wikibackup/distrobox.md

title	description	published	date	tags	editor	dateCreated
Distrobox		true	2024-07-26T09:55:03.789Z	distrobox, podman, docker	markdown	2024-07-26T09:52:59.311Z

Distrobox

Distrobox is a container wrapping layer that allows the user to install containerised versions of Linux that are different to the host while providing tight integration with the host allowing the use of binaries designed for one distribution to run on another.

Distrobox itself is not a container manager and relies on Podman or Docker to create containers

From the Distrobox documentation:

Use any Linux distribution inside your terminal. Enable both backward and forward compatibility with software and freedom to use whatever distribution you’re more comfortable with. Distrobox uses Podman or Docker to create containers using the Linux distribution of your choice. The created container will be tightly integrated with the host, allowing sharing of the HOME directory of the user, external storage, external USB devices and graphical apps (X11/Wayland), and audio.

Security implications

The main goal of Distrobox is not focused on sandboxing the containers from the host and the containers that are running inside distrobox would have full access to your home folder as well as some other locations.

It is recommended to use Podman instead of Docker since by default docker would run containers as root and rootful containers will have unrestricted access to your host filesystem

Installation

With root access

first you need install either podman or docker to begin.

then install distrobox or distrobox-git from aur using paru.

Without root access

It is possible to install Distrobox into your home folder if you don't have root access to the system or if you are using an immutable distro. Doing so requires the use of a curl-to-sh pipe which is an unsupported installation method due to it posing a security risk.

You can find instructions on the Distrobox documentation page

Usage

Note:

• Throughout the following section ‍‍‍name is a variable and can be whatever you want. In all cases replace name with the actual name you choose
• For the full list of supported options in any sub category use --help, for example to see all creation options use distrobox create --help
• A full list of supported distros along with their image names can be found at https://distrobox.it/compatibility/#containers-distros
• For more advanced usage techniques please see the Distrobox Documentation page at https://distrobox.it/usage/usage/

To create a new container run the following:

distrobox create -n name

To List installed containers:

distrobox list

To intract with an installed container:

distrobox enter name

or you can run a command directly:

distrobox enter name -- command

To stop a running container run the following:

distrobox stop name

To delete a container run the following:

distrobox rm name

To install a specific distro into a container run the following (in this example its Ubuntu):

distrobox create --image ubuntu:22.04

Installations can be fully customised as follows (in this example its a container called test running Gentoo with root access):

distrobox create -i docker.io/gentoo/stage3:latest -n test --root

If you need your container to have root access to the host then it is recommended that you use the ‍‍‍--root flag over sudo distrobox

Configuration

It is possible to configure Distrobox in two ways, either with a configuration file or by using environment variables.

Configuration files

Distrobox checks the following locations for config files, from least important to most important:

/usr/share/distrobox/distrobox.conf
/usr/etc/distrobox/distrobox.conf
/etc/distrobox/distrobox.conf
~/.config/distrobox/distrobox.conf
~/.distroboxrc

An example config file is as follows:

container_always_pull="1"
container_generate_entry=0
container_manager="docker"
container_image_default="registry.opensuse.org/opensuse/toolbox:latest"
container_name_default="test-name-1"
container_user_custom_home="$HOME/.local/share/container-home-test"
container_init_hook="~/.local/distrobox/a_custom_default_init_hook.sh"
container_pre_init_hook="~/a_custom_default_pre_init_hook.sh"
non_interactive="1"
skip_workdir="0"

Environment variables

The following variables are available and should be set using per user variables:

DBX_CONTAINER_ALWAYS_PULL
DBX_CONTAINER_CUSTOM_HOME
DBX_CONTAINER_IMAGE
DBX_CONTAINER_MANAGER
DBX_CONTAINER_NAME
DBX_CONTAINER_ENTRY
DBX_NON_INTERACTIVE
DBX_SKIP_WORKDIR