Fix: Recreate container from compose file if removed or running into errors

[nkay08]

Hi,

I had two issues with Winboat when using it on my steam deck. I am using podman and podman-compose installed via brew which works fine.

However, sometimes the podman container gets broken due to the USB passthrough (e.g. when USB devices have been unplugged in the meantime).
When then trying to start the container in Winboat, there is just an endless spinner without error message.
But manually trying to start it shows this:

(deck@steamdeck ~)$ podman ps -a
CONTAINER ID  IMAGE                        COMMAND     CREATED     STATUS                 PORTS                                                                                                                                  NAMES
06cdeee91076  ghcr.io/dockur/windows:5.14              4 days ago  Exited (0) 4 days ago  127.0.0.1:39203->3389/tcp, 127.0.0.1:38997->7148/tcp, 127.0.0.1:37031->7149/tcp, 127.0.0.1:39639->8006/tcp, 127.0.0.1:37213->3389/udp  WinBoat

(deck@steamdeck ~)$ podman start 06cdeee91076
Error: unable to start container "06cdeee9107683c1f2c645dca82cd204d08a9c8d299df2a7c0cf98543d3ecdc5": crun: cannot stat `/dev/bus/usb/001/022`: No such file or directory: OCI runtime attempted to invoke a command that was not found

Additionally, if the container was removed for some reason, Winboat will not detect this on start and show the initial setup screen on start, even though all the files of the windows installation still exist.
When manually starting the container via the compose file, everything works fine again.

So this change includes the following:

1. Detect existing installation files and don't show initial setup screen if there is currently no existing container.
2. Recreate the container if it runs into errors due to USB device mapping
3. Recreate the container from the compose file if installation files exist
4. Don't show endless spinner for some actions if they fail
5. Show error message in GUI if starting of the container fails even after trying to recreate it

These changes are related to:

• [Bug] Winboat can't restart podman machine on its own after USB configuration changes #663
• [Bug] failed to fulfil mount request: open /dev/bus/usb/001/011: no such file or directory #569
• [Bug] Podman and Winboat can't start the container after i removed my keyboard and mouse usb wireless dongle #502
• [Bug] Can't start Windows VM (Loading Infinitely) #591
• [Bug] USB permission error after starting installation on Fedora Silverblue #218
• Fix the following error: crun: cannot stat /dev/bus/usb/00x/00x #533 (<- this change might also be sensible for podman)

[waffles-dev]

Sorry I've not been on top of things.
I like the PR but I'm just raising it to Tibix just to double check a couple of things, hoping we can get it in soon.

[TibixDev]

Hey, just a couple of things before we merge:

• Can you show me how the last container error UI would look visually?
• How would recreating the container help with stale USB device mappings? Is it an issue on Podman's side that they cache the specific mappings even if the entire bus is passed, when you start it, it tries to use said mapping? At least that's the idea that I get from this fix

Other than that good changes, for example I think the guard clauses are a great change so we don't show a loading spinner forever, thanks!

[nkay08]

Hey, just a couple of things before we merge:

* Can you show me how the last container error UI would look visually?

* How would recreating the container help with stale USB device mappings? Is it an issue on Podman's side that they cache the specific mappings even if the entire bus is passed, when you start it, it tries to use said mapping? At least that's the idea that I get from this fix

Other than that good changes, for example I think the guard clauses are a great change so we don't show a loading spinner forever, thanks!

I will try to provide a screenshot of the UI in case of such an error.

Yes, it seems like on podman's side it caches the mappings and fails to start the container again if those have changed.
The error message is similar to this:
2026-01-31 07:11:23 | ERROR | Error: Command failed: podman container start WinBoat Error: unable to start container "ff3b71d6282d8d8ccb951c94583f29053fa68ffc69b0d098c5d0195027f74ef2": crun: cannot stat /dev/bus/usb/001/004: No such file or directory: OCI runtime attempted to invoke a command that was not found
I also tried out another PR #553 which suggests some changes to the compose file and this actually solves this specific problem.

I think both PRs are sensible. PR #553 alleviates this specific podman issue, and my PR introduces container recreation as a fallback.

[nkay08]

This is how the UI for the container error looks like.

[TibixDev]

Do you think you can make it look a little bit nicer and make it have a clickable text for "container logs" that opens up the actual container logs?

[nkay08]

Do you think you can make it look a little bit nicer and make it have a clickable text for "container logs" that opens up the actual container logs?

I can add the function to open the container logs, sure.

To be honest, I am not really sure what defines a "nicer" look (aesthetics is not really my proficiency).
What did you have in your mind?

In the best case this will hopefully be rarely shown to the user.

[nkay08]

Is this maybe more how you imagined it to look like?
(haven't committed the visual changes yet)

[waffles-dev]

Ah - sorry to be annoying, but instead of adding the new box, can you try updating the Container - Unknown text to Container - Failed to Start (check logs) (where logs is the link)?

If it can fit in the one, pre-existing line, it'd be ideal so that we're not pushing the vertical space of that element out.

[nkay08]

Ok got it, so how about this?

I introduced a new ContainerStatus.ERROR in my last commit to make the the condition logic in Home.vue easier, and thus removed the newly added Winboat.lastContainerError again.

(Instead of "Failed to start" it could also just show "Error" like for the other statuses)

P.S. I did a rebase and was initially confused why the added installation detection no longer worked. I very much appreciate to move the WINBOAT_DIR directory to XDG_DATA_HOME. Maybe it is already planned, but could there maybe be an automatic migration from the old location or a message for users that update?

[waffles-dev]

Nice - I'll get Tibix to do a final check of this one.
re. the migration, not sure yet. Might be doing a breaking change for a 1.0