Before I dabbled a bit with Docker. I wanted to dabble a bit with Podman because it seemed quite interesting. I reinstalled Pi OS Lite on my Pi 3B+ and installed Podman. Then I figured out what to run and started digging through the documentation. Apparently Docker containers work quite similar and even Docker compose can be used. Then I came across the auto update function and stumbled upon quadlets to use auto update and got confused. Then I tried reading up on Podman rootless and rootful and networking stuff and really got lost.

I want to run the following services:

  • Heimdall
  • Adguard Home
  • Jellyfin
  • Vaultwarden
  • Nextcloud

I am not sure a Pi is even powerful enough to run these things but I am even more unsure about how to set things up. Do I use quadlets? Do I run containers? How do I do the networking so I can reach the containers (maybe even outside my home)?

Can someone point me in the right direction? I can’t seem to find the needed information.

11 points

Use docker, once you’re comfortable with it then switch to Podman. Podman has a few more complications, so it’s easier to get the base thing running using the most common tool, and work from there.

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2 points

This is a good suggestion. Docker is more mature and has more resources, so it’s better to learn the ins and outs of containers. After getting comfortable with it, you can move to Podman and have a much better time tackling its peculiarities regarding permissions and rootless.

I used Docker for years and only recently decided to give Podman a try, porting my Lemmy instance to it.

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1 point

Yeah this might be the smartest way. I thought I could do both at the same time but it’s probably more than I can chew.

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10 points
*

I’m a pretty Podman novice guy too but I’m running quadlets since it automatically creates and runs these containers just like the other services would be with systemd. In terms of networking I can usually access to my container via publishing a port and using the PC’s IP where the container is running, and this is the default network that Podman uses initially.

I have a Jellyfin quadlet config, that may help you. I’ve had numerous sufferings to make a working one, but here you go (These 3 files are in ~/.config/containers/systemd/jellyfin):

Description=Jellyfin Media Server
After=network.target

[Container]
Image=lscr.io/linuxserver/jellyfin:latest
PublishPort=8096:8096
Volume=jellyfin-config.volume:/config:Z
Volume=jellyfin-cache:/cache:Z
Volume=/home/USERNAME/media/storage1/Filmek:/data/Filmek:Z,U
Volume=/home/USERNAME/media/storage1/Sorozatok:/data/Sorozatok:Z,U

[Service]
Restart=on-failure

[Install]
WantedBy=default.target
[Unit]
Description=Jellyfin Cache Volume

[Volume]
[Unit]
Description=Jellyfin Config Volume

[Volume]

Please do ask questions if you have any. ^^

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8 points
*

Podman is quickly becoming shit as Red Hat continues to remove features and recommend you use Kubernetes. I ended up removing it from my servers and switching to Debian from Fedora because I don’t like Red Hat mucking about with our open source community software.

I still run Docker.

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23 points

As someone who’s been wanting to test (and maybe move to Podman) in the future but hasn’t really spent any time on it, what features have Red hat removed from Podman?

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0 points

My major beef is we used to be able to run a Podman generate command to make a user systemd file and auto start and stop containers with that. Even entire clusters of pods with one easy command and then just use the system level start and stop. They removed it in favor of “quadlet”which works fine for single containers, but for a compose, they literally just use Kubernetes syntax and the official documentation says just use Kubernetes. Well, what the fuck is Podman for then?

The biggest problem everyone ever has with Podman is it’s frustratingly obedient to SELinux. Docker just kind of makes its own permissions and opens its own ports and steamrolls past whatever security you have. Podman will refuse to read or write a directory for stupid reasons until you’ve gone round and round with SELinux, and then just when you have it working, when the container updates it locks the directory all over again(in my case, updating a Minecraft server to latest version would crash the server and lock the data directory). Red Hat continues to insist SELinux is cool and this is working as intended. Again, Docker just doesn’t give a shit and barges into the directory without a problem.

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15 points
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There are .pod files for Quadlet now, which do what you want. No Kubernetes involved.

My impression is really the opposite. Podman is constantly being improved and nice features get added all the time.

If you don’t like SELinux, just disable it. Nothing to do with Podman.

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6 points

Now look here chap, Quadlet admittedly works fine. I personally just k3s anyway but .pod files work too.

Isn’t being obedient to SELinux a good thing? You could set it to permissive if you want, but MAC systems are essential for security and I personally wouldn’t go without them

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1 point

Every complaint here is PEBKAC.

It’s a legit argument that Docker has a stable architecture while podman is still evolving, but that’s how software do. I haven’t seen anything that isn’t backward compatible, or very strongly deprecated with notice.

Complaining about selinux in 2024? Setenforce 0, audit2allow, and get on with it.

Docker doing that while selinux is enforcing is an actual bad thing that you don’t want.

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1 point

Well that can be understandable, but AFAIK podman generate still works, so if you can’t do something with Quadlet, then you can stays with generate until then. For example, I’m using Quadlet and now podman generate too since my Rocky 9 podman can’t be upgraded to podman 5 which means no pod support for you.

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1 point

SElinux is needed for a secure system. It takes time to properly set up but it adheres to least privilege nicely

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1 point

For those who are out of the loop, why is podman shit? It is rootless and crazy fast.

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1 point

It isn’t. It’s architecture changes pretty significantly with each version, which is annoying when you need it to be stable. It’s also dominated by Redhat, which is a legit concern since they’ll likely start paywalling capabilities eventually.

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1 point
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I have never seen any of those things. Podman is fast and rootless with almost no overhead. It has good compatibility with docker as well.

Also it would make zero sense to paywall podman as Kubernetes exists. Anyway RHEL is payed anyway.

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6 points

I use podman at work, mostly just a Docker replacement. My biggest problem with it is typing “pdoman” in commands by mistake.

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7 points

Just alias pdoman=podman. I do that with all my common typos.

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5 points

or install fuck (github) ;)

Anti Commercial-AI license

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3 points

It’s crazy how much I actually use this tool. 99% of the time, it can figure out exactly what I was trying to accomplish.

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5 points

For me the value of podman is how easily it works without root. Just install and run, no need for sudo or adding myself to docker group.

I use it for testing and dev work, not for running any services.

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