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When I run podman with --storage-opt ignore_chown_errors=true I am getting

Error: kernel does not support overlay fs: 'overlay' is not supported over extfs at /home/user/.local/share/containers/storage/overlay: backing file system is unsupported for this graph driver

Evan Carroll
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1 Answers1

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This is because on Debian you do not have a kernel driver for overlayfs: so you'll need to use a userspace filesystem driver for overlayfs. First make sure it's installed,

sudo apt install fuse-overlayfs

Then add this argument to podman (NOT podman run),

--storage-opt mount_program=/usr/bin/fuse-overlayfs

In your case it should look like this

podman --storage-opt mount_program=/usr/bin/fuse-overlayfs --storage-opt ignore_chown_errors=true run [...]

This option can also be set in ~/.config/containers/storage.conf under mount_program

Evan Carroll
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  • The option `mount_program` can also be set in `storage.conf` under `[storage.options.overlay]` – rapstacke Jun 18 '22 at 11:07
  • Really? I see references to Debian having overlayfs only last year https://unix.stackexchange.com/a/658030/20140. Which version of debian does not have overlayfs? – Philip Couling Jun 28 '22 at 17:07
  • Are you running this as "rootless" if so, the problem is most likely that non-root users cannot use the kernel mount driver and can only use the fuse mount. This is referenced in a known bug: https://github.com/containers/podman/issues/8705#issuecomment-744116068 – Philip Couling Jun 28 '22 at 17:16