- Supported Linux Distros
- Supported Platform Architectures
- Shiftfs Requirement
- Kernel Upgrade Procedures
The following table summarizes the supported Linux distros, the installation methods supported, and any other requirements:
Distro / Release | Package Install | K8s Install | Build from Source | Min Kernel | Shiftfs Required | Other |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Ubuntu Bionic (18.04) | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | 5.3+ | If kernel < 5.12 | Kernel upgrade notes |
Ubuntu Focal (20.04) | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | 5.4+ | If kernel < 5.12 | |
Ubuntu Jammy (22.04) | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | 5.15+ | No (but recommended if kernel < 5.19) | |
Debian Buster (10) | ✓ | WIP | ✓ | 5.5+ | If kernel < 5.12 | Kernel upgrade notes |
Debian Bullseye (11) | ✓ | WIP | ✓ | 5.5+ | If kernel < 5.12 | |
Fedora (34 to 37) | WIP | WIP | ✓ | 5.12+ | No | |
Rocky Linux 8 | WIP | WIP | ✓ | 5.12+ | No | |
Alma Linux (8, 9) | WIP | WIP | ✓ | 5.12+ | No | |
CentOS Stream | WIP | WIP | ✓ | 5.12+ | No | |
Amazon Linux 2 | WIP | WIP | ✓ | 5.12+ | No | Kernel upgrade notes |
RedHat Enterprise | WIP | WIP | 5.12+ | No | Sysbox-EE only | |
Flatcar | ✓ | ✓ | 5.10+ | If kernel < 5.12 | Sysbox-EE only; see here. |
NOTES:
-
"Package install" means a Sysbox package is available for that distro. See here for more.
-
"K8s-install" means you can deploy Sysbox on a Kubernetes worker node based on that distro. See here for more.
-
"Build from source" means you can build and install Sysbox from source on that distro. It's pretty easy, see here.
-
"Kernel upgrade" means a kernel upgrade may be required (Sysbox requires a fairly new kernel). See below for more.
-
"WIP" means "work-in-progress" (i.e., we expect to have this soon).
-
These are the Linux distros we officially support (and test with). However, we expect Sysbox to work fine on other Linux distros too, particularly with kernel >= 5.12.
See here for the list of supported K8s distros, and here for the list of supported K8s versions.
- See here for a list of supported platform architectures (e.g., amd64, arm64).
Shiftfs is a Linux kernel module that Sysbox uses to ensure host volumes mounted
into the (rootless) container show up with proper user and group IDs (rather
than nobody:nogroup
); see the User Guide's Design Chapter
for more info.
Sysbox's requirement for shiftfs is as follows:
Linux Kernel Version | Shiftfs Required by Sysbox |
---|---|
< 5.12 | Yes |
5.12 to 5.18 | No (but recommended) |
>= 5.19 | No |
In kernels 5.12 to 5.18, shiftfs is not required but having it causes Sysbox to setup the container's filesystem more efficiently, so it's recommended.
Unfortunately, shiftfs is only available in Ubuntu, Debian, and Flatcar distros (and possibly derivatives of these). Therefore, if your host has kernel < 5.12 and you wish to use Sysbox, it must be one of these distros.
Shiftfs is not available in other distros (e.g., Fedora, CentOS, RedHat, Amazon Linux 2, etc.) For this reason, in order to use Sysbox in these other distros, you must have kernel >= 5.12.
In the Ubuntu's desktop and server versions, shiftfs comes pre-installed. In Ubuntu's cloud images or in Debian or Flatcar, shiftfs must be manually installed. See the User Guide's Installation Chapter for info on how to do this.
If you have a relatively old Ubuntu 18.04 release (e.g. 18.04.3), you need to upgrade the kernel to >= 5.3.
We recommend using Ubuntu's LTS-enablement package to do the upgrade as follows:
$ sudo apt-get update && sudo apt install --install-recommends linux-generic-hwe-18.04 -y
$ sudo shutdown -r now
This one is only required when running Debian Buster.
$ # Allow debian-backports utilization ...
$ echo deb http://deb.debian.org/debian buster-backports main contrib non-free | sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/buster-backports.list
$ sudo apt update
$ sudo apt install -t buster-backports linux-image-amd64
$ sudo shutdown -r now
Refer to this link for more details.