diff --git a/ceph-dashboard-cephadm-e2e/build/cleanup b/ceph-dashboard-cephadm-e2e/build/cleanup
index b3e7285a7..e511c5d6f 100755
--- a/ceph-dashboard-cephadm-e2e/build/cleanup
+++ b/ceph-dashboard-cephadm-e2e/build/cleanup
@@ -3,6 +3,8 @@ set +x
 echo "Starting cleanup..."
 
 with_libvirt() {
+    # Ensure socket is accessible in case permissions were reset
+    sudo chmod 0666 /var/run/libvirt/libvirt-sock 2>/dev/null || true
     sg libvirt -c "$1"
 }
 
diff --git a/scripts/dashboard/install-cephadm-e2e-deps.sh b/scripts/dashboard/install-cephadm-e2e-deps.sh
index a05354a11..314d69fa0 100644
--- a/scripts/dashboard/install-cephadm-e2e-deps.sh
+++ b/scripts/dashboard/install-cephadm-e2e-deps.sh
@@ -39,16 +39,21 @@ nvm install
 nvm use
 popd
 
-sudo apt install -y libvirt-daemon-system libvirt-daemon-driver-qemu qemu-kvm libvirt-clients
+sudo apt install -y libvirt-daemon-system libvirt-daemon-driver-qemu qemu-kvm libvirt-clients crun
 
 sudo usermod -aG libvirt $(id -un)
-newgrp libvirt  # Avoid having to log out and log in for group addition to take effect.
 sudo systemctl enable --now libvirtd
 
+# Rootless podman creates a user namespace that drops supplementary groups.
+# --group-add keep-groups (crun) preserves them, but only if crun is the
+# OCI runtime.  As a robust fallback, also widen socket permissions so the
+# mapped UID can connect regardless of group membership.
+sudo chmod 0666 /var/run/libvirt/libvirt-sock
+
 KCLI_CONFIG_DIR="${HOME}/.kcli"
 mkdir -p ${KCLI_CONFIG_DIR}
 if [[ ! -f "${KCLI_CONFIG_DIR}/id_rsa" ]]; then
-    sudo ssh-keygen -t rsa -q -f "${KCLI_CONFIG_DIR}/id_rsa" -N "" <<< y
+    ssh-keygen -t rsa -q -f "${KCLI_CONFIG_DIR}/id_rsa" -N "" <<< y
 fi
 
 : ${KCLI_CONTAINER_IMAGE:='quay.io/karmab/kcli:2543a61'}
@@ -70,6 +75,7 @@ sudo chmod +x /usr/local/bin/kcli
 
 # KCLI cleanup function can be found here: https://github.com/ceph/ceph/blob/main/src/pybind/mgr/dashboard/ci/cephadm/start-cluster.sh
 sudo mkdir -p /var/lib/libvirt/images/ceph-dashboard
+sudo chown "$(id -u):$(id -g)" /var/lib/libvirt/images/ceph-dashboard
 
 with_libvirt() {
     sg libvirt -c "$1"