Container start fails on CI WSL: crun missing cgroup pids

[serbangeorge-m]

Summary

On CI Windows WSL, starting containers fails with a missing cgroup pids controller. Hyper-V with the same Podman version passes. Local rootful WSL also passes.

This is not Kind-specific — Kind create is one manifestation; basic container start fails the same way.

Confirmed

k8s E2E (Kind)

https://github.com/podman-desktop/e2e/actions/runs/36719001023 (Podman v6.1.3)

• Win11 WSL: Kind create fails
• Win10/11 Hyper-V: 57/57 pass

crun: controller `pids` is not available under
/sys/fs/cgroup/non-systemd/machine.slice/libpod-....scope/container/cgroup.controllers
OCI runtime error (exit 126)

Kind pulls kindest/node, then podman run for the control-plane fails. Playwright timeouts waiting for "Go back to resources" are a consequence.

Main WSL E2E (smoke — latest + nightly)

https://github.com/podman-desktop/e2e/actions/runs/36696478637

• All 4 jobs fail: Win10/11 x latest (v6.1.3) / nightly (main-c2f2b19)
• Same error on basic alpine container start, pods, network, etc.
• Seen under both machine.slice (rootful) and user.slice (rootless)

Example (container-smoke):

Starting the container threw an error: (HTTP code 500)
crun: controller `pids` is not available under
/sys/fs/cgroup/non-systemd/machine.slice/.../cgroup.controllers

Local contrast

Rootful WSL: pids present in cgroup.controllers; Kind create and alpine container start succeed. Issue is CI WSL-specific, not a Podman Desktop / Playwright bug.

Not confirmed

Why nested cgroups on MAPT WSL lack pids (cgroup manager, controller delegation, WSL/kernel config, machine defaults).

Next checks on a failing WSL runner

• podman info → cgroupManager, cgroupVersion, cgroupControllers
• cat /sys/fs/cgroup/cgroup.controllers
• Same on a green Hyper-V job for comparison

[serbangeorge-m]

CI WSL container starts fail because WSL 2.9/3.0 places the Podman machine in a non-systemd cgroup subtree that never delegates the pids controller (crun exit 126), while Hyper-V and older local WSL still have pids and pass.