Podman continer does not connect to internet until restart

[askoa]

I generally work offline. Whenever I connect to internet, I have to restart the rootless podman container to inherit the connection. Is this the expected behavior? I expect the container to have internet connection as soon as the host has internet connection.

Below is my setup

• Quadlet podman.network creates a network named piholenet
• Quadlet podman.container creates a container named pihole with Network=pihole.network.

pihole.network specification

[Network]
NetworkName=piholenet
DisableDNS=true
Subnet=10.89.1.0/24
Option=mtu=1500

Before connecting the host to internet (offline host)

$ pasta --config-net ip addr
Couldn't get any nameserver address
1: lo: <LOOPBACK,UP,LOWER_UP> mtu 65536 qdisc noqueue state UNKNOWN group default qlen 1000
    link/loopback 00:00:00:00:00:00 brd 00:00:00:00:00:00
    inet 127.0.0.1/8 scope host lo
       valid_lft forever preferred_lft forever
    inet6 ::1/128 scope host proto kernel_lo 
       valid_lft forever preferred_lft forever
2: virbr0: <BROADCAST,MULTICAST,UP,LOWER_UP> mtu 65520 qdisc fq_codel state UNKNOWN group default qlen 1000
    link/ether 6e:8a:9d:66:a6:a2 brd ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff
    inet 192.168.122.1/24 brd 192.168.122.255 scope global virbr0
       valid_lft forever preferred_lft forever
    inet6 fc00:bbbb:bbbb:bb01::a:d52a/128 scope global nodad noprefixroute 
       valid_lft forever preferred_lft forever
    inet6 fe80::6c8a:9dff:fe66:a6a2/64 scope link nodad tentative proto kernel_ll 
       valid_lft forever preferred_lft forever

$ pasta --config-net ip route show table all
Couldn't get any nameserver address
192.168.122.0/24 dev virbr0 proto kernel scope link 
192.168.122.0/24 dev virbr0 proto kernel scope link src 192.168.122.1 
local 127.0.0.0/8 dev lo table local proto kernel scope host src 127.0.0.1 
local 127.0.0.1 dev lo table local proto kernel scope host src 127.0.0.1 
broadcast 127.255.255.255 dev lo table local proto kernel scope link src 127.0.0.1 
local 192.168.122.1 dev virbr0 table local proto kernel scope host src 192.168.122.1 
broadcast 192.168.122.255 dev virbr0 table local proto kernel scope link src 192.168.122.1 
fc00:bbbb:bbbb:bb01::a:d52a dev virbr0 proto kernel metric 50 pref medium
fe80::/64 dev virbr0 proto kernel metric 256 pref medium
fe80::/64 dev virbr0 proto kernel metric 1024 pref medium
local ::1 dev lo table local proto kernel metric 0 pref medium
local fc00:bbbb:bbbb:bb01::a:d52a dev virbr0 table local proto kernel metric 0 pref medium
multicast ff00::/8 dev virbr0 table local proto kernel metric 256 pref medium

$ systemctl --user status pihole.service
● pihole.service - Pihole in podman container
     Loaded: loaded (/var/home/user/.config/containers/systemd/pihole.container; generated)
    Drop-In: /usr/lib/systemd/user/service.d
             └─10-timeout-abort.conf
     Active: active (running) since Thu 2025-09-25 13:25:22 EDT; 1min 54s ago

after connecting the host to the internet

$ pasta --config-net ip addr
Multiple interfaces with IPv6 routes, picked first
1: lo: <LOOPBACK,UP,LOWER_UP> mtu 65536 qdisc noqueue state UNKNOWN group default qlen 1000
    link/loopback 00:00:00:00:00:00 brd 00:00:00:00:00:00
    inet 127.0.0.1/8 scope host lo
       valid_lft forever preferred_lft forever
    inet6 ::1/128 scope host proto kernel_lo 
       valid_lft forever preferred_lft forever
2: enp0s13f0u1: <BROADCAST,MULTICAST,UP,LOWER_UP> mtu 65520 qdisc fq_codel state UNKNOWN group default qlen 1000
    link/ether a6:7e:9c:b8:34:45 brd ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff
    inet 10.8.11.217/24 brd 10.8.11.255 scope global noprefixroute enp0s13f0u1
       valid_lft forever preferred_lft forever
    inet6 fc00:bbbb:bbbb:bb01::a:d52a/128 scope global nodad noprefixroute 
       valid_lft forever preferred_lft forever
    inet6 fe80::a47e:9cff:feb8:3445/64 scope link nodad tentative proto kernel_ll 
       valid_lft forever preferred_lft forever

