Windows podman installation without admin rights

[JayDoubleu]

Feature request description

I'm using Windows 11 and have WSL2 installed. I downloaded Podman Desktop, which I was able to run without admin rights. However, when I open Podman Desktop, it tries to install Podman, which requires admin rights. I would like to use podman on windows with wsl2 without having to use admin rights.

Suggest potential solution

• Provide instructions on how to install WSL2 and Podman using non-privileged commands on Windows 11, so that Podman Desktop can connect to it without requiring a separate Podman installation.
• Suggest changes to the Podman installer so that it does not request administrator rights during installation.

Have you considered any alternatives?

A clear and concise description of any alternative solutions or features you've considered.

Additional context

Add any other context or screenshots about the feature request here.

[baude]

If i remember correctly, you can use Podman, WSL, and Windows without administrative privileges. HyperV does require it. I believe the requirement is coming from Podman Desktop and therefore the issue should be filed against their github. I'll try and move the issue.

[JayDoubleu]

@baude Are we sure this does not belong to containers/podman ?
It is podman installer what's requesting the admin rights after all.

Podman Desktop is flagging that Podman is missing. The Podman installer then requests admin rights.

I assume that if the Podman installer allowed non-privileged installation, I could initiate the WSL distro using the Podman machine command, which should then satisfy Podman Desktop?

[jeffmaury]

Should be move to containers/podman but admin rights are required because WSL installation/update may be required

[JayDoubleu]

@jeffmaury Is there any script that I can run to just create WSL distro with necessary components ?
I already have all of the WSL requirements installed and I can install any distro without admin rights so I believe I should be able to provision a distro with podman on it

[jeffmaury]

Not that I am aware but you should ask on the podman repository

[JayDoubleu]

PS. This is currently excluding podman to be installed on devices in organisations with CE+ certifications

[l0rd]

Podman installer on Windows indeed requires admin privileges. By default the installer copies podman binaries in C:/Program Files/RedHat/Podman and adds the key HKLM:\SOFTWARE\Red Hat\Podman in Windows registy. Those are operations that require admin privileges.

That said, using podman machine (podman machine init and podman machine start) require admin privileges when podman is configured to use Hyper-V but not when it's configured to use WSL.

[l0rd]

A workaround, If you want to install podman on Windows without requiring admin privileges, is to download podman-remote-release-windows_amd64.zip from Podman release page and copy the binaries from the folder /usr/bin in the zip file to a directory that's in $env:PATH.

[JayDoubleu]

Ok, so this seems to work well for me. As per your advice @l0rd:

1. Downloaded podman-remote-release-windows_amd64.zip from the Podman release page.
2. Moved the three binaries from within the usr/ directory to C:\Users\<username>\AppData\Local\Microsoft\WindowsApps, which seems to be the default local $env:PATH.
3. I was able to execute podman commands in PowerShell.
4. Ran podman machine init - It downloaded the tar.gz file and installed the "podman-machine-default" WSL distro.
5. Ran podman machine start to start the WSL instance.
6. I was then able to run the latest Podman Desktop, and Podman was detected without any issues.

It would be great to have end-to-end local installation option available within installer itself 👍

[l0rd]

It would be great to have end-to-end local installation option available within installer itself 👍

I agree @JayDoubleu. This is something that can be improved. On the other hand, when prioritizing this issue, we have to consider how widespread this problem is. I suspect that we didn't get this request earlier because most Windows users are ok to run installers that require admin privileges.

Anyway thank you for reporting this issue and for testing the workaround that I have suggested.

[JayDoubleu]

It's true; I happened to be testing Podman as a Docker replacement on a corporate device, so I'm happy to perform some testing if and when this gets prioritized.

One of the reasons why Podman is considered here is its rootless aspect (although it's inside a WSL2 microVM, so it's already running in userspace). The idea of running Docker/Podman entirely without admin rights might be very appealing to companies with CE+ certifications where each admin access request is scrutinized.

[github-actions]

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