Tips to install RPM packages in bootc image builds

Linux Penguin with RPM packages boxes in a (bootc) Container

Some RPM packages are difficult to install into a Container. This can be a big problem, especially when building a bootc image..

RHEL Subscription Entitlement for bootc in OCI image

Subscription entitlement bootc details. Picture of container with whale tale and paper money

Building a bootc image for Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) “Image Mode” requires Red Hat Subscription Entitlement details. This can be tricky to get from the build server. Let’s fix that.

Ansible and bootc

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Ansible is not ideal for use with bootc, but for anyone with a lot of Ansible automation it’s hard to pivot to “the next thing”. Let’s use Ansible anyway..

Get bootc package version changes from SBOM

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To know what’s changing in a new bootc (Bootable Container) image use container tooling to generate a Software Bill of Materials (SBOM).

Bootstrapping bootc using Fedora CoreOS

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Getting bootc initially installed is a little different since it needs an ostree based OS. You could install a bootc image into any running Linux host, but I’ve been playing with Fedora CoreOS and using Ignition/Butane to configure Fedora CoreOS. So let’s use Fedora CoreOS on the host for bootstrapping bootc.

bootc (Bootable Containers): One Container Image to rule them all

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bootc has the potential to be groundbreaking (for Enterprise server Linux). A scalable and Atomic OS for servers.