$ pasta --config-net ip route show table all
Multiple interfaces with IPv6 routes, picked first
default via 10.8.11.1 dev enp0s13f0u1 proto dhcp metric 100 
10.8.11.0/24 dev enp0s13f0u1 proto kernel scope link metric 100 
local 10.8.11.217 dev enp0s13f0u1 table local proto kernel scope host src 10.8.11.217 
broadcast 10.8.11.255 dev enp0s13f0u1 table local proto kernel scope link src 10.8.11.217 
local 127.0.0.0/8 dev lo table local proto kernel scope host src 127.0.0.1 
local 127.0.0.1 dev lo table local proto kernel scope host src 127.0.0.1 
broadcast 127.255.255.255 dev lo table local proto kernel scope link src 127.0.0.1 
fc00:bbbb:bbbb:bb01::a:d52a dev enp0s13f0u1 proto kernel metric 50 pref medium
fe80::/64 dev enp0s13f0u1 proto kernel metric 256 pref medium
fe80::/64 dev enp0s13f0u1 proto kernel metric 1024 pref medium
local ::1 dev lo table local proto kernel metric 0 pref medium
local fc00:bbbb:bbbb:bb01::a:d52a dev enp0s13f0u1 table local proto kernel metric 0 pref medium
local fe80::7048:44ff:feaa:5811 dev enp0s13f0u1 table local proto kernel metric 0 pref medium
multicast ff00::/8 dev enp0s13f0u1 table local proto kernel metric 256 pref medium

Even though the host has internet connection, I was not able to connect to internet from the container

$ podman exec -it pihole /bin/bash
pi:/# ping -c 1 -t 10 1.1.1.1
PING 1.1.1.1 (1.1.1.1): 56 data bytes

--- 1.1.1.1 ping statistics ---
1 packets transmitted, 0 packets received, 100% packet loss

I restarted the service corresponding to pihole.container

$ systemctl --user restart pihole.service

I am able to connect to internet from the container after restart

$ podman exec -it pihole /bin/bash
pi:/# ping -c 1 -t 10 1.1.1.1
PING 1.1.1.1 (1.1.1.1): 56 data bytes
64 bytes from 1.1.1.1: seq=0 ttl=42 time=9.957 ms

--- 1.1.1.1 ping statistics ---
1 packets transmitted, 1 packets received, 0% packet loss
round-trip min/avg/max = 9.957/9.957/9.957 ms

[sbrivio-rh]

Expected at the moment, see #22737 (reply in thread) and https://pad.passt.top/p/PastaWithoutNetworkConnectivity. We're working on it. What version of pasta are you using by the way? We introduced a "local mode" for disconnected setups as a temporary solution that should improve things meanwhile.

[sbrivio-rh]

...and https://bugs.passt.top/show_bug.cgi?id=141, too.

[askoa]

Thanks for the response.

What version of pasta are you using by the way?

pasta 0^20250919.g23dbf-1.fc42.x86_64

[sbrivio-rh]

Okay, I see why local mode doesn't help in your case.

You have virbr0, created by libvirt, with a route, even though not a default route, so we assume that's our best bet as an approximation of an upstream interface and copy everything (addresses and routes) from it.

But that means that the container doesn't get a default route. So https://bugs.passt.top/show_bug.cgi?id=141 is the only fix that will actually work for you.

Meanwhile, as a workaround, you can manually specify a fixed address and route for the container, say podman run --net=pasta:-a,169.254.2.1,-g,169.254.2.2 (or equivalent configuration parameters) so that you'll get a default route in the container regardless of its presence on the host.