diff --git a/src/core/namespace.c b/src/core/namespace.c
index 4f29217bc4..673b836489 100644
--- a/src/core/namespace.c
+++ b/src/core/namespace.c
@@ -27,6 +27,7 @@
 #include <linux/fs.h>
 
 #include "alloc-util.h"
+#include "base-filesystem.h"
 #include "dev-setup.h"
 #include "fd-util.h"
 #include "fs-util.h"
@@ -1044,6 +1045,10 @@ int setup_namespace(
                 }
         }
 
+        /* Try to set up the new root directory before mounting anything there */
+        if (root_directory)
+                (void) base_filesystem_create(root_directory, UID_INVALID, GID_INVALID);
+
         if (root_image) {
                 r = dissected_image_mount(dissected_image, root_directory, dissect_image_flags);
                 if (r < 0)
diff --git a/src/shared/base-filesystem.c b/src/shared/base-filesystem.c
index 127cbe44e3..5cbb2ec3dd 100644
--- a/src/shared/base-filesystem.c
+++ b/src/shared/base-filesystem.c
@@ -51,6 +51,9 @@ static const BaseFilesystem table[] = {
         { "usr",   0755, NULL,                         NULL },
         { "var",   0755, NULL,                         NULL },
         { "etc",   0755, NULL,                         NULL },
+        { "proc",  0755, NULL,                         NULL, true },
+        { "sys",   0755, NULL,                         NULL, true },
+        { "dev",   0755, NULL,                         NULL, true },
 #if defined(__i386__) || defined(__x86_64__)
         { "lib64",    0, "usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu\0"
                          "usr/lib64\0",                "ld-linux-x86-64.so.2" },