Is it possible to run Bazzite as a container?
I'm aware that Bazzite itself is a container, but is it possible to run Bazzite as a container on an existing host through a runtime such as Podman or Docker?
37 Replies
yes, there is always the question of why but you can
you wont be able to open kde this way or use it as an OS
KDE doesn't work in it?
My personal motivation is that I don't want to exclusively allocate the entire machine just to Bazzite, but I'd greatly prefer the performance and resource efficiency improvements of keeping it in a container rather than a virtual machine
The host machine is otherwise headless as of now, so sharing the GPU (while nice in case something else needs it) or the display (same as before) isn't necessary
you can run it as a container to check individual stuff and modify it
but it will not work as an OS
What specifically doesn't work?
most stuff
you'll be able to launch steam at most
Is there anything I can do to fix that? What specifically causes the issue?
yes a container is not an OS so you cant use it as an OS
Sure, but what specifically about "being an OS" is relevant to typical Bazzite usage and non-functional?
For example, is there any specific reason KDE wouldn't load?
I've seen other containers around for running Steam and other GUI applications with full desktop environments, so I'm unsure of what the specific blocking issue is that would prevent Bazzite from doing the same
mostly that you dont have perfect hardware passthrough on containers
you totally could run that but its completely and entirely unsupported
you can bind your ttys over to the container and run KDE as a session on your host
docker run --privileged then bind a ton of stuff to it and eventually youll be able to run an entire session via the docker hijacking your system
but like
not supported and you are completely on your own
Hmm, this puts me a lot further in the right direction. If you could list a few examples, what would need that privileged passthrough? I see a lot of other containers online for applications like Steam not requiring anything too fancy, so I'm struggling to figure out what I'm missing here
You can run stuff like Steam with a container with distrobox! It already does the entire job for you
But you can manually do that by binding your wayland socket + GPU into the container (
--bind /run/user/1000:rw --bind /dev/dri)Would I even have a Wayland socket on the host on a headless system?
oh LOL
Personal motivation listed here
Didnt see that it was a headless system
yeye
The system has display capabilities, but they're being unused. I thought it would be a nice idea to use it as a HTPC on the currently underutilized GPU while it's still serving its main purpose as a compute node. I couldn't find anything even remotely similar to this type of setup online when it comes to containers, so I'm not sure where to even approach it
Like, how would you use your system? Do you want to game on it?
Or do you just want a linux desktop?
I believe your ideal setup would be to have a remote sunshine session
Idk exactly how to acomplish that tho
I was only planning on streaming games to it to keep the resources free for other tasks on it, the actual Bazzite instance shouldn't be doing very much besides offering a couch-friendly environment for streaming games and from my media server
Ultimately running the games on a much more capable machine with something along the lines of https://github.com/Steam-Headless/docker-steam-headless
GitHub
GitHub - Steam-Headless/docker-steam-headless: A Headless Steam Doc...
A Headless Steam Docker image supporting NVIDIA GPU and accessible via Web UI - Steam-Headless/docker-steam-headless
That would be acceptable if directly attaching the display is what's bringing trouble, encoding and decoding is hardware accelerated anyway
If you also want to do -deck stuff forget it
-deck stuff?
You want the htpc image on top of that
It won't run as a container it's a waste of time
On top of what?
Of trying to run bazzite as a container
https://meshnet.nordvpn.com/how-to/gaming/how-to-set-up-a-remote-game-streaming-server-for-moonlight
How to set up a remote game-streaming server for Moonlight | Meshne...
Discover how to configure a remotely accessible game-streaming server on Windows, macOS, and Linux using Meshnet.
found something that might interest you
i just dont exactly know how you would run the remote session hmmm
Oh, I see. Again though, what specifically would prevent it from running as a container? If it's something I could fix with some setup I'd be fine doing so, but if it's a more fundamental issue I'd presume it'd affect any attempt to do something like this and I would need to change my strategy entirely
its just that its not meant to run as a container
thats it really
a ton of stuff will not work good if you try running bazzite as a container
but like
you can just make your own container for that kinda streaming
I'm not against doing it myself, but I wanted to be sure it wasn't something I could configure or maintain a patch for before doing so
It's not worth your time
Yes bazzite is a container and works fine as a container doing container stuff
Running desktop apps is distrobox territory and is pushing it
This is why I keep asking though, what is "container" stuff and what specifically is hampering desktop apps? I'm not really grasping the specific problem at hand
Try to do what you said
I can't say more
Is there someone who hasn't taken an oath of silence who could? If there's an issue, I'd like to know where it is
transport method
bazzite is a bunch of packages, services, etc. that just run on top of fedora kinoite or fedora silverblue
those need to exist for any real functionality
When you try it you'll find it's not possible
there's a similar oci image that is intended for container use, bazzite-arch