Units using PrivateNetwork=yes don't work inside user namespaces

[Jeremy Bícha]

lxd host is Ubuntu 17.04 Alpha amd64
lxd container is ubuntu:16.10

hostnamectl does not work inside the lxd container:

$ hostnamectl status
$ sudo hostnamectl set-hostname server.example.com
Could not set property: Connection timed out

[Stéphane Graber (stgraber)]

Jan 12 16:47:07 xen systemd[7897]: systemd-hostnamed.service: Failed at step NETWORK spawning /lib/systemd/systemd-hostnamed: Permission denied
Jan 12 16:47:07 xen systemd[1]: systemd-hostnamed.service: Main process exited, code=exited, status=225/NETWORK
Jan 12 16:47:07 xen systemd[1]: Failed to start Hostname Service.
Jan 12 16:47:07 xen systemd[1]: systemd-hostnamed.service: Unit entered failed state.
Jan 12 16:47:07 xen systemd[1]: systemd-hostnamed.service: Failed with result 'exit-code'.

[Stéphane Graber (stgraber)]

Looks like the problem is to do with systemd and it failing to spawn units that have:

PrivateNetwork=yes

I'm not sure exactly what systemd attempts to do which doesn't work in an unprivileged container, but the answer is almost certainly to have it not do that :)

Re-assigning bug to systemd.

[Stéphane Graber (stgraber)]

You should be able to use "systemctl edit" to set PrivateNetwork=no as a temporary workaround.

[Jeremy Bícha (jbicha)]

Stéphane, thanks for looking into this. Is there a way I can set that by default for any new lxd containers I create, as a workaround?

[Jeremy Bícha (jbicha)]

I'm not sure how to use the "systemctl edit" command.

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

Status changed to 'Confirmed' because the bug affects multiple users.

[Marlin Cremers (marlinc)]

I had the same problem using the varnishncsa service:

systemd[30274]: varnishncsa.service: Failed at step NETWORK spawning /usr/bin/varnishncsa: Permission denied

Overriding PrivateNetwork to be false seems to work as a workoround.

[Dan Streetman (ddstreet)]

please reopen if this is still an issue

[Michael (miiichael)]

This might be a duplicate of https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/systemd/+bug/1635382