[GH-ISSUE #1551] Running without root on macOS #2513

New Issue

saavagebueno · 2026-08-05T00:47:32-04:00

saavagebueno commented

2026-08-05 00:47:32 -04:00

Originally created by @sandstrom on GitHub (Feb 8, 2024).
Original GitHub issue: https://github.com/netbirdio/netbird/issues/1551

The current install flow requires sudo:

sudo netbird service install
sudo netbird service

Ideally we should be able to run netbird without root.

Some inspiration and potentially relevant links:

Also, Docker Desktop has some examples on how to tackle the problem of running in user land (https://docs.docker.com/desktop/mac/permission-requirements/). The have a thin privileged agent, but the rest is user-space.

Originally created by @sandstrom on GitHub (Feb 8, 2024). Original GitHub issue: https://github.com/netbirdio/netbird/issues/1551 The current install flow requires sudo: ```sh sudo netbird service install sudo netbird service ``` Ideally we should be able to run netbird without root. Some inspiration and potentially relevant links: - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=33700136 - https://github.com/sandialabs/wiretap Also, Docker Desktop has some examples on how to tackle the problem of running in user land (https://docs.docker.com/desktop/mac/permission-requirements/). The have a thin privileged agent, but the rest is user-space.

saavagebueno closed this issue

2026-08-05 00:47:32 -04:00

saavagebueno commented

2026-08-05 00:47:33 -04:00

@myevit commented on GitHub (Feb 23, 2024):

I don't think you can install/start service as non root user. You can probably run netbird as foreground service.

@myevit commented on GitHub (Feb 23, 2024): I don't think you can install/start service as non root user. You can probably run netbird as foreground service.

saavagebueno commented

2026-08-05 00:47:33 -04:00

@jakob1379 commented on GitHub (Jan 24, 2025):

Systemctl runs fine as user services, that just needs to be recognized by the Netbird client and properly set the services in userspace instead

@jakob1379 commented on GitHub (Jan 24, 2025): Systemctl runs fine as user services, that just needs to be recognized by the Netbird client and properly set the services in userspace instead

saavagebueno commented

2026-08-05 00:47:33 -04:00

@lixmal commented on GitHub (Jan 24, 2025):

You can run netbird without root: https://docs.netbird.io/how-to/netbird-on-faas

or the container image netbirdio/netbird:rootless-latest

@lixmal commented on GitHub (Jan 24, 2025): You can run netbird without root: https://docs.netbird.io/how-to/netbird-on-faas or the container image `netbirdio/netbird:rootless-latest`

saavagebueno referenced this issue

2026-08-05 01:01:35 -04:00

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Reference: DYNR/netbird#2513