colima start hangs, colima status returns error retrieving current runtime: empty value, Docker socket never created (macOS arm64)

[EmeAsm]

Description

On macOS arm64, colima start appears to start a VM but never reaches a usable Docker runtime.

Symptoms:

• colima list shows profile as Running
• colima status fails with:
  • error retrieving current runtime: empty value
• Docker socket is never created at:
  • ~/.colima/default/docker.sock
• docker --context colima ... fails because socket is missing

I also see repeated daemon log lines:

• waiting for VM to start (every 5s)

And in VM serial logs, cloud-final.service fails, with cloud-init exiting non-zero during provisioning.

Version

• Colima: 0.10.1
• git commit: ed905203afdbc6fd4eae6cc301918099ff31e86e
• qemu-img: 11.0.0
• Lima: 2.1.1
• Host architecture: arm64
• macOS:
  • ProductVersion: 26.2
  • BuildVersion: 25C56

Operating System

• macOS Intel <= 13 (Ventura)
• macOS Intel >= 14 (Sonoma)
• Apple Silicon <= 13 (Ventura)
• Apple Silicon >= 14 (Sonoma)
• Linux

Output of colima status

...
time="..." level=fatal msg="error retrieving current runtime: empty value"

Reproduction Steps

1. Install/upgrade Colima and Lima with Homebrew:

   brew install colima lima
   # or
   brew upgrade colima lima
   

2. Remove any existing Colima profile:

   colima delete -f
   

3. Start Colima with Docker runtime:

   colima start --runtime docker
   

   (Issue is also reproducible with both --vm-type vz and --vm-type qemu.)

4. After startup completes (or appears to hang), run:

   colima status
   colima list
   docker --context colima ps
   ls ~/.colima/default/docker.sock
   

5. Observe:

   • colima status returns: error retrieving current runtime: empty value
   • colima list may still show profile as Running
   • ~/.colima/default/docker.sock is missing
   • Docker commands against colima context fail

Expected behaviour

No response

Additional context

No response

[sidoverflow]

seeing the same behaviour on macOS 15.7.3