Archbox

Installs Arch Linux inside a chroot environment.

Why?

Ever since I'm running some niche distros like Void, Solus, I had a problem finding softwares I need in their not-so-large repositories, also I don't like how flatpak and snap works. so i decided to create an Arch Linux chroot environment everytime I distrohop. Why Arch Linux? They have a really, really good repositories, oh and don't mention how big AUR is.

Installation

Dependencies

• Bash
• Sed
• Curl
• Wget (Optional: use wget when it's installed)
• Aria2 (Optional: use aria2c when it's installed)
• Tar
• Desktop-file-utils
• Xorg-xhost (Optional: allowing users in Archbox to access X server)
• Zenity (Optional: for .desktop entry manager GUI)

Installing Archbox

It's pretty easy, just run install.sh as root.

Installing chroot environment

Before creating chroot environment, edit your chroot username in /etc/archbox.conf, then do :

sudo archbox --create <archlinux tarball download link>

Configuring filesystem automount

Execute archbox --mount on boot. If you use systemd, you can create a systemd service with this syntax below (Assuming the install prefix is /usr/local) :

[Unit]
Description=Archbox init
PartOf=multi-user.target

[Service]
ExecStart=/usr/local/bin/archbox --mount
Type=oneshot
User=root

[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target

Thanks to @SamsiFPV

If you don't use systemd, either create your own init service, or create a @reboot cronjob.

Removing chroot environment

IMPORTANT, Make sure you've unmounted everything in chroot environment, it's better to remove the init script and reboot to unmount everything. if you can't reboot for some reason, do :

archbox -u

then do :

mount

make sure there's no mounted Archbox directories and then delete the Arch Linux directory.

Entering chroot environment

To enter chroot, do :

archbox --enter

Executing commands in chroot environment

To execute commands inside chroot environment, do :

archbox <command>

for example, to update chroot, do :

archbox sudo pacman -Syu

Optional steps

You may want to add this if you don't want to use Archbox without password (assuming the install prefix is /usr/local) :

Sudo

%wheel  ALL=(root) NOPASSWD: /usr/local/share/archbox/bin/archbox,/usr/local/share/archbox/bin/copyresolv,/usr/local/share/archbox/bin/remount_run,/usr/local/share/archbox/bin/archboxinit

Doas

permit nopass :wheel as root cmd /usr/local/share/archbox/bin/archbox
permit nopass :wheel as root cmd /usr/local/share/archbox/bin/copyresolv
permit nopass :wheel as root cmd /usr/local/share/archbox/bin/remount_run
permit nopass :wheel as root cmd /usr/local/share/archbox/bin/archboxinit

Misc

Systemd services

Use archboxctl command to manage systemd services. More info here.

This isn't actually using systemd to start services, rather it parses systemd .service files and executes it.

Autostart services

To enable service on host boot, edit /etc/archbox.conf :

SERVICES=( vmware-networks-configuration vmware-networks vmware-usbarbitrator nginx )

Keep in mind that this doesn't resolve service dependencies, so you may need to enable the dependencies manually. you can use archboxctl desc <service> to read the .service file

Post-exec delay

Services are asynchronously started, if some services have some issues when starting together you may want to add post-exec delay.

SERVICES=( php-fpm:3 nginx )

This will add 3 seconds delay after executing php-fpm.

Start services immediately

To start services immediately, in Archbox, do :

sudo archboxctl exec <Service name>

Custom command on boot

You can create a shell script located at /etc/archbox.rc and archboxinit will execute it in Archbox on boot.

Desktop entries

Use archbox-desktop to install desktop entries in chroot to host (installed to ~/.local/share/applications/archbox)

Lauching apps via rofi

Instead of opening terminal or installing desktop entries everytime you want to run application inside chroot, you may want to launch rofi inside chroot, install rofi and do :

archbox rofi -show drun

Prompt

If you use bash with nerd font you could add a nice little Arch Linux icon in your prompt, add :

[[ -e /etc/arch-release ]] && export PS1=" $PS1"

to your ~/.bashrc

Adding environment variables

Edit ENV_VAR in /etc/archbox.conf. For example, if you want to use qt5ct as Qt5 theme, edit it like this :

ENV_VAR="QT_QPA_PLATFORMTHEME=qt5ct"

An example with multiple environment variables.

ENV_VAR="QT_QPA_PLATFORMTHEME=qt5ct GTK_CSD=0 LD_PRELOAD=/var/home/lemniskett/git_repo/gtk3-nocsd/libgtk3-nocsd.so.0"

Adding more shared directories

Edit SHARED_FOLDER in /etc/archbox.conf. For example:

SHARED_FOLDER=( /home /var/www )

Note that this will recursively mount directories.

Known issues

NixOS-specific issues

/run mounting

Mounting /run somehow breaks NixOS, set MOUNT_RUN in /etc/archbox.conf to anything other than yes to disable mounting /run, then do :

archbox --mount-runtime-only

after user login to make XDG runtime directory accessible to chroot enviroment. make sure dbus unix:path is in XDG runtime directory too.

$ echo $XDG_RUNTIME_DIR
/run/user/1000
$ echo $DBUS_SESSION_BUS_ADDRESS
unix:path=/run/user/1000/bus

Or alternatively if you use WM-only, just disable mounting /run entirely and manually set XDG_RUNTIME_DIR into /tmp like /tmp/$(whoami), this is not recommended if you use systemd, stuffs like Pipewire, Desktop portal, etc may broke.

Archbox didn't access resources in /usr/share

In Archbox, Symlink /usr to /run/current-system/sw:

sudo mkdir -p /run/current-system/
sudo ln -s /usr /run/current-system/sw

make sure /run isn't mounted.

PulseAudio refused to connect

This can be caused by different dbus machine-id between chroot and host, copying /etc/machine-id from host to chroot should do the job.

Musl-based distros

Although /run is mounted in chroot environment on boot, XDG_RUNTIME_DIR is not visible in chroot environment, remounting /run will make it visible. do :

archbox --remount-run

after user login, Also if you use Void Musl, you need to kill every process that runs in XDG_RUNTIME_DIR when you log out, You need to reinstall archbox with --exp flag and use startx-killxdg instead of startx, or run :

/usr/local/share/archbox/bin/remount_run killxdg

on logout. you can put it in /etc/gdm/PostSession/Default if you use GDM

Tested in Void Linux musl and Alpine Linux.

Polkit

pkexec is kind of tricky to make it work in chroot, if you use rofi to launch GUI applications in chroot, you may not able to launch any .desktop files with Exec=pkexec... in it. If you really want them to work, you can do :

sudo ln -sf /usr/bin/sudo /usr/bin/pkexec

in chroot and prevent pacman from restoring /usr/bin/pkexec by editing NoExtract in /etc/pacman.conf.

No sudo password in chroot by default.

You could use sudo in archbox, but you'll have no way to enter the password when doing e.g. archbox sudo pacman -Syu. also you could enter the password if you do archbox -e < <(echo $COMMAND), but that would disable stdin entirely during $COMMAND.