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How to Install Podman on Ubuntu 26.04

Updated on 24 April, 2026
Install the Podman daemonless container engine on an Ubuntu 26.04 to build, run, and manage OCI-compatible containers with rootless security.
How to Install Podman on Ubuntu 26.04 header image

Podman is an open-source container engine that builds, runs, and manages Open Container Initiative (OCI) containers without requiring a background daemon process. Its daemonless architecture improves security by running containers under the user's own privileges, and it provides a Docker-compatible command-line interface for seamless migration from existing container workflows.

This article explains how to install Podman on an Ubuntu 26.04 server, manage the Podman service, deploy a containerized application, and build a custom container image from a sample Python application.

Prerequisites

Before you begin, you need to:

Install Podman

The default Ubuntu 26.04 APT repositories include the Podman package. The following steps install Podman and verify the installed version.

  1. Update the APT package index.

    console 
    $ sudo apt update

  2. Install Podman.

    console 
    $ sudo apt install podman -y

  3. Confirm the installed Podman version.

    console 
    $ podman --version

    Your output should be similar to the one below:

    podman version 5.7.0

Manage the Podman System Service

Podman provides two systemd components: the podman CLI for direct container management and podman.socket for remote API access through a Unix socket. The following steps enable and manage the socket-based service.

  1. Enable the Podman socket to start automatically at boot time.

    console 
    $ sudo systemctl enable podman.socket

  2. Start the Podman socket service.

    console 
    $ sudo systemctl start podman.socket

  3. Verify that the Podman socket is active and listening.

    console 
    $ sudo systemctl status podman.socket

    The output should display active (listening), confirming that the Podman API socket is operational.

Deploy a Containerized Application

Podman pulls container images from registries defined in /etc/containers/registries.conf, including Docker Hub. The following steps pull an Nginx image, run it as a container, and verify access to the application.

  1. Pull the Nginx Alpine image from Docker Hub.

    console 
    $ sudo podman pull docker.io/nginx:alpine

  2. List all container images available on the server.

    console 
    $ sudo podman images

    Verify that the docker.io/library/nginx image with the alpine tag is listed in the output.

  3. Run a container using the Nginx image and map host port 9090 to container port 80.

    console 
    $ sudo podman run -d --name example-nginx -p 9090:80 docker.io/nginx:alpine

  4. List all running containers.

    console 
    $ sudo podman ps

    Verify that the example-nginx container is listed with a status of Up.

  5. Test access to the containerized application.

    console 
    $ curl http://localhost:9090

    A successful response returns the default Nginx welcome page HTML content.

Build a Custom Container Image

Podman builds container images from a Dockerfile using the same syntax as Docker. The following steps create a sample Python web application, define a Dockerfile, build the image, and run it as a container.

  1. Create a new project directory and navigate into it.

    console 
    $ mkdir ~/example-app && cd ~/example-app

  2. Create a new Python application file.

    console 
    $ nano app.py

  3. Add the following code to the file.

    python 
    from fastapi import FastAPI, Response
import uvicorn

app = FastAPI()

@app.get("/")
def hello():
    return Response(content="Hello World from Podman", media_type="text/plain")

if __name__ == "__main__":
    uvicorn.run(app, host="0.0.0.0", port=5000)

    Save and close the file.

    This FastAPI application starts a web server on port 5000 that returns a plain text response.

  4. Create a Dockerfile for the application.

    console 
    $ nano Dockerfile

  5. Add the following configuration to the file.

    dockerfile 
    FROM python:3.13-slim
WORKDIR /app
COPY . /app
RUN pip install fastapi uvicorn
EXPOSE 5000
CMD ["python", "app.py"]

    Save and close the file.

  6. Build the container image.

    console 
    $ sudo podman build -t example-fastapi-app .

    Podman builds the image and displays Successfully tagged localhost/example-fastapi-app:latest on completion.

  7. Run a container from the newly built image.

    console 
    $ sudo podman run -d --name example-app -p 5000:5000 localhost/example-fastapi-app:latest

  8. Test access to the application.

    console 
    $ curl http://localhost:5000

    A successful response returns:

    Hello World from Podman

Conclusion

You have installed Podman on an Ubuntu 26.04 server, deployed a container from a public registry image, and built a custom container image from a Python application. Podman supports rootless containers, pod management, and integration with container registries for storing and distributing images. For more information, refer to the official Podman documentation.

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