Contents
See nspawn for more details of configuring systemd-nspawn containers. See Arch Linux specific tips if you have Arch Linux as host machine.
Install required packages and enable networking service
Install systemd-container and debootstrap packages
sudo apt install systemd-container debootstrap
Setup the root filesystem using debootstrap
sudo debootstrap --include=systemd-container,auto-apt-proxy,sudo unstable /var/lib/machines/debian-sid
If you already have apt-cacher-ng setup, then speed up the setup by running
sudo auto-apt-proxy debootstrap --include=systemd-container,auto-apt-proxy,sudo unstable /var/lib/machines/debian-sid
Enable systemd-networkd
sudo systemctl enable systemd-networkd sudo systemctl start systemd-networkd
Basic configuration of the container
Use bind option to share home directory for <username>,
sudo systemd-nspawn --bind=/home/<username> -D /var/lib/machines/debian-sid --machine debian-sid
For root access (use machinectl login in multiple terminals), setup a root password and create a normal user with sudo access (--uid option can be skipped if the <username> is first user on the host, ie, uid 1000)
root@debian-sid:~# adduser --uid <uid on host for username> <username> root@debian-sid:~# gpasswd -a <username> sudo root@debian-sid:~# passwd
Enable systemd-networkd inside the container,
root@debian-sid:~# sudo systemctl enable systemd-networkd
Optional: Setup hostname in /etc/hostname (use your favorite editor)
debian-sid
and /etc/hosts
pravi@debian-sid:~$ cat /etc/hosts 127.0.0.1 localhost debian-sid ::1 localhost ip6-localhost ip6-loopback ff02::1 ip6-allnodes ff02::2 ip6-allrouters
Press Control+D to exit.
Start and use the container
If you have the same user id for <username> in host and container, you can use the following command to have a writeable home directory. If the userids are not matching, you can edit the userid in /etc/password inside the container to match the value of user id in host.
Option 1
sudo systemd-nspawn --boot --bind=/home/<username> -D /var/lib/machines/debian-sid --machine debian-sid
Option 2
The same options can be added to debian-sid.nspawn file in /etc/systemd/nspawn/debian-sid.nspawn and use machinectl start. See man 5 systemd.nspawn for more options you can add to this file.
$ sudo mkdir -p /etc/systemd/nspawn
Create /etc/systemd/nspawn/debian-sid.nspawn and add the following lines
[Exec] Boot=yes PrivateUsers=no PrivateUsersChown=no [Files] Bind=/home/<username> [Network] VirtualEthernet=yes
sudo machinectl start debian-sid
Login to the container
Use login or shell options of machinectl to connect to your container
sudo machinectl login debian-sid
or
sudo machinectl shell debian-sid
Note 1: You can use machinectl login debian-sid on a different terminal if you want more login shells.
Note 2: machinectl shell with su - <username> avoids entering passwords and also gives you the same terminal as host (mcahinectl login only give vt220 by default and you may face issues with some programs, for example End key don't work in micro).
Press ^] three times within 1s to exit from the virtual terminal of the container after you logout (Control + D).
To stop the container, run:
sudo machinectl stop debian-sid