On system startup, libvirtd fails with "Network is already in use" error

Question

I'm configuring a new system to host VMs with libvirtd (AlmaLinux 8.9, 4.18.0-425.13.1.el8; libvirt 8.0.0-10.2) and I'm seeing a weird behavior when I reboot the system.

On boot, libvirtd fails to start with a fatal "Network already in use" error. But then if I log in and manually start it, it fires right up without complaint. I have no idea why that would be. Here's what I'm seeing:

# uptime
 22:52:21 up 11 min,  1 user,  load average: 0.00, 0.02, 0.03
# systemctl status libvirtd
● libvirtd.service - Virtualization daemon
   Loaded: loaded (/usr/lib/systemd/system/libvirtd.service; enabled; vendor preset: enabled)
   Active: inactive (dead) since Wed 2023-03-08 22:42:35 UTC; 9min ago
     Docs: man:libvirtd(8)
           https://libvirt.org
  Process: 1912 ExecStart=/usr/sbin/libvirtd $LIBVIRTD_ARGS (code=exited, status=0/SUCCESS)
 Main PID: 1912 (code=exited, status=0/SUCCESS)

Mar 08 22:40:34 sr650-hv-c2 systemd[1]: Starting Virtualization daemon...
Mar 08 22:40:35 sr650-hv-c2 systemd[1]: Started Virtualization daemon.
Mar 08 22:40:35 sr650-hv-c2 libvirtd[1912]: libvirt version: 8.0.0, package: 10.2.module_el8.7.0+3402+b6326d23 (AlmaLinux Packaging Team <pack>
Mar 08 22:40:35 sr650-hv-c2 libvirtd[1912]: hostname: sr650-hv-c2
Mar 08 22:40:35 sr650-hv-c2 libvirtd[1912]: internal error: Network is already in use by interface vm-bridge
Mar 08 22:42:35 sr650-hv-c2 systemd[1]: libvirtd.service: Succeeded.
# systemctl start libvirtd
# systemctl status libvirtd
● libvirtd.service - Virtualization daemon
   Loaded: loaded (/usr/lib/systemd/system/libvirtd.service; enabled; vendor preset: enabled)
   Active: active (running) since Wed 2023-03-08 22:52:35 UTC; 2s ago
     Docs: man:libvirtd(8)
           https://libvirt.org
 Main PID: 7892 (libvirtd)
    Tasks: 19 (limit: 32768)
   Memory: 15.2M
   CGroup: /system.slice/libvirtd.service
           7892 /usr/sbin/libvirtd --timeout 120

Mar 08 22:52:35 sr650-hv-c2 systemd[1]: Starting Virtualization daemon...
Mar 08 22:52:35 sr650-hv-c2 systemd[1]: Started Virtualization daemon.

Any idea what gives here? I have no idea why this would fail on system startup but succeed just a few minutes later.

Any and all help appreciated.

I was able to get the service to load on system boot, but only by putting in a retry. I'm still unsure as to why it fails the first time but then subsequently succeeds. Guessing a timing issue? — Thomas J. Girsch, Mar 09 '23 at 16:33

On system startup, libvirtd fails with "Network is already in use" error

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