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Try it in a directory

You don't need a spare disk to try Core Linux. corefs can build a root filesystem in any directory, and core-chroot lets you step into it.

You need a Linux machine with root access, wget, tar and xz, plus Docker to run the package repository. The commands below start in a checkout of the Core Linux sources, with install-scripts/ and pkgrepo/ side by side.

1. Build the tools​

cd install-scripts
make            # no m4 on the host? docker compose run --rm make

This writes bin/corefs, bin/core-chroot, bin/genfstab and bin/mkinitfs. Each is a single bash script, assembled from m4 sources so it needs nothing installed beside it.

2. Serve the package repository​

In a second terminal:

cd pkgrepo
make serve      # http://localhost:8000/core

That's the address corefs uses by default, so there's nothing to configure.

3. Build the root filesystem​

Back in install-scripts:

sudo bin/corefs install base ./rootfs
warning

Run corefs as root. Otherwise the files in ./rootfs belong to you instead of root, and the system won't work properly when you enter it.

No Docker? Install straight from the repository files

corefs reads file:// URLs too, so you can skip make serve:

sudo bin/corefs install base ./rootfs --mirror "file://$PWD/../pkgrepo/repo/core"

4. Look around​

sudo bin/core-chroot ./rootfs

core-chroot mounts /proc, /sys, /dev and a few tmpfs inside the root filesystem, binds in your /etc/resolv.conf so DNS works, and starts a shell:

Inside the chroot
(chroot) myhost:/# cat /etc/os-release
NAME="Core Linux"
ID=corelinux
VERSION_ID=0.1
PRETTY_NAME="Core Linux 0.1"
(chroot) myhost:/# cat /var/lib/corefs/busybox/version
1.37.0-r30

Every installed package has a record in /var/lib/corefs: its version and the list of files it unpacked. See Filesystem layout.

Type exit to leave. core-chroot unmounts everything it mounted on the way out.

5. Clean up​

sudo rm -rf ./rootfs

Stop the repository server with Ctrl+C in its terminal.