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.

Granted, they may not be as featureful as expected (some of them do not even have which, mount, less or vi) but that's all doable in the container itself after bootstrapping it.

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 or docker

It depends either on podman configured in rootless mode or on docker configured without sudo (you're in the docker group)

Minimum podman version: 2.1.0
Minimum docker version: 18.06.1

Follow the official installation guide here:

Host Distros

Distrobox has been successfully tested on:

Distro	Version	Notes
Alpine Linux	3.14.3	To setup rootless podman, look HERE
Arch Linux		To setup rootless podman, look HERE
Manjaro		To setup rootless podman, look HERE
CentOS	8 8 Stream	Works with corresponding RedHat releases.
Debian	11 Testing Unstable
Fedora	34 35
Fedora Silverblue	34 35
Gentoo		To setup rootless podman, look HERE
Ubuntu	20.04 21.10	Older versions based on 20.04 needs external repos to install newer Podman and Docker releases. Derivatives like Pop_OS!, Mint and Elementary OS should work the same.
EndlessOS	4.0.0
OpenSUSE	Leap 15 Tumbleweed
OpenSUSE MicroOS	20211209
NixOS	21.11	NOTE NixOS support is preliminary, and there are many bugs present, any help in improving support is appreciated Currently you must have your default shell set to Bash, if it is not, make sure you edit your configuration.nix so that it is. To install distrobox: `mkdir -p ~/.local/bin` Add `PATH=$PATH:$HOME/.local/bin` to your bashrc Execute THIS command without sudo. To setup Docker, look HERE To setup Podman, look HERE and HERE
Void Linux	glibc	Systemd service export will not work. To setup graphical app exporting, you need to install `xhost` and add this to your `~/.xinitrc`: `xhost +si:localuser:$USER`.

New Host 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!

Containers Distros

Distrobox guests tested successfully with the following container images:

Distro	Version	Images
AlmaLinux	8	docker.io/library/almalinux:8
Alpine Linux	3.14 3.15	docker.io/library/alpine:latest
AmazonLinux	2	docker.io/library/amazonlinux:2.0.20211005.0
Archlinux		docker.io/library/archlinux:latest
CentOS	7 8	quay.io/centos/centos:7 quay.io/centos/centos:8
CentOS Stream	8 9	quay.io/centos/centos:stream8 quay.io/centos/centos:stream9
Debian	8 9 10 11	docker.io/library/debian:8 docker.io/library/debian:9 docker.io/library/debian:10 docker.io/library/debian:stable docker.io/library/debian:stable-backports
Debian	Testing	docker.io/library/debian:testing docker.io/library/debian:testing-backports
Debian	Unstable	docker.io/library/debian:unstable
Neurodebian	nd100	docker.io/library/neurodebian:nd100
Fedora	34 35	registry.fedoraproject.org/fedora-toolbox:34 docker.io/library/fedora:34 registry.fedoraproject.org/fedora-toolbox:35 docker.io/library/fedora:35
Mageia	8	docker.io/library/mageia
Opensuse	Leap	registry.opensuse.org/opensuse/leap:latest
Opensuse	Tumbleweed	registry.opensuse.org/opensuse/tumbleweed:latest registry.opensuse.org/opensuse/toolbox:latest
Oracle Linux	7 8	container-registry.oracle.com/os/oraclelinux:7 container-registry.oracle.com/os/oraclelinux:8
Rocky Linux	8	docker.io/rockylinux/rockylinux:8
Scientific Linux	7	docker.io/library/sl:7
Slackware	14.2	docker.io/vbatts/slackware:14.2
Slackware	current	docker.io/vbatts/slackware:current
Ubuntu	14.04 16.04 18.04 20.04 21.10 22.04	docker.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:21.10 docker.io/library/ubuntu:22.04
Kali Linux	rolling	docker.io/kalilinux/kali-rolling:latest
Void Linux		ghcr.io/void-linux/void-linux:latest-thin-bb-x86_64 ghcr.io/void-linux/void-linux:latest-thin-bb-x86_64-musl ghcr.io/void-linux/void-linux:latest-full-x86_64 ghcr.io/void-linux/void-linux:latest-full-x86_64-musl

Note however that if you use a non-toolbox preconfigured image (e.g. images pre-baked to work with https://github.com/containers/toolbox), 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.

New Distro support