bus/usb"
      - "./oem:/oem"
    devices:
      - "/dev/kvm"

I'm on CachyOS and /dev/kvm exists on my machine.

[hb-mw]

I had the same issue, and in my case it was caused by Docker Desktop. Docker Desktop uses a different daemon than the native Docker Engine, so the Docker CLI can end up pointing to the wrong socket.

Here’s what worked for me:

1. Make sure the native Docker Engine is installed and running Official guide: https://docs.docker.com/engine/install/

   Verify it’s running:

   sudo systemctl status docker
   

2. List your available Docker contexts

   docker context ls
   

   You’ll likely see something like:

   NAME              DESCRIPTION                               DOCKER ENDPOINT
   default           Current DOCKER_HOST based configuration   unix:///var/run/docker.sock
   desktop-linux *   Docker Desktop                            unix:///home/<user>/.docker/desktop/docker.sock
   

3. Switch between contexts Docker Desktop and Docker Engine each have their own context. Switch manually:

   docker context use default        # Native Docker Engine
   docker context use desktop-linux  # Docker Desktop
   

   Or add simple aliases to your shell (e.g., ~/.bashrc or ~/.zshrc) so switching is easy:

   alias dockernative='docker context use default'
   alias dockerdesktop='docker context use desktop-linux'
   

   Then use:

   dockernative
   

   or

   dockerdesktop
   

After switching to the correct context, it worked without any issues.

[goatedpenguin]

@Levev sorry for the late reply, but for some reason the installations works now...

The only thing I did is reboot my pc for something else???

[Sezxe]

Fix

---

This works on Ubuntu 25.10, I didn't test other distros

1. Download JUST docker engine (Without docker desktop).
2. Open "~/.docker/config.json".
3. Comment out "credsStore": "desktop"" or remove it.
4. Run WinBoat and everything should work normally.

---

[agreulich]

1. Download JUST docker engine (Without docker desktop).
2. Open "~/.docker/config.json".
3. Comment out "credsStore": "desktop"" or remove it.
4. Run WinBoat and everything should work normally.

Thanks!! Worked for me on Ubuntu 24.04 as well, I think the modification in ~/.docker/config.json was what I missed before!

[YounesseAmhend]

Fix

This works on Ubuntu 25.10, I didn't test other distros

1. Download JUST docker engine (Without docker desktop).
2. Open "~/.docker/config.json".
3. Comment out "credsStore": "desktop"" or remove it.
4. Run WinBoat and everything should work normally.

It worked for me also