Group 'libvirtd' does not exist while installing QEMU-KVM

server permissions virtualization kvm

37,160

Solution 1

I had the same problem and for me the solution was to manually create the libvirtd group:

sudo addgroup libvirtd
sudo adduser YOURUSERNAME libvirtd

After that: virt-manager started without telling me to add myself to the libvirtd group anymore.

Solution 2

The issue is about the name of the group. On Ubuntu, the group name should be "libvirt" ...without "d".

so your command should be:

sudo adduser `id -un` libvirt

Solution 3

The group was renamed to libvirt for Ubuntu 16.10 and later. It's in the Ubuntu Server Guide

Solution 4

I faced the same issue on ubuntu 17.04 Desktop

Workaround:

In a terminal enter:

sudo apt install virt-manager

and then

sudo virt-manager

if you try to start virt-manager using Unity GUI
Application > virt-manager
it won't work because your current user does not have the requisite permissions.

View more solutions

37,160

Arnabjyoti Kalita

Computer Science.

Updated on September 18, 2022

Comments

Arnabjyoti Kalita over 1 year
I am using Ubuntu 17.04 and linux kernel 4.11.3 on a server. The system operates on x86-64 architecture.

I was using the Ubuntu documentation to install KVM linked here Install KVM.

I have encountered a problem while installing it. I see that the installation of libvirt-bin did not install the group libvirtd in my system.

Edit : I see that the below groups have been created possibly after the installation -
```
akalita@######:~$ cat /etc/group

kvm:x:120:
libvirt:x:121:#######
libvirt-qemu:x:64055:libvirt-qemu
```
I still cannot find the group libvirtd.

So when I go on to run the below command as per the documentation -
```
sudo adduser `id -un` libvirtd
```
I get the below error :-
```
adduser: The group `libvirtd' does not exist.
```
How can I resolve this issue ?
- Admin almost 7 years
  
  Per the instructions, did you "relogin so that your user becomes an effective member of the libvirtd group" ?. Recently I had a similar issue on Ubuntu 17.x. For some reason, it did not "
- Admin almost 7 years
  
  Hi @PJSingh the thing is I cannot see the group libvirtd itself. So I am not able to add my username to that group Does this mean I need to relogin again to see the group appear ?
- Admin almost 7 years
  
  OK, always worth checking, though. The instructions say, "but not 14.04 LTS", so I presume the instructions work for 9.10 up to 13.10, only. May be there is something different you need to do for releases after 14.04, but I don't have experience with QEMU-KVM; hopefully someone else will provide some insight to your question.
- Admin almost 7 years
  
  Yes, @PJSingh, I checked and relogged in. The group still does not exist. You are probably right - for releases with and beyond 14.04 - it is likely that instruction is probably not working.
Jonas over 6 years

Nice, this was the issue on Solus too! Or in that case, sudo usermod -a -G libvirt [username]
Vitaly Zinchenko almost 5 years

after that you might need to reboot the system
Alex Punnen over 4 years

In latest ubuntu the group is libvirt ; (you may need to restart after installing)
eVagabond over 4 years

Yes that's because to run virt-manager you seem to need 'root privilege', but that don't seem to be the case while trying to access virt-manager from the Application menu. Even from the terminal, if you just enter virt-manager, you will get similar error. It only works when you enter sudo virt-manager.
McSuperbX1 about 4 years

This was the issue on Manjaro as well! sudo usermod -a [username] -G libvirt