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LX(5) |
Standards, Environments, and Macros |
LX(5) |
NAME
lx — zone brand for running a GNU/Linux user-level environment
DESCRIPTION
The
lx brand uses the
brands(5) 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(1m) 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(1m),
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(1m) 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.