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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 ?

4
  • 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 "
    – Enterprise
    Jun 30, 2017 at 1:12
  • 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 ? Jun 30, 2017 at 1:17
  • 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.
    – Enterprise
    Jun 30, 2017 at 1:23
  • 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. Jun 30, 2017 at 1:29

4 Answers 4

30

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
3
  • Nice, this was the issue on Solus too! Or in that case, sudo usermod -a -G libvirt [username]
    – Jonas
    Jan 19, 2018 at 21:58
  • 1
    after that you might need to reboot the system May 30, 2019 at 10:09
  • This was the issue on Manjaro as well! sudo usermod -a [username] -G libvirt
    – McSuperbX1
    Apr 30, 2020 at 16:38
15

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.

1
  • 1
    In latest ubuntu the group is libvirt ; (you may need to restart after installing) Jan 9, 2020 at 12:50
11

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

2

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.

1
  • 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.
    – eVagabond
    Jan 13, 2020 at 10:11

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