Re: Enable User Namespaces
Hi,
On Wed, Oct 08, 2025 at 09:13:15PM +0000, Shy Rouge Gaming wrote:
> I'm a new linux debian user that's learning to navigate the
> operating system. A common issue has popped up when I attempted to download
> certain services: "user namespaces must be enabled" is a message that pops
> up constantly when I attempt to run certain services.
User namespaces have been enabled by default in Debian's kernel since
Debian 11 (bookworm). Since Debian 13 is the current stable release, you
should not be using Debian 10 or older at this point.
If you are using a recent Debian, it seems like your problem is not
going to be caused by Debian's kernel.
The sysctl that Debian added for enabling user namespaces:
$ sudo sysctl kernel.unprivileged_userns_clone
kernel.unprivileged_userns_clone = 1
is unique to Debian but is set to 1 (enabled) now.
If you run that on a non-Debian kernel then the sysctl won't be known,
because it was added only by Debian. However in that case, you would
*also* be on a kernel that has user namespaces enabled (unless you
specifically compiled it out).
So either way your problem probably lies elsewhere and more details are
needed.
Thanks,
Andy
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