How to use RHEL 10 as a WSL Podman machine

May 21, 2025
Jeff Maury
Related topics:
Application modernizationContainersDeveloper toolsVirtualizationWindows
Related products:
Developer ToolsetImage mode for Red Hat Enterprise LinuxPodman Desktop

The article Getting started with RHEL on WSL covers how to build and run Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL) images. Here, we'll dive into the specific options required to configure that RHEL 10 WSL distribution for use as a Podman machine.

Requirements

To use the RHEL 10 WSL image as a Podman machine, ensure that the following packages are installed:

  • podman
  • podman-docker
  • procps-ng
  • openssh-server
  • net-tools
  • iproute
  • sudo
  • iptables-nft

Luckily, all are available from the preconfigured RHEL 10 repositories.

Build the image

  1. Navigate to image builder (Figure 1).
Figure 1: Image builder welcome page.
Figure 1: Image builder welcome page.
  1. Click Create blueprint to open the Create image dialog wizard (Figure 2).
Figure 2: New image output options page.
Figure 2: New image output options page.
  1. On the Image output page, select the following:
    1. From the Release list, select Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) 10.
    2. From the Select target environments option, select WSL - Windows Subsystem for Linux (.tar.gz).
    3. Click Next.
  2. On the Register page:
    1. Select Automatically register and enable advanced capabilities.
    2. From the drop-down menu, choose an activation key to use for the image. See Creating an activation key.
    3. Click Next.
  3. On the OpenSCAP page, as it is not supported for WSL images, click Next.
  4. On the File system configuration page, select Recommended: Use automatic partitioning and click Next.
  5. On the Repeatable build page, select Disable repeatable build and click Next.
  6. On the Custom repositories page, click Next.
  7. On the Additional packages page:
    1. In the Available packages search field, enter podman.
    2. Select the podman and podman-docker packages.
    3. In the Available packages search field, enter procps-ng.
    4. Select the procps-ng package.
    5. In the Available packages search field, enter openssh-server.
    6. Select the openssh-server package.
    7. In the Available packages search field, enter net-tools.
    8. Select the net-tools package.
    9. In the Available packages search field, enter iproute.
    10. Select the iproute package.
    11. In the Available packages search field, enter sudo.
    12. Select the sudo package.
    13. In the Available packages search field, enter iptables-nft.
    14. Select the iptables-nft package.
    15. Click Next.
  8. On the Users page, click Next.
  9. On the Timezone page, click Next.
  10. On the Locale page, click Next.
  11. On the Hostname page, click Next.
  12. On the Kernel page, click Next.
  13. On the Firewall page, click Next.
  14. On the First boot script configuration page, click Next.
  15. On the Details page:
    1. In the Blueprint name, enter rhel10-wsl.
    2. Click Next.
  16. On the Review page, click Create blueprint and build image (Figure 3).
Figure 3: Image builder images list.
Figure 3: Image builder images list.

The image is being built. Once the build is finished, the download link will be available. Click the Download (.tar.gz) link and save the downloaded file to one of your local folders.

Create the RHEL 10 WSL Podman machine

Launch Podman Desktop and go to the Settings → Resources page, as shown in Figure 4.

Figure 4: Podman Desktop resources page.
Figure 4: Podman Desktop resources page.

On the Podman provider, click Create new ...

On the Create Podman machine page, click the Browse button for the Image Path field and select the file downloaded from image builder. See Figure 5.

Figure 5: The new Podman machine page in Podman Desktop.
Figure 5: The new Podman machine page in Podman Desktop.

Click the Create button. The machine will be created and started. After a short time, the operation status should be reported, as depicted in Figure 6.

Figure 6: Podman Machine new machine created page.
Figure 6: Podman Machine new machine created page.

Let's play with the RHEL 10 WSL Podman machine

Go to the Images page and pull the httpd image (Figure 7).

Figure 7: Podman Desktop pull image page.
Figure 7: Podman Desktop pull image page.

Click Done (Figure 8).

Figure 8: Podman Desktop images list page.
Figure 8: Podman Desktop images list page.

Start the image by clicking on the Run image icon (Figure 9).

Figure 9: Podman Desktop create container options page.
Figure 9: Podman Desktop create container options page.

Once the container is started, you can access the Apache server on http://localhost:9000.

Try Insights image builder and RHEL 10 on WSL today

Visit Insights image builder to build your customized image of RHEL 10, then deploy your image locally on Microsoft WSL. Check out the overview and the latest blog posts at redhat.com/image-builder.

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