Run podman machine init inside a container

[mcherb]

Hi
Is it possible to run podman machine init inside a container ?

I want to get a socket running in the background to run my tests but I'm stock.

I've followed this post for running a socket without systemd but it's not working neither

Here an exemple of my image

FROM quay.io/podman/stable

RUN yum install -y java-17-openjdk-devel

ENV JAVA_HOME=/etc/alternatives/jre_17

ENV GRADLE_USER_HOME="/home/podman/.gradle"
#
USER podman
RUN mkdir ${GRADLE_USER_HOME} \
    && chmod -R 755 ${GRADLE_USER_HOME}

COPY . /app

USER root
RUN rm -rf /app/.gradle
RUN mkdir -p /app/.gradle
RUN chmod -R 777 /app

podman --remote info gives me

OS: linux/arm64
provider: qemu
version: 5.2.3

Cannot connect to Podman. Please verify your connection to the Linux system using `podman system connection list`, or try `podman machine init` and `podman machine start` to manage a new Linux VM
Error: unable to connect to Podman socket: Get "http://d/v5.2.3/libpod/_ping": dial unix /tmp/storage-run-1000/podman/podman.sock: connect: no such file or directory: unix:///tmp/storage-run-1000/podman/podman.sock

And podman info

host:
  arch: arm64
  buildahVersion: 1.37.3
  cgroupControllers:
  - cpuset
  - cpu
  - io
  - memory
  - hugetlb
  - pids
  - rdma
  cgroupManager: cgroupfs
  cgroupVersion: v2
  conmon:
    package: conmon-2.1.12-2.fc40.aarch64
    path: /usr/bin/conmon
    version: 'conmon version 2.1.12, commit: '
  cpuUtilization:
    idlePercent: 97.9
    systemPercent: 0.61
    userPercent: 1.48
  cpus: 12
  databaseBackend: sqlite
  distribution:
    distribution: fedora
    variant: container
    version: "40"
  eventLogger: file
  freeLocks: 2048
  hostname: 5480d6740b72
  idMappings:
    gidmap:
    - container_id: 0
      host_id: 1000
      size: 1
    - container_id: 1
      host_id: 1
      size: 999
    - container_id: 1000
      host_id: 1001
      size: 64535
    uidmap:
    - container_id: 0
      host_id: 1000
      size: 1
    - container_id: 1
      host_id: 1
      size: 999
    - container_id: 1000
      host_id: 1001
      size: 64535
  kernel: 6.4.16-linuxkit
  linkmode: dynamic
  logDriver: k8s-file
  memFree: 333737984
  memTotal: 4116799488
  networkBackend: netavark
  networkBackendInfo:
    backend: netavark
    dns:
      package: aardvark-dns-1.12.2-2.fc40.aarch64
      path: /usr/libexec/podman/aardvark-dns
      version: aardvark-dns 1.12.2
    package: netavark-1.12.2-1.fc40.aarch64
    path: /usr/libexec/podman/netavark
    version: netavark 1.12.2
  ociRuntime:
    name: crun
    package: crun-1.17-1.fc40.aarch64
    path: /usr/bin/crun
    version: |-
      crun version 1.17
      commit: 000fa0d4eeed8938301f3bcf8206405315bc1017
      rundir: /tmp/storage-run-1000/crun
      spec: 1.0.0
      +SYSTEMD +SELINUX +APPARMOR +CAP +SECCOMP +EBPF +CRIU +LIBKRUN +WASM:wasmedge +YAJL
  os: linux
  pasta:
    executable: /usr/bin/pasta
    package: passt-0^20240906.g6b38f07-1.fc40.aarch64
    version: |
      pasta 0^20240906.g6b38f07-1.fc40.aarch64-pasta
      Copyright Red Hat
      GNU General Public License, version 2 or later
        <https://www.gnu.org/licenses/old-licenses/gpl-2.0.html>
      This is free software: you are free to change and redistribute it.
      There is NO WARRANTY, to the extent permitted by law.
  remoteSocket:
    exists: false
    path: /tmp/storage-run-1000/podman/podman.sock
  rootlessNetworkCmd: pasta
  security:
    apparmorEnabled: false
    capabilities: CAP_CHOWN,CAP_DAC_OVERRIDE,CAP_FOWNER,CAP_FSETID,CAP_KILL,CAP_NET_BIND_SERVICE,CAP_SETFCAP,CAP_SETGID,CAP_SETPCAP,CAP_SETUID,CAP_SYS_CHROOT
    rootless: true
    seccompEnabled: true
    seccompProfilePath: /usr/share/containers/seccomp.json
    selinuxEnabled: false
  serviceIsRemote: false
  slirp4netns:
    executable: ""
    package: ""
    version: ""
  swapFree: 550944768
  swapTotal: 1073737728
  uptime: 11h 10m 6.00s (Approximately 0.46 days)
  variant: v8
plugins:
  authorization: null
  log:
  - k8s-file
  - none
  - passthrough
  - journald
  network:
  - bridge
  - macvlan
  - ipvlan
  volume:
  - local
registries:
  search:
  - registry.fedoraproject.org
  - registry.access.redhat.com
  - docker.io
store:
  configFile: /home/podman/.config/containers/storage.conf
  containerStore:
    number: 0
    paused: 0
    running: 0
    stopped: 0
  graphDriverName: overlay
  graphOptions: {}
  graphRoot: /home/podman/.local/share/containers/storage
  graphRootAllocated: 251647299584
  graphRootUsed: 68903428096
  graphStatus:
    Backing Filesystem: extfs
    Native Overlay Diff: "true"
    Supports d_type: "true"
    Supports shifting: "false"
    Supports volatile: "true"
    Using metacopy: "false"
  imageCopyTmpDir: /var/tmp
  imageStore:
    number: 1
  runRoot: /tmp/storage-run-1000/containers
  transientStore: false
  volumePath: /home/podman/.local/share/containers/storage/volumes
version:
  APIVersion: 5.2.3
  Built: 1727136000
  BuiltTime: Tue Sep 24 00:00:00 2024
  GitCommit: ""
  GoVersion: go1.22.7
  Os: linux
  OsArch: linux/arm64
  Version: 5.2.3

