Hi @ThisNekoGuy

distrobox depends (for now) on either podman or docker, so for it to work anywhere, it needs one of those to work

due to Flatpak requiring Linux Namespace support from the Linux kernel itself
for which there is no *BSD compatibility solution.

The technologies at the base of distrobox (either docker or podman) are containers, which use kernel's namespaces to work

Apparently, they both have FreeBSD ports 🤔
How, I'm not sure; given what you said

https://ports.freebsd.org/cgi/ports.cgi?query=podman&stype=all&sektion=all

https://ports.freebsd.org/cgi/ports.cgi?query=docker&stype=all&sektion=all

Worth a try @ThisNekoGuy I don't have any *BSD handy now, let me know how it goes :)

I was actually asking because I didn't want to take thenplunge into BSD territory by wiping my system to do so if it isn't possible :v
I would be the guinea pig if I had spare hardware, but I don't...

That's ok, if someone else is interested in this, we'll gladly hear the outcome :)

Hi there,

The fundamental problem here isn't Distrobox itself really, but FreeBSD. There have been efforts to make Podman functional under FreeBSD? Yes, but Podman on FreeBSD will run... FreeBSD containers. To run Linux containers on FreeBSD you need something else like Containerd, and even though this is all still experimental, as far as I can tell.

So, let's assume that Linux emulation is mature enough (I can't really say whether this is the case at this moment) and someday -- if the day comes at all -- Cointainerd also matures on FreeBSD enough to allow running smoothly Linux containers on FreeBSD. Then somebody can start thinking on possibilities on Distrobox side of integrating Containerd with the goal of running it under FreeBSD.

Now, since Steam was mentioned it's worth mentioning that the idea of using Distrobox to run Steam on FreeBSD is not good, in general. Why, you ask? Because we'd be putting layers after layers of abstraction upon each other.

Steam itself under Linux is only officially supported under Ubuntu, other distros have to go through their hoops to make packages available, and it's basically a "container" based on (yes, you guessed) Ubuntu -- I'm not familiar with Steam running directly on Ubuntu, though, so I can't say how differently it runs there compared with other distros -- that uses Proton (a fork of Wine) to avoid all the nuisances of porting games to run natively on the numerous Linux distros out there.

Running games on Linux through Steam can be a challenge already depending on the choices of both hardware and game we make. Running games on FreeBSD is even more challenging because Valve doesn't produce a Steam client for it. Although I honestly can't say, or even imagine, which solution is better on FreeBSD: using Linux Steam through Linux emulation or Windows Steam through Wine; I wouldn't hold my breath for running Steam games with the help of Containerd (and if someone brings Containerd to the list of supported container technologies on Distrobox) plus Distrobox.

The fundamental problem here isn't Distrobox itself really, but FreeBSD. There have been efforts to make Podman functional under FreeBSD? Yes, but Podman on FreeBSD will run... FreeBSD containers. To run Linux containers on FreeBSD you need something else like Containerd, and even though this is all still experimental, as far as I can tell.

Actually now, podman is able to run Linux containers (instead of containerd). The freshports mentions an example (sysutils/podman, check the pkg-message section) and it works, you can run a linux container under FreeBSD. But you cannot run podman as rootless. I am experimenting with distrobox to achieve a working box. Maybe in the future when things are not janky as this, distrobox will work with freebsd nicely

FreeBSD + bhyve + any Linux VM (I usually use Void Linux) + docker or podman, etc. This is an excellent solution, I use it a lot.