Podman does not support Windows 11 on ARM65

[worldofgeese]

Issue Description

@baude released a trial installer for Podman 5.5.0 #25621 (comment) that fixes Podman installs on Windows 11 for ARM64. This doesn't yet appear to be ported to the latest Podman release (as of this writing 5.7.1).

The issue was unfortunately closed and locked to contributors, despite it still being an issue.

When can we expect this fix to be released to the latest release?

Steps to reproduce the issue

Steps to reproduce the issue
podman machine init

Describe the results you received

$ podman machine init
Looking up Podman Machine image at quay.io/podman/machine-os-wsl:5.4 to create VM
Getting image source signatures
Copying blob d125bd3f7504 done   |
Copying config 44136fa355 done   |
Writing manifest to image destination
d125bd3f7504b9725ac031508a7bf951a84fcad5b07879057f64d3667737292a
Extracting compressed file: podman-machine-default-amd64: done
Importing operating system into WSL (this may take a few minutes on a new WSL install)...
The operation completed successfully.
<3>WSL (10 - Relay) ERROR: CreateProcessParseCommon:863: Failed to translate C:\Users\UserName
<3>WSL (10 - Relay) ERROR: UtilTranslatePathList:2878: Failed to translate C:\Program Files\WindowsApps\Microsoft.PowerShell_7.5.0.0_arm64__8wekyb3d8bbwe
<3>WSL (10 - Relay) ERROR: UtilTranslatePathList:2878: Failed to translate C:\Windows\System32\
<3>WSL (10 - Relay) ERROR: UtilTranslatePathList:2878: Failed to translate C:\Windows\
<3>WSL (10 - Relay) ERROR: UtilTranslatePathList:2878: Failed to translate C:\Windows\System32\wbem\
<3>WSL (10 - Relay) ERROR: UtilTranslatePathList:2878: Failed to translate C:\Windows\System32\WindowsPowerShell\v1.0\
<3>WSL (10 - Relay) ERROR: UtilTranslatePathList:2878: Failed to translate C:\Windows\System32\OpenSSH\
<3>WSL (10 - Relay) ERROR: UtilTranslatePathList:2878: Failed to translate C:\ProgramData\chocolatey\bin\
<3>WSL (10 - Relay) ERROR: UtilTranslatePathList:2878: Failed to translate C:\Program Files\Git\cmd\
<3>WSL (10 - Relay) ERROR: UtilTranslatePathList:2878: Failed to translate C:\Users\UserName\AppData\Local\Microsoft\WindowsApps\
<3>WSL (10 - Relay) ERROR: UtilTranslatePathList:2878: Failed to translate C:\Program Files (x86)\GnuPG\bin\
<3>WSL (10 - Relay) ERROR: UtilTranslatePathList:2878: Failed to translate C:\Program Files (x86)\WindowsPowerShell\Scripts\
<3>WSL (10 - Relay) ERROR: UtilTranslatePathList:2878: Failed to translate C:\Program Files\RedHat\Podman\
<3>WSL (10 - Relay) ERROR: UtilTranslatePathList:2878: Failed to translate C:\Users\UserName\AppData\Local\Programs\oh-my-posh\bin\
<3>WSL (10 - Relay) ERROR: UtilTranslatePathList:2878: Failed to translate C:\Windows\system32\config\systemprofile\AppData\Local\Microsoft\WindowsApps
<3>WSL (10 - Relay) ERROR: UtilTranslatePathList:2878: Failed to translate C:\Users\UserName\AppData\Local\Programs\Microsoft VS Code\bin
<3>WSL (10 - Relay) ERROR: UtilTranslatePathList:2878: Failed to translate C:\Users\UserName\AppData\Local\Programs\Lens\resources\cli\bin
<3>WSL (10 - Relay) ERROR: UtilTranslatePathList:2878: Failed to translate C:\Users\UserName\AppData\Local\Google\Cloud SDK\google-cloud-sdk\bin
Processing fstab with mount -a failed.
Failed to mount C:\, see dmesg for more details.

<3>WSL (10 - Relay) ERROR: CreateProcessCommon:640: execvpe(/bin/bash) failed: Exec format error
Error: package permissions restore of shadow-utils on guest OS failed: command C:\Users\UserName\AppData\Local\Microsoft\WindowsApps\wsl.exe [-u root -d podman-machine-default rpm --restore shadow-utils] failed: exit status 1

Describe the results you expected

Podman machine initializes successfully.

podman info output

This is output from the working trial installer released by @baude.

