diff --git a/lib/poptALL.c b/lib/poptALL.c
index b24c13ed78..4cf82ea05c 100644
--- a/lib/poptALL.c
+++ b/lib/poptALL.c
@@ -24,8 +24,6 @@
 
 static int _debug = 0;
 
-extern int _rpm_nouserns;
-
 extern int _fsm_debug;
 
 extern int _print_pkts;
@@ -272,8 +270,6 @@ struct poptOption rpmcliAllPoptTable[] = {
 	NULL, NULL},
  { "rpmiodebug", '\0', POPT_ARG_VAL|POPT_ARGFLAG_DOC_HIDDEN, &_rpmio_debug, -1,
 	N_("debug rpmio I/O"), NULL},
- { "nouserns", '\0', POPT_ARG_VAL|POPT_ARGFLAG_DOC_HIDDEN, &_rpm_nouserns, -1,
-	N_("disable user namespace support"), NULL},
  { "stats", '\0', POPT_ARG_VAL|POPT_ARGFLAG_DOC_HIDDEN, &_rpmts_stats, -1,
 	NULL, NULL},
 
diff --git a/lib/rpmchroot.c b/lib/rpmchroot.c
index ebcece6c25..ea0cea68a7 100644
--- a/lib/rpmchroot.c
+++ b/lib/rpmchroot.c
@@ -8,8 +8,6 @@
 #include "rpmug.h"
 #include "debug.h"
 
-int _rpm_nouserns = 0;
-
 struct rootState_s {
     char *rootDir;
     int chrootDone;
@@ -23,60 +21,6 @@ static struct rootState_s rootState = {
    .cwd = -1,
 }; 
 
-#if defined(HAVE_UNSHARE) && defined(CLONE_NEWUSER)
-/*
- * If setgroups file exists (Linux >= 3.19), we need to write "deny" to it,
- * otherwise gid_map will fail.
- */
-static int deny_setgroups(void)
-{
-    int fd = open("/proc/self/setgroups", O_WRONLY, 0);
-    int xx = -1;
-    if (fd >= 0) {
-	xx = write(fd, "deny\n", strlen("deny\n"));
-	close (fd);
-    }
-    return (xx == -1);
-}
-
-static int setup_map(const char *path, unsigned int id, unsigned int oid)
-{
-    int xx = -1;
-    int fd = open(path, O_WRONLY);
-    if (fd >= 0) {
-	char buf[256];
-	int ret = snprintf(buf, sizeof(buf), "%u %u 1\n", id, oid);
-	xx = write(fd, buf, ret);
-	close (fd);
-    }
-    return (xx == -1);
-}
-
-/*
- * Try to become root by creating a user namespace. We don't really care
- * if this fails here because in that case chroot() will just fail as it
- * normally would.
- */
-static void try_become_root(void)
-{
-    static int unshared = 0;
-    uid_t uid = getuid();
-    gid_t gid = getgid();
-    if (!unshared && unshare(CLONE_NEWUSER | CLONE_NEWNS) == 0) {
-	deny_setgroups();
-	setup_map("/proc/self/uid_map", 0, uid);
-	setup_map("/proc/self/gid_map", 0, gid);
-	unshared = 1;
-    }
-    rpmlog(RPMLOG_DEBUG, "user ns: %d original user %d:%d current %d:%d\n",
-	    unshared, uid, gid, getuid(), getgid());
-}
-#else
-static void try_become_root(void)
-{
-}
-#endif
-
 int rpmChrootSet(const char *rootDir)
 {
     int rc = 0;
@@ -126,9 +70,6 @@ int rpmChrootIn(void)
     if (rootState.chrootDone > 0) {
 	rootState.chrootDone++;
     } else if (rootState.chrootDone == 0) {
-	if (!_rpm_nouserns && getuid())
-	    try_become_root();
-
 	rpmlog(RPMLOG_DEBUG, "entering chroot %s\n", rootState.rootDir);
 	if (chdir("/") == 0 && chroot(rootState.rootDir) == 0) {
 	    rootState.chrootDone = 1;
diff --git a/tests/atlocal.in b/tests/atlocal.in
index 753bce1ae6..0c46a47334 100644
--- a/tests/atlocal.in
+++ b/tests/atlocal.in
@@ -150,8 +150,7 @@ function runroot()
     setup_env
     snapshot exec "$@" \
              --define "_buildhost testhost" \
-             --define "_topdir /build" \
-             --nouserns
+             --define "_topdir /build"
 }
 
 function runroot_other()