[mayndi15]

Running podman machine init inside a container is not ideal due to the need for virtualization support. One solution would be to run Podman directly on the host and expose the socket to the container

[mayndi15]

You can try to configure Podman in rootless mode inside the container, see if the Podman execution directory is configured with the XDG_RUNTIME_DIR variable, maybe you have network and file system limitations
Instead of using podman machine, try to run containers with Podman rootless directly, without depending on the creation of a virtual machine

[mayndi15]

You can also use Kubernetes to orchestrate your containers. Starting a Pod directly in the cluster and
running your tests in batches using Jobs in Kubernetes, I typically use it for temporary runs and testing tasks

[mcherb]

I'm running the container with this docker command :

docker run --security-opt seccomp=unconfined --security-opt label=disable --device /dev/fuse -it --rm --user podman my-podman:latest

Is this what you mean by rootless ?

I've triyed to run the sockets this way but i think it's not working correctly

podman system service --time=0 unix:///tmp/podman.sock &

Like mentionned here https://stackoverflow.com/a/77685096/8325761

[mayndi15]

Check if the podman user inside the container has permissions to create and write to the /tmp/podman.sock file
ls -l /tmp
Set XDG_RUNTIME_DIR
export XDG_RUNTIME_DIR=/run/user/$(id -u)
And try running again like this
podman system service --time=0 unix://$XDG_RUNTIME_DIR/podman.sock &

[mayndi15]

Maybe this tutorial will help more https://github.com/containers/podman/blob/main/docs/tutorials/rootless_tutorial.md