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archlinux-bootstrap-docker

A Dockerfile that prepares an ArchLinux system from the bootstrap tarball provided by an ArchLinux mirror. The Dockerfile has a 'base' stage that can be directly targeted if you JUST want a base archlinux system without any extra configuration.

Build Arguments

There are several build arguments that can be provided to customize the output image, but none are required and defaults are provided in the Dockerfile.

  • MIRROR_URL: The base url of the pacman mirror to use. (Default: "https://mnvoip.mm.fcix.net/archlinux")
  • ADMIN_USER: A sudo-enabled non-root admin user to create. (Default: tux)
  • DEFAULT_PASSWORD: The default password for the admin user. (Default: "archlinux")
  • LOCALE_LANG: The locale to select. (Default: "en_US.UTF-8")
  • WSL_HOSTNAME: If specified, /etc/wsl.conf will be created with the provided hostname entry and the default user will also be set to the ADMIN_USER. (Default: "")
  • WIN32YANK_VERSION: When WSL_HOSTNAME is specified the win32yank binary is installed in order to allow neovim's unnamedplus clipboard mode to access the windows system clipboard from within WSL. If an empty string is specified this will be skipped. (Default: "0.0.4")
  • NO_DOCKER_GROUP: If specified, the admin user will not be added to the docker group. (Default: "")
  • NO_BASHRC: If specified, my bashrc won't be installed for the admin user. (Default: "")
  • NO_DEV_TOOLS: If specified, various bash/python/c++ development tools won't be installed. (Default: "")
  • NO_CROSS_DEV_TOOLS: If specified, various gcc cross-compilation toolchains won't be installed. Automatically set if NO_DEV_TOOLS is specified. (Default: "")
  • NO_NEOVIM_CONFIG: If specified, my neovim config won't be installed for the admin user. (Default: "")
  • NO_YAY: If specified, the AUR management utility "yay" won't be installed. (Default: "")

Example Usage

The simplest use case is obtaining a docker image of an ArchLinux base system:

docker build -t archlinux-base --target base .

One of the most involved use cases is creating an ArchLinux distro within WSL. Assuming you created C:\WSL and want your distro to be in C:\WSL\ArchLinux:

docker build -t wsl-archlinux \
    --build-arg WSL_HOSTNAME=archlinux --build-arg ADMIN_USER=tux \
    .
docker create --name wsl-archlinux wsl-archlinux
docker export wsl-archlinux -o wsl-archlinux.tar
docker rm wsl-archlinux
docker rmi wsl-archlinux
wsl --import ArchLinux C:\WSL\ArchLinux wsl-archlinux.tar

Then simply delete wsl-archlinux.tar. Note that because docker unavoidably forces a /.dockerenv file within the tar when you export it, combined with the fact that it forces it to be owned by root, you must elevate in order to remove it. You will be prompted for your user's password, which by default will be "archlinux":

wsl -d ArchLinux sudo rm /.dockerenv

Change the password to something secure:

wsl -d ArchLinux passwd

And then your WSL system should be imported and ready to use.

Recommendations

Immediately change the admin user's password to something other than the default. Don't specify the password you actually want to use in the DEFAULT_PASSWORD argument; arguments are stored as part of the image and it is best to avoid letting sensitive data into them. Simply change the password manually once using the system within WSL or wherever you intend.

Unless building with the 'base' target, reflector will be installed for easily optimizing the pacman mirrorlist. There's tons of ways to use this very versatile tool, but a simple and effective way to do so is to get the fastest mirrors within your country that have been recently updated. One such command is:

reflector --country US --protocol https \
    --age 24 --fastest 10 --sort rate | sudo tee /etc/pacman.d/mirrorlist

Reflector has a "--save" argument where you can provide an output file path, but because reflector DOES NOT require root privileges it's best to only give it when writing the file.

Upgrading

Certain packages are installed for ONLY the admin user via "pipx", so in addition to updating your system via pacman, in order to update those you will need to run pipx as the admin user (NOT root).

In order to list packages installed via pipx, you can run pipx list and to upgrade all packages installed that way you can run pipx upgrade-all.