Create Snappy Ubuntu as a Docker Image

Snappy ubuntu core is the latest member of ubuntu family that specifically designed to run on Linux containers. To put it simple it's a stripped down ubuntu with some advanced features such as transactional upgrades/rollback to bring more stability, security with AppArmor and new snappy package manager instead of apt-get.

I wanted to run snappy ubuntu on a docker container, however I couldn't find the base snappy image on the docker hub to pull. So I decided to make and push it myself to docker hub.

First we need to download the Snappy image. It can be downloaded from https://developer.ubuntu.com/en/snappy/start/#try-x86

# wget http://releases.ubuntu.com/15.04/ubuntu-15.04-snappy-amd64-generic.img.xz

It comes as a XZ compressed IMG filesystem dumped image. we will unzx it:

# unzx ubuntu-15.04-snappy-amd64-generic.img.xz

For ISO images we simply can loop mount and access them:

# mkdir /mnt/iso
# mount -o loop image.iso /mnt/iso

And proceed to read the mounted directory as tar and create the docker image from STDIN:

# tar -C /mnt/iso -c . | docker import - yourrepo/yourimage:anytag


However, for IMG dump images it's a bit hassle-y:

1. Load the nbd kernel module with max_parts option if you are in a debian-based machine:

# modprobe nbd max_parts=16

2. Mount the image to /dev/nbd0 with qemu:

# qemu-nbd -c /dev/nbd0 ubuntu-15.04-snappy-amd64-generic.img

3. Ask kernel to re-read the partition table:

# partprobe /dev/nbd0


We can see the filsystem within this image via fdisk:

# fdisk -l /dev/nbd0

Disk /dev/nbd0: 3,6 GiB, 3899999744 bytes, 7617187 sectors
Units: sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disklabel type: gpt
Disk identifier: 374F5ED9-98FE-47B5-B430-A8983D7CB41B

Device Start End Sectors Size Type

/dev/nbd0p1 8192 16383 8192 4M BIOS boot
/dev/nbd0p2 16384 278527 262144 128M EFI System
/dev/nbd0p3 278528 2375679 2097152 1G Linux filesystem
/dev/nbd0p4 2375680 4472831 2097152 1G Linux filesystem
/dev/nbd0p5 4472832 7614463 3141632 1,5G Linux filesystem


Our desired contents are located in nbd0p3, so we will mount it:

# mount /dev/nbd0p3 /mnt/snappy/

There we are! We have all that is required to create our docker image:

# tar -C /mnt/snappy/ -c . | docker import - arvinep/ubuntu:snappy

To check the newly created image, let's list the local docker images:

# docker images

REPOSITORY            TAG    IMAGE ID      CREATED        VIRTUAL SIZE

arvinep/ubuntu-snappy snappy 2e796faa9adc  9 minutes ago  604.8 MB

ubuntu                latest d55e68e6cc9c  26 hours ago   187.9 MB

Cool! Let's run it and access to our docker container:

# docker run -it arvinep/ubuntu:snappy /bin/bash

It's up and running alongside with other docker containers:

# docker ps

CONTAINER ID   IMAGE                 COMMAND      CREATED             STATUS              PORTS  NAMES
25d60fa0238d   arvinep/ubuntu:snappy "/bin/bash"  About a minute ago  Up About a minute          sleepy_banach       
1cff710b5604   ubuntu:latest         "/bin/bash"  2 hours ago         Up 2 hours                 angry_davinci       
afe31fbcbf7d   ubuntu:latest         "/bin/bash"  2 hours ago         Up 2 hours                 serene_lovelace     
74a46b4b203f   ubuntu:latest         "/bin/bash"  2 hours ago         Up 2 hours                 tender_bartik    

I have pushed the snappy ubuntu to docker hub so you can pull and enjoy it:

# docker run -it arvinep/ubuntu-snappy /bin/bash