Distrobox is a tool that allows you to run any Linux distro in your terminal, even if it is different from the one you are currently using. It wraps tools like Podman or Docker to create these containerized environments.
The real magic is its integration with the host system, giving containers access to your home directory, external storage, USB devices, graphical applications (X11/Wayland), and audio. This means you can, for example, save a file in the container and find it in your regular home folder without any hassle.
The project has just gotten its version 1.8.2 release, nine months after its predecessor, and it also welcomes a new maintainer to the team. This update brings a host of polishing and stability fixes, including the decommissioning of Clear Linux support, the addition of unshare-groups capability for distrobox-assemble, and smarter Bash completion.
Clear Linux has lost support in this version, possibly because Intel shut it down a few months back. Other changes to expect when you install the new version include better handling for NVIDIA"s Vulkan ICD config files, which is a specific fix for driver integration on openSUSE and Fedora systems. Systemd compatibility inside containers got some work, and there is now initial support for running Chimera Linux and Alt Linux containers.
Performance sees an improvement by excluding schroot mountpoints from socket searches. The distrobox-create command now explicitly prefers using crun if it is present. If you use doas instead of sudo, you will find that integration is improved, and passwordless operation works better now.
On the documentation side, the project has updated its terminology. It now refers to Fedora Silverblue and similar systems as "Atomic Desktops" across its guides. New instructions have been added for setting up the Hyprland Wayland compositor. The documentation also adds compatibility information for upcoming distributions like Debian 13, CentOS Stream 10, and Fedora 42.
To install distrobox, you first need to have either Podman or Docker on your system. For example:
sudo apt update sudo apt install podman git curl Then, you clone the GitHub repo:
git clone https://github.com/89luca89/distrobox.git ~/distrobox And finally, run the installer:
cd ~/distrobox ./install If at any point in the future you want to uninstall, simply enter the directory and run ./uninstall.
The full release notes for Distrobox 1.8.2.0 can be found here.