distrobox-compatibility - Man Page

Compatibility

This project does not need a dedicated image. It can use any OCI images from docker-hub, quay.io, or any registry of your choice.

Many cloud images are stripped down on purpose to save size and may not include commands such as which, mount, less or vi). Additional packages can be installed once inside the container. We recommend using your preferred automation tool inside the container if you find yourself having to repeatedly create new containers. Maintaining your own custom image is also an option.

The main concern is having basic Linux utilities (mount), basic user management utilities (usermod, passwd), and sudo correctly set.

Supported Container Managers

distrobox can run on either podman, docker or lilipod (https://github.com/89luca89/lilipod)

It depends either on podman configured in rootless mode or on docker configured without sudo (follow THESE instructions (https://docs.docker.com/engine/install/linux-postinstall/))

  • Minimum podman version: 2.1.0
  • Minimum docker client version: 19.03.15
  • Minimum lilipod version: v0.0.1

Follow the official installation guide here:

Containers Distros

Distrobox guests tested successfully with the following container images:

DistroVersionImages
AlmaLinux (Toolbox)8 9quay.io/toolbx-images/almalinux-toolbox:8 quay.io/toolbx-images/almalinux-toolbox:9 quay.io/toolbx-images/almalinux-toolbox:latest
Alpine (Toolbox)3.16 3.17 3.18 3.19 3.20 edgequay.io/toolbx-images/alpine-toolbox:3.16 quay.io/toolbx-images/alpine-toolbox:3.17 quay.io/toolbx-images/alpine-toolbox:3.18 quay.io/toolbx-images/alpine-toolbox:3.19 quay.io/toolbx-images/alpine-toolbox:3.20 quay.io/toolbx-images/alpine-toolbox:edge quay.io/toolbx-images/alpine-toolbox:latest
AmazonLinux (Toolbox)2 2022quay.io/toolbx-images/amazonlinux-toolbox:2 quay.io/toolbx-images/amazonlinux-toolbox:2023 quay.io/toolbx-images/amazonlinux-toolbox:latest
Archlinux (Toolbox)quay.io/toolbx/arch-toolbox:latest
Bazzite Archghcr.io/ublue-os/bazzite-arch:latest ghcr.io/ublue-os/bazzite-arch-gnome:latest
Centos (Toolbox)stream8 stream9quay.io/toolbx-images/centos-toolbox:stream8 quay.io/toolbx-images/centos-toolbox:stream9 quay.io/toolbx-images/centos-toolbox:latest
Debian (Toolbox)10 11 12 testing unstablequay.io/toolbx-images/debian-toolbox:10 quay.io/toolbx-images/debian-toolbox:11 quay.io/toolbx-images/debian-toolbox:12 quay.io/toolbx-images/debian-toolbox:testing quay.io/toolbx-images/debian-toolbox:unstable quay.io/toolbx-images/debian-toolbox:latest
Fedora (Toolbox)37 38 39 40 Rawhideregistry.fedoraproject.org/fedora-toolbox:37 registry.fedoraproject.org/fedora-toolbox:38 registry.fedoraproject.org/fedora-toolbox:39 registry.fedoraproject.org/fedora-toolbox:40 registry.fedoraproject.org/fedora-toolbox:rawhide
openSUSE (Toolbox)registry.opensuse.org/opensuse/distrobox:latest
RedHat (Toolbox)8 9registry.access.redhat.com/ubi8/toolbox registry.access.redhat.com/ubi9/toolbox
Rocky Linux (Toolbox)8 9quay.io/toolbx-images/rockylinux-toolbox:8 quay.io/toolbx-images/rockylinux-toolbox:9 quay.io/toolbx-images/rockylinux-toolbox:latest
Ubuntu (Toolbox)16.04 18.04 20.04 22.04 24.04quay.io/toolbx/ubuntu-toolbox:16.04 quay.io/toolbx/ubuntu-toolbox:18.04 quay.io/toolbx/ubuntu-toolbox:20.04 quay.io/toolbx/ubuntu-toolbox:22.04 quay.io/toolbx/ubuntu-toolbox:24.04 quay.io/toolbx/ubuntu-toolbox:latest
Chainguard Wolfi (Toolbox)quay.io/toolbx-images/wolfi-toolbox:latest
Ubluebluefin-cli ubuntu-toolbox fedora-toolbox wolfi-toolbox archlinux-distrobox powershell-toolboxghcr.io/ublue-os/bluefin-cli ghcr.io/ublue-os/bluefin-cli ghcr.io/ublue-os/ubuntu-toolbox ghcr.io/ublue-os/fedora-toolbox ghcr.io/ublue-os/wolfi-toolbox ghcr.io/ublue-os/arch-distrobox ghcr.io/ublue-os/powershell-toolbox
AlmaLinux8 8-minimal 9 9-minimaldocker.io/library/almalinux:8 docker.io/library/almalinux:9
Alpine Linux3.15 3.16 3.17 3.18 3.19 3.20 edgedocker.io/library/alpine:3.15 docker.io/library/alpine:3.16 docker.io/library/alpine:3.17 docker.io/library/alpine:3.18 docker.io/library/alpine:3.19 docker.io/library/alpine:3.20 docker.io/library/alpine:edge docker.io/library/alpine:latest
AmazonLinux1 2 2023public.ecr.aws/amazonlinux/amazonlinux:1 public.ecr.aws/amazonlinux/amazonlinux:2 public.ecr.aws/amazonlinux/amazonlinux:2023
Archlinuxdocker.io/library/archlinux:latest
Blackarchdocker.io/blackarchlinux/blackarch:latest
CentOS Stream8 9quay.io/centos/centos:stream8 quay.io/centos/centos:stream9
Chainguard Wolficgr.dev/chainguard/wolfi-base:latest
ClearLinuxdocker.io/library/clearlinux:latest docker.io/library/clearlinux:base
Crystal Linuxregistry.gitlab.com/crystal-linux/misc/docker:latest
Debian7 8 9 10 11 12docker.io/debian/eol:wheezy docker.io/library/debian:buster docker.io/library/debian:bullseye-backports docker.io/library/debian:bookworm-backports docker.io/library/debian:stable-backports
DebianTestingdocker.io/library/debian:testing docker.io/library/debian:testing-backports
DebianUnstabledocker.io/library/debian:unstable
deepin20 (apricot) 23 (beige)docker.io/linuxdeepin/apricot
Fedora36 37 38 39 40 Rawhidequay.io/fedora/fedora:36 quay.io/fedora/fedora:37 quay.io/fedora/fedora:38 quay.io/fedora/fedora:39 quay.io/fedora/fedora:40 quay.io/fedora/fedora:rawhide
Gentoo Linuxrollingdocker.io/gentoo/stage3:latest
KDE neonLatestinvent-registry.kde.org/neon/docker-images/plasma:latest
Kali Linuxrollingdocker.io/kalilinux/kali-rolling:latest
Mint21.1docker.io/linuxmintd/mint21.1-amd64
Neurodebiannd100docker.io/library/neurodebian:nd100
openSUSELeapregistry.opensuse.org/opensuse/leap:latest
openSUSETumbleweedregistry.opensuse.org/opensuse/distrobox:latest registry.opensuse.org/opensuse/tumbleweed:latest registry.opensuse.org/opensuse/toolbox:latest
Oracle Linux7 7-slim 8 8-slim 9 9-slimcontainer-registry.oracle.com/os/oraclelinux:7 container-registry.oracle.com/os/oraclelinux:7-slim container-registry.oracle.com/os/oraclelinux:8 container-registry.oracle.com/os/oraclelinux:8-slim container-registry.oracle.com/os/oraclelinux:9 container-registry.oracle.com/os/oraclelinux:9-slim
RedHat (UBI)7 8 9registry.access.redhat.com/ubi7/ubi registry.access.redhat.com/ubi8/ubi registry.access.redhat.com/ubi8/ubi-init registry.access.redhat.com/ubi8/ubi-minimal registry.access.redhat.com/ubi9/ubi registry.access.redhat.com/ubi9/ubi-init registry.access.redhat.com/ubi9/ubi-minimal
Rocky Linux8 8-minimal 9quay.io/rockylinux/rockylinux:8 quay.io/rockylinux/rockylinux:8-minimal quay.io/rockylinux/rockylinux:9 quay.io/rockylinux/rockylinux:latest
Slackwaredocker.io/vbatts/slackware:current
SteamOSghcr.io/linuxserver/steamos:latest
Ubuntu14.04 16.04 18.04 20.04 22.04 23.04docker.io/library/ubuntu:14.04 docker.io/library/ubuntu:16.04 docker.io/library/ubuntu:18.04 docker.io/library/ubuntu:20.04 docker.io/library/ubuntu:22.04 docker.io/library/ubuntu:23.04
Vanilla OSVSOghcr.io/vanilla-os/vso:main
Void Linuxglibc muslghcr.io/void-linux/void-glibc-full:latest ghcr.io/void-linux/void-musl-full:latest

