diff --git a/man/systemd.exec.xml b/man/systemd.exec.xml
index 38220958b4..3b57f8d2f1 100644
--- a/man/systemd.exec.xml
+++ b/man/systemd.exec.xml
@@ -143,9 +143,7 @@
           <title>Mounting logging sockets into root environment</title>
 
           <programlisting>BindReadOnlyPaths=/dev/log /run/systemd/journal/socket /run/systemd/journal/stdout</programlisting>
-        </example>
-
-        <xi:include href="system-only.xml" xpointer="singular"/></listitem>
+        </example></listitem>
       </varlistentry>
 
       <varlistentry>
@@ -276,9 +274,7 @@
 
         <para>In order to allow propagating mounts at runtime in a safe manner, <filename>/run/systemd/propagate</filename>
         on the host will be used to set up new mounts, and <filename>/run/host/incoming/</filename> in the private namespace
-        will be used as an intermediate step to store them before being moved to the final mount point.</para>
-
-        <xi:include href="system-only.xml" xpointer="singular"/></listitem>
+        will be used as an intermediate step to store them before being moved to the final mount point.</para></listitem>
       </varlistentry>
 
       <varlistentry>
@@ -364,9 +360,7 @@
         <varname>InaccessiblePaths=</varname>, or under <filename>/home/</filename> and other protected
         directories if <varname>ProtectHome=yes</varname> is
         specified. <varname>TemporaryFileSystem=</varname> with <literal>:ro</literal> or
-        <varname>ProtectHome=tmpfs</varname> should be used instead.</para>
-
-        <xi:include href="system-only.xml" xpointer="singular"/></listitem>
+        <varname>ProtectHome=tmpfs</varname> should be used instead.</para></listitem>
       </varlistentry>
 
       <varlistentry>
diff --git a/src/core/namespace.c b/src/core/namespace.c
index e75e003e71..77dd473a48 100644
--- a/src/core/namespace.c
+++ b/src/core/namespace.c
@@ -1128,9 +1128,15 @@ static int mount_procfs(const MountEntry *m, const NamespaceInfo *ns_info) {
                 r = path_is_mount_point(entry_path, NULL, 0);
                 if (r < 0)
                         return log_debug_errno(r, "Unable to determine whether /proc is already mounted: %m");
-                if (r == 0)
-                        /* /proc is not mounted. Propagate the original error code. */
-                        return -EPERM;
+                if (r == 0) {
+                        /* We lack permissions to mount a new instance of /proc, and it is not already
+                         * mounted. But we can access the host's, so as a final fallback bind-mount it to
+                         * the destination, as most likely we are inside a user manager in an unprivileged
+                         * user namespace. */
+                        r = mount_nofollow_verbose(LOG_DEBUG, "/proc", entry_path, NULL, MS_BIND|MS_REC, NULL);
+                        if (r < 0)
+                                return -EPERM;
+                }
         } else if (r < 0)
                 return r;
 
@@ -2384,9 +2390,9 @@ int setup_namespace(
         if (setup_propagate)
                 (void) mkdir_p(propagate_dir, 0600);
 
-        if (n_extension_images > 0)
-                /* ExtensionImages mountpoint directories will be created while parsing the mounts to create,
-                 * so have the parent ready */
+        if (n_extension_images > 0 || !strv_isempty(extension_directories))
+                /* ExtensionImages/Directories mountpoint directories will be created while parsing the
+                 * mounts to create, so have the parent ready */
                 (void) mkdir_p(extension_dir, 0600);
 
         /* Remount / as SLAVE so that nothing now mounted in the namespace
@@ -2446,6 +2452,17 @@ int setup_namespace(
 
         /* MS_MOVE does not work on MS_SHARED so the remount MS_SHARED will be done later */
         r = mount_move_root(root);
+        if (r == -EINVAL && root_directory) {
+                /* If we are using root_directory and we don't have privileges (ie: user manager in a user
+                 * namespace) and the root_directory is already a mount point in the parent namespace,
+                 * MS_MOVE will fail as we don't have permission to change it (with EINVAL rather than
+                 * EPERM). Attempt to bind-mount it over itself (like we do above if it's not already a
+                 * mount point) and try again. */
+                r = mount_nofollow_verbose(LOG_DEBUG, root, root, NULL, MS_BIND|MS_REC, NULL);
+                if (r < 0)
+                        goto finish;
+                r = mount_move_root(root);
+        }
         if (r < 0) {
                 log_debug_errno(r, "Failed to mount root with MS_MOVE: %m");
                 goto finish;
diff --git a/test/TEST-43-PRIVATEUSER-UNPRIV/test.sh b/test/TEST-43-PRIVATEUSER-UNPRIV/test.sh
index bb8bc18697..dafcdb58fc 100755
--- a/test/TEST-43-PRIVATEUSER-UNPRIV/test.sh
+++ b/test/TEST-43-PRIVATEUSER-UNPRIV/test.sh
@@ -3,10 +3,19 @@
 set -e
 
 TEST_DESCRIPTION="Test PrivateUsers=yes on user manager"
+IMAGE_NAME="private-users"
 
 # shellcheck source=test/test-functions
 . "${TEST_BASE_DIR:?}/test-functions"
 
 has_user_dbus_socket || exit 0
+command -v mksquashfs >/dev/null 2>&1 || exit 0
+
+test_append_files() {
+    (
+        inst_binary unsquashfs
+        install_verity_minimal
+    )
+}
 
 do_test "$@"
diff --git a/test/units/testsuite-43.sh b/test/units/testsuite-43.sh
index 9c0f93b518..cda1fe1fda 100755
--- a/test/units/testsuite-43.sh
+++ b/test/units/testsuite-43.sh
@@ -15,6 +15,8 @@ runas() {
 runas testuser systemd-run --wait --user --unit=test-private-users \
     -p PrivateUsers=yes -P echo hello
 
+runas testuser systemctl --user log-level debug
+
 runas testuser systemd-run --wait --user --unit=test-private-tmp-innerfile \
     -p PrivateUsers=yes -p PrivateTmp=yes \
     -P touch /tmp/innerfile.txt
@@ -66,6 +68,24 @@ runas testuser systemd-run --wait --user --unit=test-group-fail \
     -P true \
     && { echo 'unexpected success'; exit 1; }
 
+# Check that with a new user namespace we can bind mount
+# files and use a different root directory
+runas testuser systemd-run --wait --user --unit=test-bind-mount \
+    -p PrivateUsers=yes -p BindPaths=/dev/null:/etc/os-release \
+    test ! -s /etc/os-release
+
+unsquashfs -no-xattrs -d /tmp/img /usr/share/minimal_0.raw
+runas testuser systemd-run --wait --user --unit=test-root-dir \
+    -p PrivateUsers=yes -p RootDirectory=/tmp/img \
+    grep MARKER=1 /etc/os-release
+
+mkdir /tmp/img_bind
+mount --bind /tmp/img /tmp/img_bind
+runas testuser systemd-run --wait --user --unit=test-root-dir-bind \
+    -p PrivateUsers=yes -p RootDirectory=/tmp/img_bind \
+    grep MARKER=1 /etc/os-release
+umount /tmp/img_bind
+
 systemd-analyze log-level info
 
 echo OK >/testok