diff --git a/pkg/kubelet/cm/container_manager_linux.go b/pkg/kubelet/cm/container_manager_linux.go
index d98162ec8a8..03f5aa36503 100644
--- a/pkg/kubelet/cm/container_manager_linux.go
+++ b/pkg/kubelet/cm/container_manager_linux.go
@@ -39,6 +39,7 @@ import (
 	utilpath "k8s.io/utils/path"
 
 	libcontainerdevices "github.com/opencontainers/runc/libcontainer/devices"
+	libcontaineruserns "github.com/opencontainers/runc/libcontainer/userns"
 	v1 "k8s.io/api/core/v1"
 	"k8s.io/apimachinery/pkg/api/resource"
 	utilerrors "k8s.io/apimachinery/pkg/util/errors"
@@ -455,6 +456,13 @@ func setupKernelTunables(option KernelTunableBehavior) error {
 			klog.V(2).InfoS("Updating kernel flag", "flag", flag, "expectedValue", expectedValue, "actualValue", val)
 			err = sysctl.SetSysctl(flag, expectedValue)
 			if err != nil {
+				if libcontaineruserns.RunningInUserNS() {
+					if utilfeature.DefaultFeatureGate.Enabled(kubefeatures.KubeletInUserNamespace) {
+						klog.V(2).InfoS("Updating kernel flag failed (running in UserNS, ignoring)", "flag", flag, "err", err)
+						continue
+					}
+					klog.ErrorS(err, "Updating kernel flag failed (Hint: enable KubeletInUserNamespace feature flag to ignore the error)", "flag", flag)
+				}
 				errList = append(errList, err)
 			}
 		}