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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

#51

Post by brirec »

vmfunction wrote: post #39
remram wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think you are supposed to use their base images.

so it is only bootc-enabled container https://centos.github.io/centos-bootc/ So only CentOS? Would it be possible to run that with firecracker? If that is the case, then wouldn't it be better to just run a Docker/container file in a firecracker vm. It will be more isolation, and easier scripting and networking?

I’m not sure how exactly you turn a Dockerfile into a Firecracker VM, but I suppose this is an alternative method to that.

Surely you can even boot a bootc-enabled container image like this on a Firecracker MicroVM.

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

#52

Post by brirec »

satertek wrote: post #18

Keeping an eye on this. I've been wanting something like this to manage an air-gapped system. I don't want to worry about keeping on offline apt repository (or what have you) synced, I just want to boot a full new image and mount my home folder.

I haven’t set it up myself yet, but at least in theory all you need to do is build and push (and sign) images to a self-hosted container registry, and then have your air-gapped systems update from that machine.

I have used GitHub Actions and GitHub Container Registry the way Bluefin uses it to build and push images there. You might be able to even just mirror them from there if you want to punch a hole in your air gap.

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

#54

Post by jbverschoor »

FireInsight wrote: post #16
jbverschoor wrote: post #14

Nice! Same-same-but-different shameless plug: https://github.com/jrz/container-shell boot a shell into your container and mount the working/project dir

That seems more like Distrobox to me(?) https://distrobox.it/

Interesting. Similar way of thinking.

Key differences: I like the chrootyness instead of having the complete filesystem available (similar to what orbstack does). I'll have a look this weekend.

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

#55

Post by mathfailure »

abbbi wrote: post #50
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…

1) you create an container image based on the upstream image that supports bootc, using a Containerfile that serves what ever purpose you want. 2) you push that container image to some registry 3) you use the bootc image container to create an qcow file from the image you have built (or you install the image on a bare metal system) 4) you boot up the virtual machine or bare metal system, which now includes "bootc" ut…

Thanks for the answer.

> Begin by confirming that your system is subscribed to get RHEL content.

> $ sudo subscription-manager register

nope.

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

#56

Post by rhatdan »

abbbi wrote: post #50
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…

1) you create an container image based on the upstream image that supports bootc, using a Containerfile that serves what ever purpose you want. 2) you push that container image to some registry 3) you use the bootc image container to create an qcow file from the image you have built (or you install the image on a bare metal system) 4) you boot up the virtual machine or bare metal system, which now includes "bootc" ut…

There is also a fedora-bootc

registry.fedoraproject.org/fedora-bootc:latest

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

#57

Post by rhatdan »

brirec wrote: post #51
vmfunction wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

so it is only bootc-enabled container https://centos.github.io/centos-bootc/ So only CentOS? Would it be possible to run that with firecracker? If that is the case, then wouldn't it be better to just run a Docker/container file in a firecracker vm. It will be more isolation, and easier scripting and networking?

I’m not sure how exactly you turn a Dockerfile into a Firecracker VM, but I suppose this is an alternative method to that . Surely you can even boot a bootc-enabled container image like this on a Firecracker MicroVM.

registry.redhat.io/rhel9/rhel-bootc registry.redhat.io/rhel9/rhel-bootc quay.io/centos-bootc/centos-bootc

Are currently available, but since this is an open source project, we look forward to other distros creating bootc images.

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

#58

Post by rhatdan »

vmfunction wrote: post #39
remram wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think you are supposed to use their base images.

so it is only bootc-enabled container https://centos.github.io/centos-bootc/ So only CentOS? Would it be possible to run that with firecracker? If that is the case, then wouldn't it be better to just run a Docker/container file in a firecracker vm. It will be more isolation, and easier scripting and networking?

Using bootc-image-builder (https://github.com/osbuild/bootc-image-builder) You can convert a bootc image into multiple different formats including vmdk, iso, raw, qcow2 ...

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

#59

Post by rhatdan »

rhatdan wrote: post #57
brirec wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I’m not sure how exactly you turn a Dockerfile into a Firecracker VM, but I suppose this is an alternative method to that . Surely you can even boot a bootc-enabled container image like this on a Firecracker MicroVM.

registry.redhat.io/rhel9/rhel-bootc registry.redhat.io/rhel9/rhel-bootc quay.io/centos-bootc/centos-bootc Are currently available, but since this is an open source project, we look forward to other distros creating bootc images.

I meant registry.fedoraproject.org/fedora-bootc

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

#60

Post by eichin »

OJFord wrote: post #44
monstajoe wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I meant physically render the full website on the screen.

I know. This turns a Linux container into a bootable Linux OS. If your container starts a GUI environment and launches a browser pointed to your React app I see no reason to think that wouldn't work after making it bootable. It sounds like you're expecting it to be some kind of OS of its own though, that it would automatically drop straight in to code you give it somehow. That's not what it is.

If you're looking to build a bootable kiosk sort of thing, the old-school way was just a service file that ran xinit -- chromium --kiosk http://localhost/whatever. (no idea how to express that in wayland.) It's not locked down as much as you'd hope and there are a lot of details, but starting with that and letting the error messages guide your way is a workable approach...
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