[GH-ISSUE #115] netbootxyz not behaving well with rootless podman quadlet and squashed NFS shares #33

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opened 2026-02-27 14:47:30 +03:00 by kerem · 1 comment

kerem commented

2026-02-27 14:47:30 +03:00

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Originally created by @Zer0PointModule on GitHub (Dec 6, 2025).
Original GitHub issue: https://github.com/netbootxyz/docker-netbootxyz/issues/115

The netbootxyz container tries to chown everything to root on boot:

COPY --chown=root:root root/ /

When using rootless Podman the root UID and GID are actually mapped to SUBID's of the rootless user. when using NFS and squashing all users to a certain user and group id, the container then loses control over it's own folders because all further actions are mapped to the same userid and groupid and those don't have permission to change ownership of a folder owned by a random SUBID.

Other steps later have issues (no longer have the permission) to chown it back to the proper passed PUID and PGID because it can't change permissions of the folder it just tried to chown to "root" any longer.

This is indeed an edge case problem due to the use of NFS permission squashing (https://www.opswat.com/docs/mdss/3.4.3/knowledge-base/what-is-user-squashing-for-network-file-system-nfs)

Still if this forced chowning wouldn't happen there also wouldn't be any problems even with a more obscure setup like this.

Originally created by @Zer0PointModule on GitHub (Dec 6, 2025). Original GitHub issue: https://github.com/netbootxyz/docker-netbootxyz/issues/115 The netbootxyz container tries to chown everything to root on boot: ``` COPY --chown=root:root root/ / ``` When using rootless Podman the root UID and GID are actually mapped to SUBID's of the rootless user. when using NFS and squashing all users to a certain user and group id, the container then loses control over it's own folders because all further actions are mapped to the same userid and groupid and those don't have permission to change ownership of a folder owned by a random SUBID. Other steps later have issues (no longer have the permission) to chown it back to the proper passed PUID and PGID because it can't change permissions of the folder it just tried to chown to "root" any longer. This is indeed an edge case problem due to the use of NFS permission squashing (https://www.opswat.com/docs/mdss/3.4.3/knowledge-base/what-is-user-squashing-for-network-file-system-nfs) Still if this forced chowning wouldn't happen there also wouldn't be any problems even with a more obscure setup like this.

kerem commented

2026-02-27 14:47:31 +03:00

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@Abarth91 commented on GitHub (Jan 31, 2026):

I have the same problem. Is there a workaround until this is fixed?

@Abarth91 commented on GitHub (Jan 31, 2026): I have the same problem. Is there a workaround until this is fixed?