Install Podman on WSL2

podman_on_wsl2.md

Install Podman on Windows Subsystem for Linux 2 (WSL2)

This guide allows a safe and rootless installation of Podman on WSL2. Head over the hyperlinks to discover more about these two wonderful technologies!

This guide assumes that Debian 11 "bullseye" is installed as WSL2 base OS. To do it, simply open your Windows Powershell console under Admin rights and run

PS> wsl install -d Debian

After installation, please check that you are under the latest Debian. If not, please upgrade it.

Now, open a Debian terminal window and execute the following commands:

# sudo apt update
# sudo apt install -y podman

To test out if Podman was installed successfully, execute podman info. Notice an error like the following one:

ERRO[0000] unable to write system event: "write unixgram @00002->/run/systemd/journal/socket: sendmsg: no such file or directory"

To fix it and make sure that Podman works without issues in WSL2, just execute the following commands:

$ mkdir -p $HOME/.config/containers/
$ cp /usr/share/containers/containers.conf $HOME/.config/containers/

Now, please edit $HOME/.config/containers/containers.conf with a text editor and ensure the following lines are set correctly:

cgroup_manager = "cgroupfs"
events_logger = "file"

To test out changes, execute podman info again. The error is now gone! Podman is now ready to be used for rootless containers!

Sources

• Podman Installation
• How to run Podman on Windows with WSL2

Awesome, thanks for the short tutorial, it works perfectly

Thanks - very much appreciated!

Minor correction - this line is missing the filename:

Now, please edit `$HOME/.config/containers/` with a text editor and ensure the following lines are set correctly:

It should be

Now, please edit `$HOME/.config/containers/containers.conf` with a text editor and ensure the following lines are set correctly:

Thanks - very much appreciated!

Minor correction - this line is missing the filename:

Now, please edit `$HOME/.config/containers/` with a text editor and ensure the following lines are set correctly:

It should be

Now, please edit `$HOME/.config/containers/containers.conf` with a text editor and ensure the following lines are set correctly:

Fixed. Thanks for noticing it out!