Unable to connect Windows client to WSL 2-hosted Podman

[fuglede]

Is this a BUG REPORT or FEATURE REQUEST? (leave only one on its own line)

/kind bug

Description

I've been following this guide to get Podman up and running on WSL 2 (Ubuntu); everything works like a charm.

I then wanted to combine that with this other guide on using a Windows client to access the WSL 2-hosted Podman but start running into a few issues:

• systemctl --user enable podman.socket does not produce any errors but at the same time, /run/user is empty, so I'm wondering if it does what it's supposed to.
• sudo loginctl enable-linger $USER fails since, well, there's no systemd:

System has not been booted with systemd as init system (PID 1). Can't operate.
Failed to create bus connection: Host is down

• podman --remote info tells me that there's no socket:

Error: cannot connect to the Podman socket, please verify that Podman REST API service is running: Get "http://d/v3.2.3/libpod/_ping": dial unix ///tmp/podman-run-1000/podman/podman.sock: connect: no such file or directory

On the client side, the SSH connection works as expected, but with no socket to point it to, I guess there's no hope of getting it up and running; in particular, using the socket from podman info on WSL 2 through something like

podman system connection add wsl2 --identity C:\users\myuser\.ssh\id_wsl2 ssh://[email protected]:2222/tmp/podman-run-1000/podman/podman.sock

gives rise to the following issue on podman info:

> podman info
Error: cannot connect to the Podman socket, please verify that Podman REST API service is running: Get "http://d/v3.3.1/libpod/_ping": ssh: rejected: connect failed (open failed)

So this all boils down to:

What's the intended way, if any, to connect a Windows client to WSL 2-hosted Podman?

Output of podman version:

$ podman version
Version:      3.2.3
API Version:  3.2.3
Go Version:   go1.15.2
Built:        Thu Jan  1 01:00:00 1970
OS/Arch:      linux/amd64

Output of podman info --debug:

host:
  arch: amd64
  buildahVersion: 1.21.3
  cgroupControllers: []
  cgroupManager: cgroupfs
  cgroupVersion: v1
  conmon:
    package: 'conmon: /usr/libexec/podman/conmon'
    path: /usr/libexec/podman/conmon
    version: 'conmon version 2.0.27, commit: '
  cpus: 12
  distribution:
    distribution: ubuntu
    version: "20.04"
  eventLogger: file
  hostname: myhostname
  idMappings:
    gidmap:
    - container_id: 0
      host_id: 1000
      size: 1
    - container_id: 1
      host_id: 100000
      size: 65536
    uidmap:
    - container_id: 0
      host_id: 1000
      size: 1
    - container_id: 1
      host_id: 100000
      size: 65536
  kernel: 5.10.16.3-microsoft-standard-WSL2
  linkmode: dynamic
  memFree: 51510861824
  memTotal: 53726572544
  ociRuntime:
    name: crun
    package: 'crun: /usr/bin/crun'
    path: /usr/bin/crun
    version: |-
      crun version 0.20.1.5-925d-dirty
      commit: 0d42f1109fd73548f44b01b3e84d04a279e99d2e
      spec: 1.0.0
      +SYSTEMD +SELINUX +APPARMOR +CAP +SECCOMP +EBPF +CRIU +YAJL
  os: linux
  remoteSocket:
    path: /tmp/podman-run-1000/podman/podman.sock
  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: /usr/bin/slirp4netns
    package: 'slirp4netns: /usr/bin/slirp4netns'
    version: |-
      slirp4netns version 1.1.8
      commit: unknown
      libslirp: 4.3.1-git
      SLIRP_CONFIG_VERSION_MAX: 3
      libseccomp: 2.4.3
  swapFree: 13958643712
  swapTotal: 13958643712
  uptime: 3h 1m 17.45s (Approximately 0.12 days)
registries:
  search:
  - docker.io
  - quay.io
store:
  configFile: /home/myuser/.config/containers/storage.conf
  containerStore:
    number: 4
    paused: 0
    running: 0
    stopped: 4
  graphDriverName: overlay
  graphOptions:
    overlay.mount_program:
      Executable: /usr/bin/fuse-overlayfs
      Package: 'fuse-overlayfs: /usr/bin/fuse-overlayfs'
      Version: |-
        fusermount3 version: 3.9.0
        fuse-overlayfs: version 1.5
        FUSE library version 3.9.0
        using FUSE kernel interface version 7.31
  graphRoot: /home/myuser/.local/share/containers/storage
  graphStatus:
    Backing Filesystem: extfs
    Native Overlay Diff: "false"
    Supports d_type: "true"
    Using metacopy: "false"
  imageStore:
    number: 11
  runRoot: /tmp/podman-run-1000/containers
  volumePath: /home/myuser/.local/share/containers/storage/volumes
version:
  APIVersion: 3.2.3
  Built: 0
  BuiltTime: Thu Jan  1 01:00:00 1970
  GitCommit: ""
  GoVersion: go1.15.2
  OsArch: linux/amd64
  Version: 3.2.3

Package info (e.g. output of rpm -q podman or apt list podman):

$ apt list podman
Listing... Done
podman/unknown,now 100:3.2.3-1 amd64 [installed]
podman/unknown 100:3.2.3-1 arm64
podman/unknown 100:3.2.3-1 armhf
podman/unknown 100:3.2.3-1 s390x

Have you tested with the latest version of Podman and have you checked the Podman Troubleshooting Guide? (https://github.com/containers/podman/blob/master/troubleshooting.md)

Yes

[JayDoubleu]

What is the benefit of running remote podman against WSL2?

Why not just alias podman command to wsl podman?

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/wsl/interop#:~:text=Run%20Linux%20binaries%20from%20the,.exe%20).&text=Binaries%20invoked%20in%20this%20way,as%20the%20WSL%20default%20user.

[github-actions]

A friendly reminder that this issue had no activity for 30 days.

[rhatdan]

Since we have had no response I am going to close this issue.