Box 'laravel/homestead' could not be found

Question

I have downloaded the laravel/homestead box manually from here.

I successfully add the box:

vagrant box add file:///path/to/the/laravel/homestead.box --name 'laravel/homestead'

but when I run vagrant up it says: Box 'laravel/homestead' could not be found even though vagrant box list shows the box.

The download page says that run vagrant init laravel/homestead that generates a vagrantfile but the laravel/homestead repository itself provides a vagrantfile.

I can vagrant up with the vagrantfile that is generated with vagrant init laravel/homestead but it lacks the essential configs inside the laravel/homestead repository's vagrantfile.

This is the vagrantfile that is generated

# -*- mode: ruby -*-
# vi: set ft=ruby :

# All Vagrant configuration is done below. The "2" in Vagrant.configure
# configures the configuration version (we support older styles for
# backwards compatibility). Please don't change it unless you know what
# you're doing.
Vagrant.configure(2) do |config|
  # The most common configuration options are documented and commented below.
  # For a complete reference, please see the online documentation at
  # https://docs.vagrantup.com.

  # Every Vagrant development environment requires a box. You can search for
  # boxes at https://atlas.hashicorp.com/search.
  config.vm.box = "laravel/homestead"

  # Disable automatic box update checking. If you disable this, then
  # boxes will only be checked for updates when the user runs
  # `vagrant box outdated`. This is not recommended.
  # config.vm.box_check_update = false

  # Create a forwarded port mapping which allows access to a specific port
  # within the machine from a port on the host machine. In the example below,
  # accessing "localhost:8080" will access port 80 on the guest machine.
  # config.vm.network "forwarded_port", guest: 80, host: 8080

  # Create a private network, which allows host-only access to the machine
  # using a specific IP.
  # config.vm.network "private_network", ip: "192.168.33.10"

  # Create a public network, which generally matched to bridged network.
  # Bridged networks make the machine appear as another physical device on
  # your network.
  # config.vm.network "public_network"

  # Share an additional folder to the guest VM. The first argument is
  # the path on the host to the actual folder. The second argument is
  # the path on the guest to mount the folder. And the optional third
  # argument is a set of non-required options.
  # config.vm.synced_folder "../data", "/vagrant_data"

  # Provider-specific configuration so you can fine-tune various
  # backing providers for Vagrant. These expose provider-specific options.
  # Example for VirtualBox:
  #
  # config.vm.provider "virtualbox" do |vb|
  #   # Display the VirtualBox GUI when booting the machine
  #   vb.gui = true
  #
  #   # Customize the amount of memory on the VM:
  #   vb.memory = "1024"
  # end
  #
  # View the documentation for the provider you are using for more
  # information on available options.

  # Define a Vagrant Push strategy for pushing to Atlas. Other push strategies
  # such as FTP and Heroku are also available. See the documentation at
  # https://docs.vagrantup.com/v2/push/atlas.html for more information.
  # config.push.define "atlas" do |push|
  #   push.app = "YOUR_ATLAS_USERNAME/YOUR_APPLICATION_NAME"
  # end

  # Enable provisioning with a shell script. Additional provisioners such as
  # Puppet, Chef, Ansible, Salt, and Docker are also available. Please see the
  # documentation for more information about their specific syntax and use.
  # config.vm.provision "shell", inline: <<-SHELL
  #   sudo apt-get update
  #   sudo apt-get install -y apache2
  # SHELL
end

it has this setting:

Vagrant.configure(2) do |config|  
    config.vm.box = "laravel/homestead"
end

I tried to add this to the default laravel/homestead's vagrantfile but it didn't work.

require 'json'
require 'yaml'

VAGRANTFILE_API_VERSION = "2"
confDir = $confDir ||= File.expand_path("~/.homestead")

homesteadYamlPath = confDir + "/Homestead.yaml"
homesteadJsonPath = confDir + "/Homestead.json"
afterScriptPath = confDir + "/after.sh"
aliasesPath = confDir + "/aliases"

require File.expand_path(File.dirname(__FILE__) + '/scripts/homestead.rb')

Vagrant.configure(VAGRANTFILE_API_VERSION) do |config|
    if File.exists? aliasesPath then
        config.vm.provision "file", source: aliasesPath, destination: "~/.bash_aliases"
    end

    if File.exists? homesteadYamlPath then
        Homestead.configure(config, YAML::load(File.read(homesteadYamlPath)))
    elsif File.exists? homesteadJsonPath then
        Homestead.configure(config, JSON.parse(File.read(homesteadJsonPath)))
    end

    if File.exists? afterScriptPath then
        config.vm.provision "shell", path: afterScriptPath
    end

    ## HERE I added the setting ############################################
    config.vm.box = "laravel/homestead"
    ########################################################################
end

What should I do?

Answer 1

The Vagrantfile provided by the laravel/homstead project is more advanced than a generic Vagrantfile that is generated by vagrant init

The Vagrantfile provided by the laravel/homstead project uses some ruby code to assist in setting up the vagrant environment. What we can see from the homestead ruby code is that it is checking that you have a box with a version greater than or equal to 0.4.0:

config.vm.box_version = settings["version"] ||= ">= 0.4.0"

As you added the box manually you will see that it is present on your local machine:

$ vagrant box list
laravel/homestead               (virtualbox, 0)

Note however the number next to the provider is 0. That number is the box version. As the box was added manually the box metadata was not available and by default you will get a version of 0.

When you now do a vagrant up the code is checking if you have a box >= 0.4.0 which you don't have so is why you are getting Box 'laravel/homestead' could not be found. It would then attempt to download the box at the minimal version required.

To circumvent around this you could create a metadata.json file locally in the same directory as your downloaded box file. e.g:

{
    "name": "laravel/homestead",
    "versions": [{
        "version": "0.4.0",
        "providers": [{
            "name": "virtualbox",
            "url": "file:///path/to/homestead.box"
        }]
    }]
}

Then run vagrant box add metadata.json

This will install the box with a version and can be confirmed by:

$ vagrant box list
laravel/homestead               (virtualbox, 0.4.0)

You will now be able to perform vagrant up using your local box.