bootable systemd-nspawn containers with Linux distributions: Alpine, Arch Linux, Ubuntu

alpine-container.sh

#!/bin/bash -e
# Creates a systemd-nspawn container with Alpine

MIRROR=http://dl-cdn.alpinelinux.org/alpine
VERSION=${VERSION:-v3.18}
APKTOOLS_VERSION=2.14.0-r2


if [ $UID -ne 0 ]; then
	echo "run this script as root" >&2
	exit 1
fi

if [ -z "$1" ]; then
	echo "Usage: $0 <destination>" >&2
	exit 0
fi

dest="$1"
apkdir=$(mktemp -d)
guestarch=x86
[ "$(uname -m)" == x86_64 ] && guestarch=x86_64
trap 'rm -r $apkdir' EXIT

wget -qO- $MIRROR/latest-stable/main/x86/apk-tools-static-$APKTOOLS_VERSION.apk \
	| tar -xz -C $apkdir || \
	{ echo "Couldn't download apk-tools, the version might have changed..."; exit 1; }

$apkdir/sbin/apk.static \
	-X $MIRROR/$VERSION/main -U --arch $guestarch \
	--allow-untrusted --root "$dest" \
	--initdb add alpine-base

mkdir -p "$dest"/{etc/apk,root}
printf '%s/%s/main\n' $MIRROR $VERSION >"$dest"/etc/apk/repositories
for i in $(seq 0 10); do # https://github.com/systemd/systemd/issues/852
	echo "pts/$i" >>"$dest/etc/securetty"
done
# make console work
sed '/tty[0-9]:/ s/^/#/' -i "$dest"/etc/inittab
printf 'console::respawn:/sbin/getty 38400 console\n' >>"$dest"/etc/inittab
# minimal boot services
for s in hostname bootmisc syslog; do
	ln -s /etc/init.d/$s "$dest"/etc/runlevels/boot/$s
done
for s in killprocs savecache; do
	ln -s /etc/init.d/$s "$dest"/etc/runlevels/shutdown/$s
done


echo ""
echo "Alpine $VERSION container was created successfully."

arch-container.sh

#!/bin/bash -e
# Creates a systemd-nspawn container with Arch Linux

MIRROR=http://mirror.fra10.de.leaseweb.net/archlinux
ISO_DATE=latest
PKG_GROUPS="base"


if [ $UID -ne 0 ]; then
	echo "run this script as root" >&2
	exit 1
fi

if [ -z "$1" ]; then
	echo "Usage: $0 <destination>" >&2
	exit 0
fi

dest="$1"
tarfile=$(mktemp)
trap 'rm $tarfile' EXIT

wget "$MIRROR/iso/$ISO_DATE/archlinux-bootstrap-x86_64.tar.gz" -O $tarfile

mkdir -p "$dest"
tar -xzf $tarfile -C "$dest" --strip-components=1 --numeric-owner

printf 'Server = %s/$repo/os/$arch\n' $MIRROR >"$dest"/etc/pacman.d/mirrorlist
sed '/^root:/ s|\*||' -i "$dest/etc/shadow" # passwordless login
rm "$dest/etc/resolv.conf" # systemd configures this
# https://github.com/systemd/systemd/issues/852
[ -f "$dest/etc/securetty" ] && \
	printf 'pts/%d\n' $(seq 0 10) >>"$dest/etc/securetty"
cat >"$dest"/setup.sh <<SCRIPT
pacman-key --init && pacman-key --populate
pacman -Sy --noconfirm --needed ${PKG_GROUPS}
rm /setup.sh
SCRIPT
systemd-nspawn -q -D "$dest" sh /setup.sh


echo ""
echo "Arch Linux container was created successfully (bootstrapped from $ISO_DATE)"

ubuntu-container.sh

#!/bin/bash -e
# Creates a systemd-nspawn container with Ubuntu

CODENAME=${CODENAME:-jammy}


if [ $UID -ne 0 ]; then
	echo "run this script as root" >&2
	exit 1
fi

if [ -z "$1" ]; then
	echo "Usage: $0 <destination>" >&2
	exit 0
fi

dest="$1"
rootfs=$(mktemp)
trap 'rm $rootfs' EXIT

wget "http://cloud-images.ubuntu.com/${CODENAME}/current/${CODENAME}-server-cloudimg-amd64-root.tar.xz" -O $rootfs

mkdir -p "$dest"
tar -xaf $rootfs -C "$dest" --numeric-owner

sed '/^root:/ s|\*||' -i "$dest/etc/shadow" # passwordless login
rm "$dest/etc/resolv.conf" # systemd configures this
# https://github.com/systemd/systemd/issues/852
[ -f "$dest/etc/securetty" ] && \
	printf 'pts/%d\n' $(seq 0 10) >>"$dest/etc/securetty"
>"$dest/etc/fstab"
systemd-nspawn -q -D "$dest" /bin/systemctl disable \
	ssh systemd-{timesyncd,networkd-wait-online,resolved}
# uninstall some packages
systemd-nspawn -q -D "$dest" /usr/bin/apt-get -qq satisfy -y --purge 'Conflicts: lxcfs, lxd, snapd, cloud-init' || \
	systemd-nspawn -q -D "$dest" /usr/bin/apt-get -qq purge --autoremove snapd lxcfs lxd cloud-init


echo ""
echo "Ubuntu $CODENAME container was created successfully"

Thanks for this script! Building my own based on yours :)