Distrobox is a tool that allows you to create and manage Linux containers using Docker or Podman
The new version of Distrobox 1.6 has been released , and this new release features several general improvements, as well as improvements in integration, support, and more.
For those who are still unfamiliar with this tool, it allows you to quickly install and run any Linux distribution in a container and ensures its integration with the main system.
The project provides a plugin for Docker or Podman, and is distinguished by its maximum simplification of workflow and seamless integration of the runtime environment with the rest of the system. To create an environment with a different distribution, simply run a single `distrobox-create` command, without having to worry about the intricacies.
Distrobox 1.6 main news
In this new version of Distrobox 1.6, one of the most interesting new features is the integration of Lilipod support . Lilipod is a very simple image and container manager developed by the author of Distrobox. It allows you to download and extract OCI container images from various repositories, manage images, and also create and run containers from the resulting images.
Lilipod's command-line interface is as similar as possible to Podman, Docker, and Nerdctl, but differs in its focus on simplicity and minimalism (only the most essential features are supported). Containers are created to run under a single user with filesystem isolation using mount point namespaces (network, PID, and IPC namespaces are optional). Additional restrictions imposed via seccomp, capabilities, and cgroups are not supported.
Another notable change in Distrobox 1.6 is the improved support for containers with their own initialization system (initful), as well as the ability to use the OpenRC initialization system.
As for the improvements to commands, it is worth noting that the "distrobox assemble" command now supports all the options of the "distrobox create" command , the ability to export applications and binary files directly from the manifest has been implemented, and new options "--unshare-all", "--unshare-netns", "--unshare-process" and "--unshare-devsys" have also been added to the "distrobox create" command.
Among the other notable changes in Distrobox 1.6
- Provided support for systemd-based user sessions.
- Fix in DBX input generation environment variable name
- Fix on initial + root containers in docker
- Improved initful+rootful container configuration using cgroupns=host
- Removed /nix /gnu and /run/current-system/sw mounts
- Improved integration with NVIDIA technologies such as CUDA.
- Improved initialization process.
- Improved work with the user command shell inside the container.
- On containers with root rights, the user password is set correctly to run the sudo utility.
- It is possible to use containers launched in initful and unshare-all modes in LXC and Libvirt-based environments.
- Added container_additional_volumes configuration parameter to specify which mount points are used in containers.
- Provided the ability to run exported binaries in different DistroBox environments.
- Issues with time zone settings have been resolved.
Finally, if you are interested in learning more about the project or the complete list of changes, you can do so from the following link.
How to install DistroBox on Linux?
For those interested in installing this tool, it is available in many repositories of major Linux distributions.
But for this case, we will use the installation method offered for almost any Linux distribution. To do this, simply open a terminal and in it we are going to type the following:
curl -s https://raw.githubusercontent.com/89luca89/distrobox/main/install | sudo sh
And ready with that we can start using this tool.
Finally, if you're interested in learning more about Distrobox, you should know that the project's code is written in Shell and distributed under the GPLv3 license. You can consult its source code, user manuals, and more information at the following link.