Distrobox 1.5 Launches for Distribution Tools

Instrumentation Distrobox 1.5 has been released by its developer, which facilitates the quick installation and running of any Linux distribution in a container and ensures that it is integrated with the main system. The code for the project is based on Shell, and it spreads under the gplv3 license.

Distrobox provides a superstructure over Docker or Podman and is characterized by maximum simplicity of operation and integration of a delegated environment with the rest of the system. Only one command, Distrobox-Create, is needed to initiate creating an environment with another distribution without having to worry about technicalities. Once the launch takes place, Distrobox supplies the user’s home catalog to the container, sets access to the X11 and Wayland server for graphic applications from the container, the ability to connect external drives, sound output, and integrates with SSH agent level, d-Bus, and UDEV components.

Distrobox boasts compatibility with 17 different host systems, including Alpine, Manjaro, Gentoo , Endlessos, Nixos, Void, Arch, Suse, Ubuntu, Debian, RHEL, and Fedora. When it comes to containers, any distribution for which there are images in the OCI format can be launched, enabling users to work seamlessly in a different distribution without leaving the primary system.

The latest version has several additional features, including:

  • The ability to add bags at initialization time directly using the “–additional-packages” flag in the “Distrobox Create” command.
  • Support for working with NVIDIA GPU from containers through access to drivers used in the host using the “–unshare-Netns” and “–unshare-ipc” flags.
  • The creation and deletion of a group of containers in package mode based on specified settings in the configuration file Distrobox.ini is allowed by the new command “Distrobox Assemble”.
  • Enhanced flexibility for the initialization mechanism of containers regarding the addition of additional packages when removing Distrobox, guarantees the disconnection of the ‘Distrobox Export’ environment. Added support for container exports named applications. Support for containers from Systemd created using the flag “–additional-packages Systemd” is provided.

From experiments with atomic updated distributions, such as Endless OS, Fedora Silverblue, Opensuse Microos, and Steamos3, to experimenting with isolated environments (such as launching a home-made configuration on a working laptop), the Distrobox has a wide range of applications.

/Reports, release notes, official announcements.