{"id":14581,"date":"2026-09-07T01:01:00","date_gmt":"2026-09-07T05:01:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.both.org\/?p=14581"},"modified":"2026-08-30T13:28:14","modified_gmt":"2026-08-30T17:28:14","slug":"podman-desktop-on-macos","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.both.org\/?p=14581","title":{"rendered":"Podman Desktop on macOS"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\r\n \r\n <\/i>\r\n <\/a>\r\n <\/span>\r\n<\/div><\/div>\n

Last week, I installed Podman on my Linux desktop and enjoyed experimenting with containers. I was eager to learn more about Podman and determined to set it up on my M3 MacBook Air. Rather than following a lengthy set of instructions, I opted to install it using Homebrew<\/a>, which I did easily. However, I soon realized that the steps I successfully followed on my Linux Mint desktop didn\u2019t work on macOS. Podman had been an easy Flatpak install on Linux. My go-to open-source installer on macOS is Homebrew. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Frustrated with the Podman install, I installed Docker, which I’d used before and could get running on macOS. Why would Docker run and not Podman? What was I missing? The missing piece was not reading the excellent documentation<\/a> on the Podman project site. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Upon reading the documentation, I discovered that my issues stemmed from an incorrect installation. Red Hat recommends installing Podman on macOS<\/a> using the .dmg file instead of Homebrew. For Apple Silicon devices like mine, the best option is to use the Universal *.dmg file, specifically version v1.29.1, available on their website.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After removing the Homebrew installation, I downloaded and installed it using the image file from the Podman site. Everything just worked flawlessly. Here are the commands I used to install WordPress on the M3: <\/p>\n\n\n\n

podman pod create -n wordpress-pod -p 8080:80<\/code><\/pre>\n\n\n\n
Once the pod is created and properly mapped to port 8080, the next command sets up the MariaDB database:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
podman run -d --pod wordpress-pod --name wp-db \\\n  -e MYSQL_ROOT_PASSWORD=mysecretpassword \\\n  -e MYSQL_DATABASE=wordpress \\\n  -e MYSQL_USER=wpuser \\\n  -e MYSQL_PASSWORD=mypassword \\\n  docker.io\/library\/mariadb:latest\n<\/code><\/pre>\n\n\n\n
Then I was ready to set up WordPress itself<\/p>\n\n\n\n
podman run -d --pod wordpress-pod --name wp-wordpress \\\n  -e WORDPRESS_DB_HOST=127.0.0.1:3306 \\\n  -e WORDPRESS_DB_USER=wpuser \\\n  -e WORDPRESS_DB_PASSWORD=mypassword \\\n  -e WORDPRESS_DB_NAME=wordpress \\\n  docker.io\/library\/wordpress:latest\n<\/code><\/pre>\n\n\n\n
Once the database and the application is set up, it is time for the first login at http:\/\/localhost:8080<\/code><\/p>\n\n\n\n
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Screen picture by Don Watkins CC by SA 4.0<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
Select the correct language and click \u2018Continue\u2019. Next, I set up the administrative user and set a strong password. I use Bitwarden to save my passwords. Give the blog a name and finally add an email address.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\"\"
Screen picture by Don Watkins CC by SA 4.0<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
Once the installation is complete, you can start blogging or just exploring WordPress.
<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\"\"
Screen Picture by Don Watkins CC by SA 4.0<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
Following directions when diving into technical content is like following a recipe while baking a souffl\u00e9\u2014ignore a crucial step, and you might just end up with a flat mess instead of a fluffy masterpiece. Whether you\u2019re installing software, setting up databases, or even assembling IKEA furniture (another exercise in patience), a little attention to the instructions can save you from hours of troubleshooting and untold frustration. When it comes to tech, \u201cwinging it\u201d is not a strategy; it\u2019s a fast track to panic and a mountain of confusion. There is always something to learn, even when I think I know it all.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Last week, I installed Podman on my Linux desktop and enjoyed experimenting with containers. I was eager to<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":32,"featured_media":14572,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":"","_members_access_role":[],"_members_access_error":""},"categories":[5,214],"tags":[91,227,988],"class_list":["post-14581","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-linux","category-macos","tag-linux","tag-macos","tag-podman"],"modified_by":"David Both","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.both.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14581","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.both.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.both.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.both.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/32"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.both.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=14581"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.both.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14581\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14590,"href":"https:\/\/www.both.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14581\/revisions\/14590"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.both.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/14572"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.both.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=14581"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.both.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=14581"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.both.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=14581"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}