Unable to Create First Machine with New Download on Windows

[AllanHall]

Issue Description

This is my first time working with Podman. I downloaded a fresh exe of the most recent version 5.0.1. Downloaded the newest version of WSL. As well as windows terminal per the documentation. After restarting everything I am unable to run podman machine init to create a machine with the following error:

Error: unable to load machine config file: "json: cannot unmarshal string into Go struct field MachineConfig.ImagePath of type define.VMFile"

I found a similar issue that was closed here #22144 but it focused more on trying to upgrade from a previous version of Podman so I created a new issue. As I am a brand new user, I am just trying to make my first machine. Any guidance on trying to find a fix for a new user or downloading a previous version to get started is appreciated.

Steps to reproduce the issue

Steps to reproduce the issue

1. Download and Install Podman 5.0.1 exe for windows
2. Install newest WSL version 2.1.5.0
3. Install Windows Terminal
4. Reboot
5. Run podman machine init

Describe the results you received

Error: unable to load machine config file: "json: cannot unmarshal string into Go struct field MachineConfig.ImagePath of type define.VMFile"

Describe the results you expected

The init command will install a minimal installation of Fedora, customizing it to run podman. Able to create first machine.

podman info output

OS: windows/amd64
provider: wsl
version: 5.0.1

Podman in a container

No

Privileged Or Rootless

None

Upstream Latest Release

Yes

Additional environment details

No response

Additional information

No response

[baude]

can you ls on C:\Users\Ahall\.config/containers/podman/machine/wsl ? if there is only one JSON file in there, can you paste its contents (preferably do not paste as a picture)

[FritzsHero]

Content of podman-machine-default.json

{
 "ConfigPath": "C:\\Users\\Username\\.config\\containers\\podman\\machine\\wsl\\podman-machine-default.json",
 "Created": "2023-12-12T08:29:41.9944601+01:00",
 "ImageStream": "testing",
 "ImagePath": "C:\\Users\\Username\\.local\\share\\containers\\podman\\machine\\wsl\\podman-machine-default_fedora-podman-amd64-v39.0.2.tar",
 "LastUp": "2024-03-28T23:43:50.3886254+01:00",
 "Name": "podman-machine-default",
 "Rootful": true,
 "IdentityPath": "C:\\Users\\Username\\.ssh\\podman-machine-default",
 "Port": 49961,
 "RemoteUsername": "user",
 "Version": 3,
 "UserModeNetworking": false
}

Getting the same error on Win10, Podman 5.0.1 and Podman Desktop 1.8.0

[lazka]

edit: Oh, I noticed this is specifically about new installations, which I don't have, so feel free to ignore my comment.

Same problem here, using a self built podman though:

$ podman --version
podman.exe version 5.0.1
$ podman machine reset
Error: unable to load machine config file: "json: cannot unmarshal string into Go struct field MachineConfig.ImagePath of type define.VMFile"

{
 "ConfigPath": "C:\\Users\\user\\.config\\containers\\podman\\machine\\wsl\\podman-machine-default.json",
 "Created": "2023-02-13T22:05:19.4946104+01:00",
 "ImageStream": "35",
 "ImagePath": "C:\\Users\\user\\.local\\share\\containers\\podman\\machine\\wsl\\podman-machine-default_fedora-podman-amd64-v36.0.124.tar",
 "LastUp": "2024-04-01T12:01:39.3473492+02:00",
 "Name": "podman-machine-default",
 "Rootful": false,
 "IdentityPath": "C:\\Users\\user\\.ssh\\podman-machine-default",
 "Port": 62950,
 "RemoteUsername": "user",
 "Version": 3,
 "UserModeNetworking": false
}

4.9.3 works fine though.

It would be nice if at least deleting and resetting the old machines would work.

[alisonatwork]

Yeah for upgrade flow it is the same problem described in #22144. A few people have posted workarounds, but it's pretty fiddly to fix.

[AllanHall]

I had installed Podman Desktop the day before and completely deleted it - thinking I removed everything related to start fresh on 5. However, it looks like the VM still remained and it was picking up those remnants when trying to init a new machine. I needed to run podman machine rm to finish cleaning up. I believe this can be closed as its the same issue alisonatwork described above.