📖 ~1 min read
Table of contents
Symptom & Impact
Podman containers refuse to start or exit immediately with cgroup errors.
Environment & Reproduction
Often appears after host upgrades or rootless runtime changes.
Root Cause Analysis
Cgroup manager mismatch and stale runtime config under cgroup v2.
Quick Triage
Check podman info for cgroup manager and runtime details.
Step-by-Step Diagnosis
Review user-level and system-level containers config.
Solution – Primary Fix
Set Podman to use systemd cgroup manager and restart user session.
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Solution – Alternative Approaches
Run rootful containers with validated runtime profile for legacy workloads.
Verification & Acceptance Criteria
Containers start normally and `podman ps` reports stable runtime state.
Rollback Plan
Restore previous containers.conf if application compatibility breaks.
Prevention & Hardening
Standardize Podman runtime settings across all nodes.
Related Errors & Cross-Refs
Related to user namespace mapping and OCI runtime mismatch errors.
Related tutorial: View the step-by-step tutorial for Debian 13.
View all Debian 13 tutorials on the Tutorials Hub →
Browse all common problems & solutions on the Tutorials Hub.
References & Further Reading
Podman cgroup v2 deployment notes for Debian.
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