Containers - Distrobox

Container as the name suggested can be visualized as a box isolated from outside environment that holds some specific item. Linux container is that Box from Application the provide a sandbox like environment to safely run an application by restriction the root file system access, hardware and network isolation.

Distrobox provide a easy way to create and manage these container using the root file system of other Linux distributions and provide a route to run Application of any Linux distribution on any Linux distribution. Means if there is an application developed specifically for Ubuntu still then with the help of distrobox you can run that application on rlxos GNU/Linux.

Setup Distrobox container

We need to type few easy commands to setup distrobox container. Firstly you need to open terminal by either using Application Finder or Ctrl-Alt-T or Ctrl-Alt-Space (for drop-down terminal)

You need to have active internet connection and atleast few GiB bandwidth (depending on the application and distro you select).

Create new container

To create a container for Ubuntu Latest release execute the command below, You can name other distribution like archlinux, debian or kalilinux.

$ distrobox create -i ubuntu

This command pull the OCI system image of that Linux distribution and Need active internet connection.

Entering Container

Once you created a new container, You can close that terminal and Search the installed Distribution in Application Menu

On the first, Distrobox perform some initial setup to ease the experience, wait until done.

On finish, distrobox drop you inside the container shell, you can verify that with the PS which is <Your Username>@<Your Container Name>. Here you can execute any command of that container.

Exporting Container Application

You can export application from container to use them like any other native application using distrobox-export

$ distrobox-export --app <Application Name>