Installs Arch Linux inside a chroot environment.

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.

See INSTALL.md

For NixOS users, NIXOS_INSTALL.md

For ChromeOS users, CROS_INSTALL.md

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

sudo archbox --create <archlinux tarball download link>

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/share/archbox/bin/init start
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 :

@reboot /usr/local/share/archbox/bin/init start

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 (Assuming the INSTALL_PATH is /var/archlinux) :

mount | grep /var/archlinux

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

rm -rf /var/archlinux

To enter chroot, do :

archbox --enter

To execute commands inside chroot environment, do :

archbox <command>

for example, to update chroot, do :

archbox sudo pacman -Syu

You may want to add these rules if you want to use Archbox without password (assuming the install prefix is /usr/local and you're in group wheel) :

%wheel  ALL=(root) NOPASSWD: /usr/local/share/archbox/bin/enter,/usr/local/share/archbox/bin/exec,/usr/local/share/archbox/bin/uth,/usr/local/share/archbox/bin/init

permit nopass :wheel as root cmd /usr/local/share/archbox/bin/enter
permit nopass :wheel as root cmd /usr/local/share/archbox/bin/exec
permit nopass :wheel as root cmd /usr/local/share/archbox/bin/uth
permit nopass :wheel as root cmd /usr/local/share/archbox/bin/init

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.

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

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.

To start services immediately, in Archbox, do :

sudo archboxctl exec <Service name>

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

Use archbox-desktop to install desktop entries in chroot to host (installed to ~/.local/share/applications/archbox), you'll need to add sudo (or doas) rules to launch archbox without a password.

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

Just like desktop entries, you'll need to add sudo (or doas) rules to launch archbox without a password.

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

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"

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

SHARED_FOLDER="/home /var/www"

To mount to different directory, use : separator :

SHARED_FOLDER="/home /var/www:/host_webroot"

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.

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.

Add PATH variable to /etc/archbox.conf, for example:

ENV_VAR="PATH=/usr/bin:/usr/local/bin"

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.

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

archbox --remount-run

after user login, And sometimes 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/uth killxdg

on logout. you can put it in /etc/gdm/PostSession/Default if you use GDM, or just disable mounting /run entirely, set MOUNT_RUN in /etc/archbox.conf to anything other than yes to disable mounting /run and do :

archbox --remount-run

after user login.

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.

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.