How to troubleshoot / debug "lxc_init failed to run lxc.hook.pre-start for container ###"?

 Are you seeing this error while starting your Proxmox container?

lxc_init: 797 Failed to run lxc.hook.pre-start for container "###"

__lxc_start: 1896 Failed to initialize container "###"

Here is the command to find out more (debug to LOG) what is going on...

lxc-start -n ### -F -lDEBUG -o your_log_file.log

replace the ### with your Container ID 

then examine the content of 'your_log_file.log'

cat your_log_file.log

Output of log file:

In my case my container failed to start because I ran out of disk space (disk quota limit exceeded). here is the content of my log file:

lxc-start: 157: conf.c: run_buffer: 323 Script exited with status 1

lxc-start: 157: start.c: lxc_init: 797 Failed to run lxc.hook.pre-start for container "157"

lxc-start: 157: start.c: __lxc_start: 1896 Failed to initialize container "157"

lxc-start: 157: tools/lxc_start.c: main: 308 The container failed to start

lxc-start: 157: tools/lxc_start.c: main: 314 Additional information can be obtained by setting the --logfile and --logpriority options

root@e8:/etc/pve/lxc# ls

157.conf  164.conf  168.conf  176.conf lxc-157.log

root@e8:/etc/pve/lxc# cat lxc-157.log

lxc-start 157 20211103125836.780 INFO     lsm - lsm/lsm.c:lsm_init:29 - LSM security driver AppArmor

lxc-start 157 20211103125836.788 INFO     conf - conf.c:run_script_argv:340 - Executing script "/usr/share/lxc/hooks/lxc-pve-prestart-hook" for container "157", config section "lxc"

lxc-start 157 20211103125837.708 DEBUG    conf - conf.c:run_buffer:312 - Script exec /usr/share/lxc/hooks/lxc-pve-prestart-hook 157 lxc pre-start produced output: unable to open file '/fastboot.tmp.32694' - Disk quota exceeded

lxc-start 157 20211103125837.714 DEBUG    conf - conf.c:run_buffer:312 - Script exec /usr/share/lxc/hooks/lxc-pve-prestart-hook 157 lxc pre-start produced output: error in setup task PVE::LXC::Setup::pre_start_hook

lxc-start 157 20211103125837.723 ERROR    conf - conf.c:run_buffer:323 - Script exited with status 1

lxc-start 157 20211103125837.731 ERROR    start - start.c:lxc_init:797 - Failed to run lxc.hook.pre-start for container "157"

lxc-start 157 20211103125837.739 ERROR    start - start.c:__lxc_start:1896 - Failed to initialize container "157"

lxc-start 157 20211103125837.747 INFO     conf - conf.c:run_script_argv:340 - Executing script "/usr/share/lxcfs/lxc.reboot.hook" for container "157", config section "lxc"

lxc-start 157 20211103125838.259 INFO     conf - conf.c:run_script_argv:340 - Executing script "/usr/share/lxc/hooks/lxc-pve-poststop-hook" for container "157", config section "lxc"

lxc-start 157 20211103125839.156 ERROR    lxc_start - tools/lxc_start.c:main:308 - The container failed to start

lxc-start 157 20211103125839.163 ERROR    lxc_start - tools/lxc_start.c:main:314 - Additional information can