Error in Trellis Vagrant Setup: Parallels Shared Folders Issue - "prl_fs" is not available

trellis
1

I’m using a MacBook pro M1 with Parallels Desktop version 19.2.1, and while I have other Trellis/Bedrock websites running smoothly, I’m encountering an issue with a new installation.

I recently set up a brand new Trellis/Bedrock installation using trellis-cli, and I’m running into an issue when I try to bring up my Vagrant environment with trellis up. I keep encountering this error:

==> default: Mounting shared folders...
    default: /vagrant => /Users/xxx/Documents/xxx/wordpress-websites/xxx.net/trellis
Vagrant was unable to mount Parallels Desktop shared folders. This is usually
because the filesystem "prl_fs" is not available. This filesystem is
made available via the Parallels Tools and kernel module.
Please verify that these guest tools are properly installed in the
guest. This is not a bug in Vagrant and is usually caused by a faulty
Vagrant box. For context, the command attempted was:

mount -t prl_fs -o uid=1000,gid=1000,_netdev vagrant /vagrant

The error output from the command was:

/vagrant: unknown filesystem type 'prl_fs'.
       dmesg(1) may have more information after failed mount system call.

I’ve already tried running vagrant destroy && vagrant up a couple of times, but I keep getting the same issue. It looks like it might be related to the Parallels tools or kernel module not being properly installed.

Has anyone encountered this before or have any suggestions on how to fix this?

Any help or insight would be greatly appreciated!

2

So install or reinstall Parallels Tools prl_fs.

3

I had the same problem, the only way to fix it was to downgrade parallels desktop to version 20.1.3:

Apparently they removed prl_fs from version 20.2 and up

4

thanks @Twansparant , I saw the same topic.

I’m currently using Parallels Desktop 19.2.1, so I don’t believe the issue is related to the version of Parallels.

Can I ask which Vagrant box you’re using? Is it ‘bento/ubuntu-22.04’ or ‘bento/ubuntu-24.04’?

I’ve noticed that when I downgrade to ‘bento/ubuntu-22.04’, the VM provisions successfully; which suggests the problem might be specific to the 24.04 box.

do i need to update Parallels Desktop if I want “bento/ubuntu-24.04” ?

5

Most of my projects still even run on ubuntu 20.04, so don’t think it’s related to the boxes?

6

It could also be related to the fact that I had set the mount type to parallels in my vagrant.local.yml after bumping into this error last year:

vagrant_mount_type: 'parallels'
7

Thanks for the suggestion! I also tried adding vagrant_mount_type: 'parallels' on a brand new project, but I’m still seeing the same error.

As I mentioned earlier, everything works fine when I use the Vagrant box bento/ubuntu-22.04. However, switching to bento/ubuntu-24.04 results in the issue.

I’m not sure if this is due to needing Parallels Desktop version 20 for full compatibility with Ubuntu 24.04, or if it’s unrelated and caused by something else entirely.

8

Did you destroy & re-create the box after changing the vagrant_mount_type?

9

yes, I tried vagrant destroy && vagrant up and I even tried with a brand new one, same error. :frowning:

10

Already suggested above but this thread also points towards parallels tools - `apt-upgrade` leads to failing `vagrant reload` · Issue #390 · Parallels/vagrant-parallels · GitHub

11

I tried to upgrade the Parallels Tools on my VM (following this KB Parallels: How to install Parallels Tools in Linux virtual machine), but I think I am missing a step.

Screenshot 2025-04-14 at 11.51.21
Screenshot 2025-04-14 at 11.51.211149×425 51.3 KB

I got to step 3, I selected prl-tools-lin-arm.iso and connected the image, but I’m not sure how to access the GUI to complete step 4. Maybe this is a stupid question, but I’ve actually never used the GUI in Ubuntu before.

I think the issue is similar to this https://github.com/roots/trellis/issues/1495 , I tried with prl.update_guest_tools = false but no luck :frowning:

12

Maybe this topic helps: prl_fs filesystem not found with latest parallels version (20.2.0) · Issue #483 · Parallels/vagrant-parallels · GitHub