Question on containers to run applications
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I am running Chimera Linux which I really love for a bunch of reasons.
I have a need to run a few that are not going to work with MUSL, and are not presently offered via flatpak. Thus, containers I think are my go-to. II was thinking of spinning up a minimal Void linux to use these apps. I don't have experience running containers at this point.I like simple, and Chimera offers the following solutions -
- Containerd
- Podman
- Bubble wrap
- Chroot
I am pretty sure I can get away with a terminal only setup for these apps, but what if I need a GUI?
Is there a good choice among these for security?
Resources are not at a premium on my laptop. What do you prefer and why?TIA!
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L [email protected] shared this topic
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Check out distrobox. Basically podman or docker containers, but automatically more integrated into the host system. GUI programs work pretty much out of the box with it.
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I just looked, and Chimera also offers distrobox. I didn't have the need to really use it yet, but it sounds like it would be the best because of its desktop integration.
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I usually spin up a distrobox container of Arch for anything I need that I don't want to, or can't compile myself. Both CLI and GUI programs work, and you can use podman as the backend.
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I also use Chimera!
As everybody else is saying, Distrobox is the way to go and it is already in the repos (using Podman). It works amazingly. I setup an Arch Distrobox so now I have Chimera + the AUR which is just perfection for me. I still use native Chimera when possible and have created quite a few of my own packages. Sometimes I use Distrobox just to check something out and then create a native package later when I have time.
doas apk add distrobox
distrobox create —name arch —image docker.io/library/archlinux:latest
distrobox enter arch
That is all you have to do (though you have to add yay or paru inside Arch to use the AUR).
Distrobox create seems a bit slow setting up overlayfs for some reason but it runs stellar after the first time.
If you really prefer Void…
dostrobox create —name void —image ghcr.io/void-linux/void-glibc-full:latest
Flatpak works as well if that is your thing (as you say). prefer Distrobox.
I realized just yesterday that Chimera comes with Broadcom WiFi drivers right in the kernel (no DKMS or CKMS required). Just download firmware with b43-cutter (also included). So I have dropped Chimera on a couple older MacBooks. I put it on an old 2009 MacBook Pro yesterday and 100% of the hardware is supported (Ethernet, WiFi, Camera, Audio, brightness and volume controls, sleep, everything ). I did a video meeting on it just for fun and nobody even noticed (the camera sucks in low light but that is hardware). Honestly, I cannot believe how well it runs. For basic office stuff, you would never know (unless you looked at CPU utilization—which will be high!).
Chimera Linux is still in beta but it already feels rock solid. I am so impressed with it as a distro. And the only downside is totally mitigated by Distrobox.
Enjoy!
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If you are building apps from source, consider creating an actual Chimera Linux apk. It is surprisingly easy. I like keeping everything under the control of the package manager.
That is assuming you are a Chimera Linux user of course.
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Thanks to all for the responses.. and thanks for this detailed response. I have a habit of making simple things complicated... Which it looks like I did in this case.
I also completely agree on Chimera. It's such a solid distro.
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My main distro these days is Gentoo, but I definitely feel the same. I'll write an ebuild anytime it's feasible, and Gentoo has some pretty great tools for helping me keep up with updates for things.