Install with Podman

On Podman, Quasar’s seed runs as a Quadlet unit: a small file that systemd runs like any other service. The quick start writes for you to save and start. This page covers host preparation, starting the unit and checking the installation. Inputs, roles and the recovery actor are the same as on Docker.

Rootful first

This page is rootful Podman (experimental): Podman runs as root. To run Quasar as an ordinary account instead, follow Install rootless. Status per platform: Container engines.

	Rootful	Rootless
Unit file	/etc/containers/systemd/quasar-seed.container	~/.config/containers/systemd/quasar-seed.container
Managed by	systemctl	systemctl --user
Socket	/run/podman/podman.sock	$XDG_RUNTIME_DIR/podman/podman.sock

Socket path, if you write the unit by hand

The seed only accepts the socket mounted at /var/run/docker.sock inside the container. Use Volume=%t/podman/podman.sock:/var/run/docker.sock, which works in both modes.

Prepare the host

Once, from an account with sudo. The quick start shows the same commands.

sudo systemctl enable --now podman.socket
sudo systemctl enable podman-restart.service

Command	Why
podman.socket	The API the seed talks to.
podman-restart.service	Brings Quasar’s containers back after a reboot: Podman has no daemon to do it.

NVIDIA: complete NVIDIA setup for Podman before deploying. It includes CDI device generation, verification and SELinux policy.

Check it worked: systemctl is-enabled podman.socket podman-restart.service says enabled twice.

Docker on the same machine

If Docker also runs here, Docker can block Podman’s published ports. Docker drops forwarded traffic when it had to turn IP forwarding on itself. Quasar then answers on 127.0.0.1 but not from the network.

What to do	How to know it worked
Add "ip-forward-no-drop": true to /etc/docker/daemon.json, then sudo systemctl restart docker	sudo iptables -S FORWARD starts with -P FORWARD ACCEPT

A firewall rule that opens Quasar’s ports is still needed as usual. Removing Docker works too.

Optional: console mode needs the console rules from Device rules, and the UDP send buffer makes streams smoother.

Installing

1. In the quick start, choose Podman and download the Quadlet configuration from Result.

2. Save it as /etc/containers/systemd/quasar-seed.container, then load and start it:

   sudo systemctl daemon-reload
   sudo systemctl start quasar-seed

The compatible seed resolves image tags to immutable digests on first install. Keep the machine-state volume and user homes when changing the unit.

Adding a GPU host

Run the Add host command as root (sudo -i, then paste it). Rootful Podman’s socket is visible to root only, so from an ordinary account, even one with sudo, the command reports no container engine found.

Check it came up

sudo systemctl status quasar-seed
sudo podman logs quasar-seed
sudo podman exec quasar-recovery quasar-recovery status

The recovery actor’s status is the most useful: it reports the install itself. Then continue with Create your account, using sudo podman where it says docker.

Boot behaviour

• The Quadlet unit starts the seed at boot.
• podman-restart.service brings Quasar’s other containers back. Without it they stay stopped after a reboot.
• The recovery actor makes /run/quasar-agent again (a reboot empties /run), then starts the agent if it is not running.

Rootless: a session as the quasar account

Rootless commands need a full systemd user session for quasar. sudo -u quasar is not enough:

sudo machinectl shell quasar@

Then use systemctl --user and podman without sudo. Exit normally when done; lingering keeps Quasar running. If an install or update stalls waiting for health checks, the account has no user session yet: open one this way. Setup: Install rootless.