What were you trying to do that didn't work?

Create container:

~~~
# cat Containerfile 
FROM registry.redhat.io/rhel9/rhel-bootc:9.7

RUN cat > /usr/lib/ostree/prepare-root.conf <<EOF
[composefs]
enabled = yes
[sysroot]
readonly = true
[etc]
transient = true
EOF

RUN kver=$(cd /usr/lib/modules && echo *); dracut -vf /usr/lib/modules/"$kver"/initramfs.img "$kver"

RUN yum install -y tuned && yum clean all
~~~

Push this to quay, build the podman with image builder
~~~

# podman run     -rm     privileged     pull=newer     -security-opt label=type:unconfined_t     -v ./config.toml:/config.toml:ro     -v ./output:/output     -v /var/lib/containers/storage:/var/lib/
containers/storage     registry.redhat.io/rhel9/bootc-image-builder:latest     -type qcow2     -config /config.toml   quay.io/<reponame>/<image_name>:latest
~~~
Boot the resulting qcow2, on login we see there were service failures

~~~

This key is not known by any other names
Are you sure you want to continue connecting (yes/no/[fingerprint])? yes
Warning: Permanently added '192.168.122.42' (ED25519) to the list of known hosts.
[systemd]
Failed Units: 2
 bootc-publish-rhsm-facts.service
 rpm-ostree-fix-shadow-mode.service
[root@localhost ~]# rpm-ostree kargs
Job for rpm-ostreed.service failed because the control process exited with error code.
See "systemctl status rpm-ostreed.service" and "journalctl -xeu rpm-ostreed.service" for details.
× rpm-ostreed.service - rpm-ostree System Management Daemon
    Loaded: loaded (/usr/lib/systemd/system/rpm-ostreed.service; static)
    Active: failed (Result: exit-code) since Thu 2025-12-11 17:50:01 UTC; 10ms ago
      Docs: man:rpm-ostree(1)
   Process: 1293 ExecStart=rpm-ostree start-daemon (code=exited, status=1/FAILURE)
  Main PID: 1293 (code=exited, status=1/FAILURE)
    Status: "error: Couldn't start daemon: Error setting up sysroot: loading sysroot: Unexpected state: /run/ostree-booted found, but no /boot/loader directory"
       CPU: 18ms

Dec 11 17:50:01 localhost.localdomain systemd[1]: Starting rpm-ostree System Management Daemon...
Dec 11 17:50:01 localhost.localdomain rpm-ostree[1293]: Reading config file '/etc/rpm-ostreed.conf'
Dec 11 17:50:01 localhost.localdomain rpm-ostree[1293]: error: Couldn't start daemon: Error setting up sysroot: loading sysroot: Unexpected state: /run/ostree-booted found, but no /boot/loader directory
Dec 11 17:50:01 localhost.localdomain systemd[1]: rpm-ostreed.service: Main process exited, code=exited, status=1/FAILURE
Dec 11 17:50:01 localhost.localdomain systemd[1]: rpm-ostreed.service: Failed with result 'exit-code'.
Dec 11 17:50:01 localhost.localdomain systemd[1]: Failed to start rpm-ostree System Management Daemon.
error: Loading sysroot: exit status: 1
~~~

Checking journal logs see the following
~~~
Dec 11 17:48:50 localhost bootc[767]: error: Publishing facts: Initializing storage: Acquiring sysroot: Remounting /boot read-write: Invalid argument

<snip>
Dec 11 17:48:50 localhost systemd[1]: bootc-publish-rhsm-facts.service: Main process exited, code=exited, status=1/FAILURE
Dec 11 17:48:50 localhost systemd[1]: bootc-publish-rhsm-facts.service: Failed with result 'exit-code'.
Dec 11 17:48:50 localhost systemd[1]: Failed to start Publish bootc facts to Red Hat Subscription Manager.

<snip>

~~~
Same issue does not happen if using bootc install directly to disk like
~~~
# podman run --rm --privileged --pid=host -e IMAGE=<image_location_quay> -e REGISTRY_AUTH_FILE=/etc/ostree/auth.json -v /root/config.json:/etc/ostree/auth.json -v /dev:/dev -v /var
:/var --security-opt label=type:unconfined_t  <image_location_quay> bootc install to-disk --source-imgref=docker://${IMAGE} --wipe /dev/vda
~~~

What is the impact of this issue to you?

Unable to use transient etc bootc containers with the image builder method

How reproducible is this bug?:

Reproduced using Image Builder 9.4 and latest image, seems to occur every time

Expected results

rpm-ostree starts and we see /boot is mounted

Actual results

/boot isn't mounted and there are service failures