Client:
  APIVersion: 5.5.0-dev
  Built: 1742503370
  BuiltTime: Thu Mar 20 21:42:50 2025
  GitCommit: 5e66d38c9d22b146732f87132b816bbcc0d0a307
  GoVersion: go1.23.7
  Os: windows
  OsArch: windows/arm64
  Version: 5.5.0-dev
host:
  arch: arm64
  buildahVersion: 1.41.4
  cgroupControllers:
  - cpu
  - memory
  - pids
  cgroupManager: cgroupfs
  cgroupVersion: v2
  conmon:
    package: conmon-2.1.13-1.fc41.aarch64
    path: /usr/bin/conmon
    version: 'conmon version 2.1.13, commit: '
  cpuUtilization:
    idlePercent: 99.52
    systemPercent: 0.4
    userPercent: 0.08
  cpus: 12
  databaseBackend: sqlite
  distribution:
    distribution: fedora
    variant: container
    version: "41"
  eventLogger: journald
  freeLocks: 2048
  hostname: A-J65FS64
  idMappings:
    gidmap:
    - container_id: 0
      host_id: 1000
      size: 1
    - container_id: 1
      host_id: 524288
      size: 65536
    uidmap:
    - container_id: 0
      host_id: 1000
      size: 1
    - container_id: 1
      host_id: 524288
      size: 65536
  kernel: 6.6.87.2-microsoft-standard-WSL2
  linkmode: dynamic
  logDriver: journald
  memFree: 15738798080
  memTotal: 16506691584
  networkBackend: netavark
  networkBackendInfo:
    backend: netavark
    dns:
      package: aardvark-dns-1.16.0-1.fc41.aarch64
      path: /usr/libexec/podman/aardvark-dns
      version: aardvark-dns 1.16.0
    package: netavark-1.16.1-1.fc41.aarch64
    path: /usr/libexec/podman/netavark
    version: netavark 1.16.1
  ociRuntime:
    name: crun
    package: crun-1.23.1-1.fc41.aarch64
    path: /usr/bin/crun
    version: |-
      crun version 1.23.1
      commit: d20b23dba05e822b93b82f2f34fd5dada433e0c2
      rundir: /run/user/1000/crun
      spec: 1.0.0
      +SYSTEMD +SELINUX +APPARMOR +CAP +SECCOMP +EBPF +CRIU +LIBKRUN +WASM:wasmedge +YAJL
  os: linux
  pasta:
    executable: /usr/bin/pasta
    package: passt-0^20250805.g309eefd-2.fc41.aarch64
    version: |
      pasta 0^20250805.g309eefd-2.fc41.aarch64-pasta
      Copyright Red Hat
      GNU General Public License, version 2 or later
        <https://www.gnu.org/licenses/old-licenses/gpl-2.0.html>
      This is free software: you are free to change and redistribute it.
      There is NO WARRANTY, to the extent permitted by law.
  remoteSocket:
    exists: true
    path: unix:///run/user/1000/podman/podman.sock
  rootlessNetworkCmd: pasta
  security:
    apparmorEnabled: false
    capabilities: CAP_CHOWN,CAP_DAC_OVERRIDE,CAP_FOWNER,CAP_FSETID,CAP_KILL,CAP_NET_BIND_SERVICE,CAP_SETFCAP,CAP_SETGID,CAP_SETPCAP,CAP_SETUID,CAP_SYS_CHROOT
    rootless: true
    seccompEnabled: true
    seccompProfilePath: /usr/share/containers/seccomp.json
    selinuxEnabled: false
  serviceIsRemote: true
  slirp4netns:
    executable: ""
    package: ""
    version: ""
  swapFree: 4294967296
  swapTotal: 4294967296
  uptime: 0h 6m 21.00s
  variant: v8
plugins:
  authorization: null
  log:
  - k8s-file
  - none
  - passthrough
  - journald
  network:
  - bridge
  - macvlan
  - ipvlan
  volume:
  - local
registries:
  search:
  - docker.io
store:
  configFile: /home/user/.config/containers/storage.conf
  containerStore:
    number: 0
    paused: 0
    running: 0
    stopped: 0
  graphDriverName: overlay
  graphOptions: {}
  graphRoot: /home/user/.local/share/containers/storage
  graphRootAllocated: 1081101176832
  graphRootUsed: 1018974208
  graphStatus:
    Backing Filesystem: extfs
    Native Overlay Diff: "true"
    Supports d_type: "true"
    Supports shifting: "false"
    Supports volatile: "true"
    Using metacopy: "false"
  imageCopyTmpDir: /var/tmp
  imageStore:
    number: 0
  runRoot: /run/user/1000/containers
  transientStore: false
  volumePath: /home/user/.local/share/containers/storage/volumes
version:
  APIVersion: 5.6.1
  BuildOrigin: Fedora Project
  Built: 1756944000
  BuiltTime: Thu Sep  4 02:00:00 2025
  GitCommit: 1e2b2315150b2ffa0971596fb5da8cd83f3ce0e1
  GoVersion: go1.24.6
  Os: linux
  OsArch: linux/arm64
  Version: 5.6.1

Podman in a container

No

Privileged Or Rootless

None

Upstream Latest Release

Yes

[baude]

@l0rd can triage this issue?

[l0rd]

@worldofgeese Podman officially supports windows arm64 since release v5.5.0. My guess is that you are downloading the old x64 installer (podman-5.7.1-setup.exe) and that explains why machine init is failing.

You should uninstall your current version of Podman and run the new arm64 installer (podman-installer-windows-arm64.msi).

Please confirm if that solves your problem.