container doesn't work in compose with PGID env var

[sanyer]

Despite what it says in readme, PGID is very much being used and will be set to 1000 if not overwritten in environment

[mbround18]

🛡️ Security: Migration to Rootless Design

To follow security best practices, this image has been moved to a rootless design. This means the container no longer runs as root by default. While this is a big win for security, it might require a quick tweak to your configuration to handle volume permissions correctly.

For the most reliable experience, we recommend explicitly setting the user directive to match your host user (usually 1000:1000). Here is how to implement that across different platforms:

Platform	Implementation
Docker Compose	Add user: "1000:1000" to your service
Docker Run	Use the --user 1000:1000 flag
Kubernetes	Define runAsUser: 1000 in your securityContext

Quick Tip: If you aren't sure what your IDs are, run id -u and id -g on your host machine to find the correct numbers to use!

[HexVertex]

The user thing doesn't seem to work on my end. Changing user to 1001:1001 results in

valheim-1  | INFO odin: Valheim Server - Wed Feb 18 01:44:31 PM CET 2026
valheim-1  | INFO odin: Initializing your container...
valheim-1  | whoami: cannot find name for user ID 1001
valheim-1 exited with code 1 (restarting)

Edit: Additionally setting both PUID and PGID (Which still seem to affect STEAM_UID and STEAM_GID respectively) and mounting volume mapping for /etc/passwd and /etc/group (read-only) seems to work around the issue, but I don't think it's really a solution.

[mbround18]

@HexVertex guides and all information ahs been reworked around rootless design

https://github.com/mbround18/valheim-docker/blob/main/docs/tutorials/group_file_system_access.md

https://github.com/mbround18/valheim-docker/blob/main/docs/tutorials/rootless_design.md

[HexVertex]

Thanks for linking the guides.
Though, doing as it states, removing the modifications I specified in the edit, with the new latest image just gives me the following.

valheim-1  | INFO odin: Valheim Server - Fri Feb 20 09:24:41 AM CET 2026
valheim-1  | INFO odin: Initializing your container...
valheim-1  | INFO odin: Runtime user: uid:1001
valheim-1  | INFO odin: Runtime uid: 1001
valheim-1  | INFO odin: Runtime gid: 1001
valheim-1  | INFO odin: Steam uid: 111
valheim-1  | INFO odin: Steam gid: 1000
valheim-1  | INFO odin: Skipping privileged command (no sudo/root): ln -snf /usr/share/zoneinfo/Europe/Amsterdam /etc/localtime
valheim-1  | INFO odin: Skipping privileged command (no sudo/root): sh -c printf "%s\n" "$1" > /etc/timezone sh Europe/Amsterdam
valheim-1  | (standard_in) 1: syntax error
valheim-1  | INFO odin: Total memory: 15i GB
valheim-1  | INFO odin: Setting up file systems
valheim-1  | INFO odin: Skipping privileged command (no sudo/root): chown -R 1001:1001 /home/steam
valheim-1  | INFO odin: Skipping privileged command (no sudo/root): chmod -R ug+rwx /home/steam
valheim-1  | INFO odin: Skipping privileged command (no sudo/root): mkdir -p /tmp
valheim-1  | INFO odin: Skipping privileged command (no sudo/root): chown root:root /tmp
valheim-1  | INFO odin: Skipping privileged command (no sudo/root): chmod 1777 /tmp
valheim-1  | mkdir: cannot create directory ‘/home/steam’: Permission denied
valheim-1 exited with code 1 (restarting)

Note that my current (host) user is named steam as well. This is perhaps what causes the mount of passwd and group to "solve" the issue as it appears to remap the steam user in the container from 111:1000 to 1001:1001, which is the host user. PUID and PGID indeed do not seem to have an effect on their own.

[Rowr21]

I am experiencing the exact same issue, the folders are being created as root:

services:
  valheim:
    image: mbround18/valheim:latest
    user: "1001:100"
    stop_signal: SIGINT
    volumes:
      - /tank/valheim/saves:/home/steam/.config/unity3d/IronGate/Valheim
      - /tank/valheim/server:/home/steam/valheim
      - /tank/valheim/backups:/home/steam/backups
    ports:
      - "2459-2461:2456-2458/udp"
    environment:
      - |
        MODS=Advize-PlantEasily-2.0.3
        Advize-PlantEverything-1.20.0
    env_file:
      - stack.env
    restart: unless-stopped
    stop_grace_period: 2m

This created the volumes with the following permissions:

root@nc28:/tank# ls -ld valheim
drwxr-sr-x 5 root root 5 Mar  4 10:36 valheim

I ran chmod -R 1001:100 for /valheim and chown -R 775 and I still get the same error as when it was created by root:

INFO odin: Runtime user: uid:1001

INFO odin: Runtime uid: 1001

INFO odin: Runtime gid: 100

INFO odin: Steam uid: 111

INFO odin: Steam gid: 1000

INFO odin: Skipping privileged command (no sudo/root): ln -snf /usr/share/zoneinfo/Europe/London /etc/localtime

INFO odin: Skipping privileged command (no sudo/root): sh -c printf "%s\n" "$1" > /etc/timezone sh Europe/London

(standard_in) 1: syntax error

INFO odin: Total memory: 62i GB

INFO odin: Setting up file systems

INFO odin: Skipping privileged command (no sudo/root): chown -R 111:1000 /home/steam

INFO odin: Skipping privileged command (no sudo/root): chmod -R ug+rwx /home/steam

INFO odin: Skipping privileged command (no sudo/root): mkdir -p /tmp

INFO odin: Skipping privileged command (no sudo/root): chown root:root /tmp

INFO odin: Skipping privileged command (no sudo/root): chmod 1777 /tmp

mkdir: cannot create directory ‘/home/steam’: Permission denied

If I remove "user", the server starts correctly without problem