DISTROBOX-INIT(1)

📦
version 1.8.2.5 · 6 versions
, in alpine 3.24, arch rolling, epel 10, epel 9, fedora 43, fedora 44, nixos 26.05, nixpkgs unstable, ubuntu stonking

✨ DISTROBOX-INIT ✨

okay bestie, welcome to the distrobox-init page of the User Manual 💅 this one is a lil different from your average manpage, so buckle up 🎀

🌸 NAME 🌸

distrobox-init — the ✨ entrypoint ✨ of a distrobox, no cap

🦋 DESCRIPTION 🦋

So like… this is the thing that inits the distrobox. And before you ask — not to be launched manually, bestie, I mean it 🙈

distrobox-init is literally the entrypoint of a created distrobox. And here's the vibe check: this HAS to run from inside a distrobox. It will not work if you run it from your host. Not a drill, not a suggestion, it's just facts fr fr 💀

This is not intended to be used manually. Instead it gets used by distrobox-create to set up the container's entrypoint. It's giving backstage crew energy — you don't see it, but the whole show depends on it 👑

And what does it actually do, you ask? distrobox-init will:

  • take care of installing missing dependencies (eg. sudo) 📦
  • set up the user and groups 👤
  • mount directories from the host, to ensure the tight integration 🫶

slay. that's the job. periodt.

💖 SYNOPSIS 💖

distrobox-init

okay so here's the full menu of flags, bestie — every single one, no skips, no cuts 🍓

  • --name, -n — user name
  • --user, -u — uid of the user
  • --group, -g — gid of the user
  • --home, -d — path/to/home of the user
  • --help, -h — show this message
  • --additional-packages — packages to install in addition
  • --init, -I — whether to use or not init
  • --pre-init-hooks — commands to execute prior to init
  • --nvidia — try to integrate host's nVidia drivers in the guest
  • --upgrade, -U — run init in upgrade mode
  • --verbose, -v — show more verbosity
  • --version, -V — show version
  • -- — end arguments execute the rest as command to execute during init

🌈 EXAMPLES 🌈

here's how it actually looks in the wild, bestie 🦋

distrobox-init --name test-user --user 1000 --group 1000 --home /home/test-user
distrobox-init --upgrade
🫶 friendly reminder: this is the internal machinery, so if you're sitting there on your host thinking "let me just run distrobox-init real quick" — no. don't. it's not for you, it's for distrobox-create. iykyk 💅

that's the whole page, babe ✨ this lil gem is brought to you by Distrobox, dated Mar 2026 🎀 go forth and let the entrypoint do its thing 👑💜

📦 where this page comes from