System container image builder for LXC and LXD
| Type | Service | Status |
|---|---|---|
| CI | GitHub |  |
| Project status | CII Best Practices |
The following are the command line options of distrobuilder. You can use distrobuilder to create container images for both LXC and LXD.
$ distrobuilder
System container image builder for LXC and LXD
Usage:
distrobuilder [command]
Available Commands:
build-dir Build plain rootfs
build-lxc Build LXC image from scratch
build-lxd Build LXD image from scratch
help Help about any command
pack-lxc Create LXC image from existing rootfs
pack-lxd Create LXD image from existing rootfs
repack-windows Repack Windows ISO with drivers included
Flags:
--cache-dir Cache directory
--cleanup Clean up cache directory (default true)
--debug Enable debug output
--disable-overlay Disable the use of filesystem overlays
-h, --help help for distrobuilder
-o, --options Override options (list of key=value)
-t, --timeout Timeout in seconds
--version Print version number
Use "distrobuilder [command] --help" for more information about a command.
distrobuilder is available from the snapstore.
sudo snap install distrobuilder --classic
To compile distrobuilder from source, first install the Go programming language, and some other dependencies.
- Debian-based:
sudo apt update sudo apt install -y golang-go debootstrap rsync gpg squashfs-tools git - ArchLinux-based:
sudo pacman -Syu sudo pacman -S go debootstrap rsync gnupg squashfs-tools git --needed
Second, download the source code of the distrobuilder repository (this repository).
git clone https://github.com/lxc/distrobuilder
Third, enter the directory with the source code of distrobuilder and run make to compile the source code. This will generate the executable program distrobuilder, and it will be located at $HOME/go/bin/distrobuilder.
cd ./distrobuilder
make
Finally, you can run distrobuilder as follows. You may also add to your $PATH the directory $HOME/go/bin/ so that you do not need to run the command with the full path.
$HOME/go/bin/distrobuilder
In the following, we see how to create a container image for LXD.
To create a container image, first create a directory where you will be placing the container images, and enter that directory.
mkdir -p $HOME/ContainerImages/ubuntu/
cd $HOME/ContainerImages/ubuntu/
Then, copy one of the example yaml configuration files for container images into this directory. In this example, we are creating an Ubuntu container image.
cp $HOME/go/src/github.com/lxc/distrobuilder/doc/examples/ubuntu.yaml ubuntu.yaml
Finally, run distrobuilder to create the container image. We are using the build-lxd option to create a container image for LXD.
sudo $HOME/go/bin/distrobuilder build-lxd ubuntu.yaml
If the command is successful, you will get an output similar to the following. The lxd.tar.xz file is the description of the container image. The rootfs.squasfs file is the root filesystem (rootfs) of the container image. The set of these two files is the container image.
$ ls -l
total 100960
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 676 Oct 3 16:15 lxd.tar.xz
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 103370752 Oct 3 16:15 rootfs.squashfs
-rw-r--r-- 1 ubuntu ubuntu 7449 Oct 3 16:03 ubuntu.yaml
$To add the container image to a LXD installation, use the lxc image import command as follows.
$ lxc image import lxd.tar.xz rootfs.squashfs --alias mycontainerimage
Image imported with fingerprint: 009349195858651a0f883de804e64eb82e0ac8c0bc51880Let's see the container image in LXD. The ubuntu.yaml had a setting to create an Ubuntu 20.04 (focal) image. The size is 98.58MB.
$ lxc image list mycontainerimage
+------------------+--------------+--------+--------------+--------+---------+-----------------------------+
| ALIAS | FINGERPRINT | PUBLIC | DESCRIPTION | ARCH | SIZE | UPLOAD DATE |
+------------------+--------------+--------+--------------+--------+---------+-----------------------------+
| mycontainerimage | 009349195858 | no | Ubuntu focal | x86_64 | 98.58MB | Oct 3, 2020 at 5:10pm (UTC) |
+------------------+--------------+--------+--------------+--------+---------+-----------------------------+To launch a container from the freshly created container image, use lxc launch as follows. Note that you do not specify a repository of container images (like ubuntu: or images:) because the image is located locally.
$ lxc launch mycontainerimage c1
Creating c1
Starting c1Using LXC containers instead of LXD may require the installation of lxc-utils.
Having both LXC and LXD installed on the same system will probably cause confusion.
Use of raw LXC is generally discouraged due to the lack of automatic Apparmor
protection.
For LXC, instead use:
$ sudo $HOME/go/bin/distrobuilder build-lxc ubuntu.yaml
$ ls -l
total 87340
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 740 Jan 19 03:15 meta.tar.xz
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 89421136 Jan 19 03:15 rootfs.tar.xz
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 4798 Jan 19 02:42 ubuntu.yamlTo add the container image to a LXC installation, use the lxc-create command as follows.
lxc-create -n myContainerImage -t local -- --metadata meta.tar.xz --fstree rootfs.tar.xzThen start the container with
lxc-start -n myContainerImageWith LXD it's possible to run Windows VMs. All you need is a Windows ISO and a bunch of drivers.
To make the installation a bit easier, distrobuilder added the repack-windows command. It takes a Windows ISO, and repacks it together with the necessary drivers.
Currently, distrobuilder supports Windows 10, Windows Server 2012, Windows Server 2016, and Windows Server 2019. The Windows version will automatically be detected, but in case this fails you can use the --windows-version flag to set it manually. It supports the values w10, 2k12, 2k16, and 2k19 for Windows 10, Windows Server 2012, Windows Server 2016 and Windows Server 2019 respectively.
Here's how to repack a Windows ISO:
distrobuilder repack-windows path/to/Windows.iso path/to/Windows-repacked.isoMore information on repack-windows can be found by running
distrobuilder repack-windows -hRun the following commands to initialize the VM, to configure (=increase) the allocated disk space and finally attach the full path of your prepared ISO file. Note that the installation of Windows 10 takes about 10GB (before updates), therefore a 30GB disk gives you about 20GB of free space.
lxc init win10 --empty --vm -c security.secureboot=false
lxc config device override win10 root size=30GiB
lxc config device add win10 iso disk source=/path/to/Windows-repacked.iso boot.priority=10Now, the VM win10 has been configured and it is ready to be started. The following command starts the virtual machine and opens up a VGA console so that we go through the graphical installation of Windows.
lxc start win10 --console=vgaTaken from: https://blog.simos.info/how-to-run-a-windows-virtual-machine-on-lxd-on-linux/
Examples of yaml files for various distributions can be found in the examples directory and in the lxc-ci repository.
Error "Cannot install into target '/var/cache/distrobuilder.123456789/rootfs' mounted with noexec or nodev"
You have installed distrobuilder into a LXD container and you are trying to run it. distrobuilder does not run in a LXD container. Run distrobuilder on the host, or in a VM.
You are trying to install the distrobuilder snap package. The distrobuilder snap package has been configured to use the classic confinement. Therefore, when you install it, you have to add the flag --classic as shown above in the instructions.
You must be root in order to run the distrobuilder tool. The tool runs commands such as mknod that require administrative privileges. Prepend sudo when running distrobuilder.
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