Skip to content

OrbStack 2.2.2 crashes when the login shell is non-posix compliant (ex. xonsh) #2624

Description

@igalarzab

Describe the bug

After upgrading to OrbStack 2.2.2 today, OrbStack exits with SIGABRT during startup. The VM itself boots, but vmgr fails while probing the user environment through the configured login shell, Xonsh:

/opt/homebrew/bin/xonsh -i -c '/Applications/OrbStack.app/Contents/Frameworks/OrbStack Helper.app/Contents/MacOS/OrbStack Helper' report-env

Both the interactive and non-interactive probes exit with status 1. vmgr then resolves the Docker directory as /docker instead of the user directory and aborts:

panic: mkdir /docker: read-only file system

The same OrbStack command reproduces the Xonsh failure locally. It appears OrbStack assumes POSIX shell command syntax when it invokes the login shell. Xonsh does not accept that quoted command form. The app should either invoke the helper compatibly or handle an unsupported shell gracefully, rather than falling back to /docker and crashing.

I have not changed my login shell or Xonsh setup. The diagnostic report is attached.

To Reproduce

  1. Upgrade to OrbStack 2.2.2.
  2. Configure the macOS account login shell as /opt/homebrew/bin/xonsh.
  3. Start OrbStack.
  4. Observe vmgr failing to read the user environment and then aborting with: panic: mkdir /docker: read-only file system.

Expected behavior

OrbStack should start successfully with Xonsh as the login shell, or fallback to a supported shell (zsh in macOS). It should continue to use the per-user Docker directory rather than falling back to /docker.

Diagnostic report (REQUIRED)

OrbStack info:
Version: 2.2.2
Commit: f44ceb1fc9896f8ae7356bbc4a752266fa381899 (v2.2.2)

System info:
macOS: 26.6 (25G72)
CPU: arm64, 15 cores
CPU model: Apple M5 Pro
Model: Mac17,9
Memory: 48 GiB

Full report: https://orbstack.dev/_admin/diag/orbstack-diagreport_2026-08-03T04-12-02.372897Z.zip

Screenshots and additional context (optional)

No response

Metadata

Metadata

Assignees

No one assigned

    Labels

    t/bugSomething isn't working

    Type

    No type

    Projects

    No projects

    Milestone

    No milestone

    Relationships

    None yet

    Development

    No branches or pull requests

    Issue actions