This is a guide explaining how to connect podman cli running in wsl 2 with Windows Podman Desktop without need of using Podman Machine as a VM backend.

Goal

Use WSL2 (In my case RHEL-10) as the only container backend
Run containers using Podman insde WSL2
View and manage containers using Podman Desktop running on Windows
Avoid Podman Machine (VM)

Architecure

Windows
  └── Podman Desktop
        └── SSH connection
              └── WSL2 RHEL 10
                    └── Podman (rootless)
                          └── /run/user/<UID>/podman/podman.sock

1. Prerequistes

Assume that WSL2 is installed. I am using Fedora based distro RHEL-10.

Install podman in WSL2

bash


sudo dnf isntall -y podman

Enable user session socket

bash

systemctl --user enable --now podman.socket

2. Setup SSH access (Windows -> WSL2)

Lets create SSH key in Windows

powershell

ssh-keygen -t ed25519 -C "Podman-Windows-WSL2-Connection"

Copy Public Key from Windows to WSL2

Copy the following command output

powershell

type $env:USERPROFILE\.ssh\id_ed25519.pub

Paste key in the authorized_keys

bash

mkdir -p ~/.ssh
vi ~/.ssh/authorized_keys

Fix permission

bash

chmod 600 ~/.ssh/authorized_keys

Restart SSH service

bash

sudo systemctl restart sshd

Create config file for better SSH key managment

text

notepad $env:USERPROFILE\.ssh\config

config content should be

Host rhel-wsl
    HostName localhost
    User <wsl2_username>
    IdentityFile ~/.ssh/id_ed25519
    IdentitiesOnly yes

3. Create Podman Desktop Connection

If connection to the old machines are present, we should clean it first

Remove old connection

powershell

podman system connection rm podman-machine-default
podman system connection rm podman-machine-default-root

Add WSL connection (IMPORTANT)

Replace <wsl_username> with WSL username (whoami)
Replace <UID> with correct value from WSL (id -u)

powershell

podman system connection add rhel-wsl ^
  ssh://<wsl_username>@localhost/run/user/<UID>/podman/podman.sock ^
  --identity $env:USERPROFILE\.ssh\id_ed25519

Set Default Connection

powershell

podman system connection default rhel-wsl

🚨 COMMON ISSUES & FIXES

❌ 1. open failed (SSH → Podman socket)

✔ Fix: Ensure correct UID (/run/user/1000 vs 1002 mismatch)

❌ 2. socket not found

✔ Fix:

systemctl --user restart podman.socket

❌ 3. podman command works in WSL but not Windows

✔ Fix: Wrong connection path in Podman Desktop Wrong SSH identity key

❌ 4. SSH works but Podman fails

✔ Fix:

Use correct /run/user/<UID>/podman/podman.sock

❌ 5. Permission denied (publickey)

✔ Fix:

Re-copy .pub key Fix .ssh permissions

❌ 6. Issue: Permission denied (publickey)

✔ Fix:

Ensure correct key in authorized_keys Check permissions (600/700)

❌ 7. Issue: "ssh-ed25519 not in PubkeyAcceptedAlgorithms"

✔ Fix (RHEL crypto policy):

bash

sudo tee /etc/ssh/sshd_config.d/99-ed25519.conf <<EOF
PubkeyAcceptedAlgorithms +ssh-ed25519
EOF
sudo systemctl restart sshd

OR safer:

bash

sudo update-crypto-policies --set DEFAULT
sudo systemctl restart sshd

❌ 8. Issue: SSH connects but Podman fails

✔ Cause: wrong UID path

Check:

bash

echo $XDG_RUNTIME_DIR

Must match:

/run/user/<UID>

🧠 KEY INSIGHTS

WSL uses dynamic UID (often NOT 1000)

Podman rootless socket depends on /run/user/<UID> SSH auth ≠ Podman socket access Podman Desktop VM is NOT needed

🏁 Final Result

You now have:

Native Linux containers via WSL No VM overhead Full Podman Desktop integration Clean developer workflow

💡 This setup is one of the cleanest ways to run containers on Windows today — lightweight, fast, and close to real Linux.

Happy hacking 🚀