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Show HN: Convert your Containerfile to a bootable OS

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Re: Show HN: Convert your Containerfile to a bootable OS

#21

Post by ranger_danger »

FireInsight wrote: post #13

The 'bootable container' / 'native container' space is getting really exiting, even (and especially) for desktop usecases. Atomic Fedora has had support for so called Ostree Native Containers for a while now, and that will eventually adapt `bootc` as the base layer for building and booting containers (but as of now it's not totally ready yet). VanillaOS is also working on similar things but I don't think it'll use `b…

One of my biggest complaints with distros has been the lack of documentation on how to actually build the distro itself, not just an ISO but like build all the packages from source as well. Like as if you were following an LFS book. I have seen VERY few distros that provide this.

Do you think this helps that at all?

Re: Show HN: Convert your Containerfile to a bootable OS

#23

Post by themgt »

hhh wrote: post #20
themgt wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There's also Elemental which is SUSE-oriented but distro agnostic https://github.com/rancher/elemental-toolkit I've been hoping NixOS moves in this direction over time, the distribution/rollout aspect seems under-baked currently.

What's the best way to start with Elemental today? I haven't been able to grasp a start point, unlike RKE/Rancher which is pretty easy to onboard.

It depends what you're trying to do, but I was essentially following this guide: https://rancher.github.io/elemental-toolkit/docs/examples/em... updated to ghcr.io/rancher/elemental-toolkit/elemental-cli:v1.3.0 / registry.suse.com/suse/sle-micro-rancher/5.4

The whole project is in major flux now though, with v1.3 -> v2.1 being pre-release and docs haven't been updated, so I'm waiting for dust to settle before picking it back up. But basically `docker build` -> `elemental build-disk` -> qcow2/iso -> deploy / `elemental upgrade` update via OCI registry, or deploy vanilla image and then just update that via registry.

Re: Show HN: Convert your Containerfile to a bootable OS

#25

Post by brirec »

ranger_danger wrote: post #21
FireInsight wrote: post #13

The 'bootable container' / 'native container' space is getting really exiting, even (and especially) for desktop usecases. Atomic Fedora has had support for so called Ostree Native Containers for a while now, and that will eventually adapt `bootc` as the base layer for building and booting containers (but as of now it's not totally ready yet). VanillaOS is also working on similar things but I don't think it'll use `b…

One of my biggest complaints with distros has been the lack of documentation on how to actually build the distro itself, not just an ISO but like build all the packages from source as well. Like as if you were following an LFS book. I have seen VERY few distros that provide this. Do you think this helps that at all?

Universal Blue’s build system (not Blue-Build) is pretty clear, and self documenting. I maintained a personal fork of Bluefin for a while, and it was easy to understand!

Re: Show HN: Convert your Containerfile to a bootable OS

#26

Post by tkz1312 »

themgt wrote: post #17
FireInsight wrote: post #13

The 'bootable container' / 'native container' space is getting really exiting, even (and especially) for desktop usecases. Atomic Fedora has had support for so called Ostree Native Containers for a while now, and that will eventually adapt `bootc` as the base layer for building and booting containers (but as of now it's not totally ready yet). VanillaOS is also working on similar things but I don't think it'll use `b…

There's also Elemental which is SUSE-oriented but distro agnostic https://github.com/rancher/elemental-toolkit I've been hoping NixOS moves in this direction over time, the distribution/rollout aspect seems under-baked currently.

What do you think nixos is missing in this area?

Re: Show HN: Convert your Containerfile to a bootable OS

#27

Post by mathfailure »

I don't understand how it works.

Did I guess it right that it basically processes Containerfile and instead of producing a .tar artifact (which is what container images usually are) it produces .qcow2/.ami/.raw/.iso/.vmdk file which in case of .qcow2/.raw/.vmdk can be used by a virtualization software to start up a VM with a disk mounted from that file?

Will the changes made inside a session with such a VM persist? or will they get lost (which is the default behavior with containers)?

Container's filesystem may be as narrow as a single binary file, surely a VM with such a filesystem won't be able to boot - where will it take the OS (with the kernel, drivers and other stuff) from?

Re: Show HN: Convert your Containerfile to a bootable OS

#28

Post by eyberg »

falcor84 wrote: post #2

On a tangential note, does anyone here remember Erlang on Xen [0]? It's a project from a decade ago, allowing you to package your code to run directly on the hypervisor without an OS. I really liked that approach and am wondering why it seems to have hit a dead end. [0] https://github.com/cloudozer/ling

Erlang on Xen was most definitely an inspiration behind what we're working on with the https://nanos.org unikernel.

Re: Show HN: Convert your Containerfile to a bootable OS

#29

Post by remram »

mathfailure wrote: post #27

I don't understand how it works. Did I guess it right that it basically processes Containerfile and instead of producing a .tar artifact (which is what container images usually are) it produces .qcow2/.ami/.raw/.iso/.vmdk file which in case of .qcow2/.raw/.vmdk can be used by a virtualization software to start up a VM with a disk mounted from that file? Will the changes made inside a session with such a VM persist? o…

I think you are supposed to use their base images.

Re: Show HN: Convert your Containerfile to a bootable OS

#30

Post by Zambyte »

ranger_danger wrote: post #21
FireInsight wrote: post #13

The 'bootable container' / 'native container' space is getting really exiting, even (and especially) for desktop usecases. Atomic Fedora has had support for so called Ostree Native Containers for a while now, and that will eventually adapt `bootc` as the base layer for building and booting containers (but as of now it's not totally ready yet). VanillaOS is also working on similar things but I don't think it'll use `b…

One of my biggest complaints with distros has been the lack of documentation on how to actually build the distro itself, not just an ISO but like build all the packages from source as well. Like as if you were following an LFS book. I have seen VERY few distros that provide this. Do you think this helps that at all?

GNU Guix does an awesome job with this. The documentation is one of the main reasons I left NixOS, and then some time later I landed on Guix. I have stuck on the latter for a few years now.
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