Distrobox 1.4 toolkit has been released, allowing you to quickly install and run any Linux distribution in a container and ensuring its integration with the main system. The project code is written in Shell and is distributed under the GPLv3 license.
The project provides an overlay on top of Docker or Podman and is distinguished by maximum simplification of the operation and integration of the running environment with the rest of the system. To create an environment with a different distribution, you simply need to execute the command distrobox-create without worrying about the details. After launching, Distrobox ensures the user's home directory is forwarded into the container, configuring access to server X11 and Wayland for executing graphical applications from the container, allows the connection of external drives, adds sound output, and implements integration at the level of the SSH agent, D-Bus, and udev.
Distrobox claims the ability to use 17 distributions as a host system, including Alpine, Manjaro, Gentoo, EndlessOS, NixOS, Void, Arch, SUSE, Ubuntu, Debian, RHEL, and Fedora. Any distribution for which OCI-format images are available can be run in the container. After installation, the user can work fully in another distribution without leaving the main system.
The main areas of application include experiments with atomically updatable distributions, such as Endless OS, Fedora Silverblue, OpenSUSE MicroOS, and SteamOS3, creating separate isolated environments (for example, for running a home configuration on a work laptop), and accessing newer versions of applications from experimental branches of distributions.
In the new release:
- The command 'distrobox upgrade' has been added for updating all installed containers with distributions at once.
- The command 'distrobox generate-entry' has been added to include a distrobox-based environment in the applications list.
- The command 'distrobox ephemeral' has been added to create a one-time container that will be deleted after the associated session ends.
- The install-podman script has been added for installing the Podman toolkit in the home directory without affecting the system environment (useful for environments where system directories are mounted in read-only mode or are not accessible for modification).
- Improved support for host systems with package managers Guix and Nix.
- Enhanced authentication support using LDAP, Active Directory, and Kerberos.
Source: opennet.ru
