LX(7) Standards, Environments, and Macros LX(7)

NAME

lx - zone brand for running a GNU/Linux user-level environment

DESCRIPTION

The lx brand uses the brands(7) framework to provide an environment for
running binary applications built for GNU/Linux. User-level code,
including an entire Linux distribution, can run inside the zone. Both
32-bit and 64-bit applications are supported. The majority of Linux system
calls are provided, along with emulation for a variety of Linux file
systems, such as proc, cgroup and sysfs.

The /proc file system within the zone is a subset of a full Linux /proc.
Most kernel-level tuning applied to /proc is unavailable or ignored. Some
tuning can be performed, but only to reduce the overall limits that have
been specified on the zone's configuration. That is, within the zone there
is no way to increase the resource limits set on the zone itself.

The zone must be installed using a clone of a zfs(8) dataset which contains
an image of the software to be run in the zone.

Example:
zoneadm -z myzone install -x nodataset -t debian7

Applications provided by the base SunOS operating system are also available
within the zone under the /native mount point. This allows the use of
various native tools such as dtrace(8), mdb(1), or the proc(1) tools on
GNU/Linux applications. However, not every native tool will work properly
within an lx zone.

CONFIGURATION

The kernel-version attribute can be included in the zone's zonecfg(8)
settings as a way to specify the Linux version that the zone is emulating.
For example, the value could be 3.13.0.

LIMITATIONS

The brand only supports the exclusive IP stack zone configuration.

Most modern GNU/Linux application software runs on lx, but because there
are some system calls or file systems which are not currently implemented,
it's possible that an application won't run. This does not preclude the
application running in the future as the lx brand adds new capabilities.

Because there is only the single SunOS kernel running on the system, there
is no support for any Linux kernel-level modules. That is, there is no
support for add-on drivers or any other modules that are part of the Linux
kernel itself. If that is required, a full virtual machine should be used
instead of an lx branded zone.

Any core files produced within the zone are in the native SunOS format.

As with any zone, the normal security mechanisms and privileges apply.
Thus, certain operations (for example, changing the system time), will not
be allowed unless the zone has been configured with the appropriate
additional privileges.

SEE ALSO

mdb(1), proc(1), brands(7), privileges(7), resource_controls(7), zones(7),
dtrace(8), zfs(8), zoneadm(8), zonecfg(8)

illumos December 31, 1969 illumos