How do I run this as a specific user?

[Martmists-GH]

I've got other stuff set up using nobody:services (or 64434:1001), but attemping to use this tool with that user results in an error:

Starting container with revision: 07f5a2b9aea5028c9bb75438c1552708e91dde71
TRANSMISSION_HOME is currently set to: /config/transmission-home
Creating TUN device /dev/net/tun
mkdir: cannot create directory '/dev/net': Permission denied

However, if I don't run the container under a different user, all files it creates are owned by root:root.

I also tried adding --device /dev/net/tun but then it errors with

rm: cannot remove '/dev/net/tun': Permission denied

[emk2203]

My docker-compose.yml contains the lines

    - PUID=65533
    - PGID=65533

for a user called media in the group media (65533:65533).

Outside the container, I added this user to the system and also gave them ownership of the data and config directories, 775 for data and 755 for config. No further changes iirc. My main user is member of the media group.

This works for me.

[Martmists-GH]

Like I said, it fails to create /dev/net/tun for me when I specify a uid/gid

[emk2203]

But you didn't say that. What you said is

I've got other stuff set up using nobody:services (or 64434:1001), but attemping to use this tool with that user ...

which for me doesn't sound like you used the offered mechanism of PUID/GUID.

• What system are you running this on?
• How do you start the container, what's your docker-compose.yml or what docker start command?
• What are the permissions on /dev/net/ and /dev/net/tun?
• Is there a stale /dev/net/tun already in the /dev hierarchy?

There are lots of things you didn't write, which make it difficult to help.

[Martmists-GH]

"attemping to use this tool with that user" implies setting uid/gid. I'm running on Arch Linux, running through the docker cli:

docker run --cap-add=NET_ADMIN -d
               -v /plex/tmp/:/plex/tmp
               -v /opt/transmission/:/config
               -v /data/vpn/:/etc/openvpn/custom/
               -e OPENVPN_PROVIDER=custom
               -e OPENVPN_CONFIG=mart  # custom vpn
               -e OPENVPN_USERNAME=mart
               -e LOCAL_NETWORK=192.168.0.0/16
               -e TRANSMISSION_DOWNLOAD_DIR=/plex/tmp
               -e TRANSMISSION_INCOMPLETE_DIR=/plex/tmp/incomplete
               -e TRANSMISSION_RATIO_LIMIT=0
               -e TRANSMISSION_RATIO_LIMIT_ENABLED=true
               -e TRANSMISSION_PORT_FORWARDING_ENABLED=true
               --log-driver json-file
               --log-opt max-size=10m
               -p 9091:9091
               --user 65534:1001
               --restart always
               haugene/transmission-openvpn

/dev/net and /dev/net/tun permissions are whatever their system defaults are.

[emk2203]

"attemping to use this tool with that user" implies setting uid/gid.

See, this is where the issue is. You don't want to use docker run ... --user 65534:1001. This runs the container as the specified user, which is not what you want. Your specified user doesn't have the permission to create the /dev/net/tun device node. Either use root or your standard user if they have docker permissions.

The way transmission works is that it runs as a different user, without container it would be the user:group 987:987. In the container, it runs as the user abc. PUID/PGID means process UID/GID for the specific transmission instance.

Drop your --user 65534:1001 and use the PUID:PGID like I did (I also run this on Arch) and it should work.