Runner start fails: expects system containerd instead of starting its own
Bug
miren runner start immediately crashes trying to connect to a system-level containerd socket that doesn't exist on a fresh runner VM.
Error
ERROR: failed to connect to containerd: connection error: desc = "transport: Error while dialing: dial unix:///run/containerd/containerd.sock: timeout"
The runner is looking for containerd at /run/containerd/containerd.sock (the standard system path), but runner VMs don't have containerd installed separately. The server binary manages its own embedded containerd at /var/lib/miren/containerd/containerd.sock — the runner should do the same.
Expected behavior
miren runner start should start its own embedded containerd (same as miren server does), not depend on a pre-existing system containerd.
Reproduction
- Fresh Ubuntu 24.04 VM with miren installed (
main:d01bdb3) - Successfully join the coordinator:
miren runner join -c <coordinator>:8443 - Start the runner:
miren runner start - Immediate crash with containerd connection error
- Crash-loops via systemd restart
Environment
- Runner: miren-garden-runner-1 (
main:d01bdb3, 2026-03-26) - Coordinator: miren-garden (
main:d01bdb3) - GCP project: miren-development
- OS: Ubuntu 24.04 LTS, no system containerd installed