Images marked with Toolbox are tailored images made by the community efforts in toolbx-images/images (https://github.com/toolbx-images/images), so they are more indicated for desktop use, and first setup will take less time. Note however that if you use a non-toolbox preconfigured image, the first distrobox-enter you’ll perform can take a while as it will download and install the missing dependencies.

A small time tax to pay for the ability to use any type of image. This will not occur after the first time, subsequent enters will be much faster.

NixOS is not a supported container distro, and there are currently no plans to bring support to it. If you are looking for unprivileged NixOS environments, we suggest you look into nix-shell (https://nixos.org/manual/nix/unstable/command-ref/nix-shell.html) or nix portable (https://github.com/DavHau/nix-portable)

New Distro Support

If your distro of choice is not on the list, open an issue requesting support for it, we can work together to check if it is possible to add support for it.

Or just try using it anyway, if it works, open an issue and it will be added to the list!

Older Distributions

For older distributions like CentOS 5, CentOS 6, Debian 6, Ubuntu 12.04, compatibility is not assured.

Their libc version is incompatible with kernel releases after >=4.11. A work around this is to use the vsyscall=emulate flag in the bootloader of the host.

Keep also in mind that mirrors could be down for such old releases, so you will need to build a custom distrobox image to ensure basic dependencies are met.

Gpu Acceleration Support

For Intel and AMD Gpus, the support is baked in, as the containers will install their latest available mesa/dri drivers.

For NVidia, you can use the --nvidia flag during create, see distrobox-create documentation to discover how to use it.

Alternatively, you can use the nvidia-container-toolkit utility to set up the integration independently from the distrobox’s own flag.

Info

Oct 2024 Distrobox User Manual