boxkit

Description

boxkit is a set of GitHub actions and skeleton files to build toolbox and distrobox images. Basically, clone this repo, make the changes you want, and then build what you need. Some examples include:

DaVinci Box - Container for DaVinci Resolve installation and runtime dependencies on Linux
obs-studio-portable - OCI container image of OBS Studio that bundles a curated collection of 3rd party plugins
bazzite-arch - A ready-to-game Arch Linux based OCI designed for use exclusively in distrobox

Boxkit Alpine Example

You can use whatever distribution you want with boxkit, this is the initial example (here are more):

A base image and action for Toolbx and Distrobox. Sure, you can use the distro you're used to, but what if ...

This image is going to experiment with what a "born from cloud native" UNIX terminal experience would look like. It is used in conjuction with a dotfile manager and designed to be the companion terminal experience for cloud-native desktops. We're starting small but have big aspirations.

Starts with the latest Alpine image from the Toolbx Community Images
Adds some quality of life
- starship prompt for that <3
- just for task execution
- chezmoi for dotfile management
- btop for process management
- micro and helix text editors
- clipboard to cut, copy, and paste anything, anywhere, all from the terminal!
- python3
- Some common power tools: plocate, fzf, cosign, ripgrep, github-cli, and ffmpeg
- CLI tools recommended by rawkode
  - zellij - terminal workspace
  - direnv - environment variable extension for your shell
  - atuin - magical shell history
Host Management QoL
- These are meant for occasional one off commands, not complex workflows
  - Auto symlink the flatpak, podman, and docker commands
  - Auto symlink rpm-ostree for Fedora
  - Auto symlink transactional-update for openSUSE MicroOS

How to use

Create Box

If you use distrobox:

distrobox create -i ghcr.io/ublue-os/boxkit -n boxkit
distrobox enter boxkit

If you use toolbx:

toolbox create -i ghcr.io/ublue-os/boxkit -c boxkit
toolbox enter boxkit

Pull down your config

Use chezmoi to pull down your dotfiles and set up git sync.

Make your own

Fork and add programs to this this image - over time you'll end up with the perfect CLI for you. Keeping it as a pet works, though the author recommends leaving all your config in git and routinely pulling a new image.

The user experience is much nicer if you set your terminal open right in the container and is the intended experience.

Why?

While LTS images pay the bills they move at that pace for a reason, I wanted:

Something that kept up the pace with cloud native tech
Expansive repos so all stack needs are covered
- But also has all the cool new tools the rustaceans keep cranking out
apk is fast

And of course, as the user space for a cloud-native desktop the biggest reason is it's everywhere in the stack, why not be the "default terminal"?

Also, I've never gotten really to know Alpine, the problem with running distros like this bare metal on my PC is that there's a whole bunch of hardware quirks and all sorts of little enablement things that more generalized distros tend to get right.

But in a Toolbx/Distrobox world the kernel and anything that talks to hardware is handled by the host operating system. This let's us concentrate on just the CLI experience, get yourself some of that UNIX bling. Also apk is fast. Watch the video for more!

Verification

These images are signed with sisgstore's cosign. You can verify the signature by downloading the cosign.pub key from this repo and running the following command:

cosign verify --key cosign.pub ghcr.io/ublue-os/boxkit

If you're forking this repo you should read the docs on keeping secrets in github. You need to generate a new keypair with cosign. The public key can be in your public repo (your users need it to check the signatures), and you can paste the private key in Settings -> Secrets -> Actions.

Scope and Cynicism

I know what you're thinking, we're just going to shove everything from Modern UNIX in there and it's going to look like a glitter explosion.

That's why I'm going to be strongly opinionated, so use this as a base to build your own perfect CLI experience. Custom configs are NOT included, those belong in your dotfiles, use them in combination with an image.

This is a tame first effort, one of you out there is going to make something better than this, the perfect CLI workspace, I salute you.

Finding Good Base Images

Of course you can make this however you want, but start with the Toolbx Community images. These are a set of mostly-stock images with packages needed to run as a toolbox/distrobox already installed.

Try to derive your blingbox from those base images so we can all help maintain them over time, you can't have bling without good stock!

Tag your image with boxkit to share with others!