Igloo

Isolated development containers for GTK apps

Igloo creates Linux development containers using Incus with automatic display passthrough. Two commands, zero configuration.

Quick Start

cd ~/projects/my-gtk-app
igloo                      # creates and enters the container

That's it. Igloo auto-detects your host OS, creates a matching container, mounts your project directory, copies your dotfiles, and sets up display passthrough with GPU support.

When you're done with the container:

igloo destroy

Setup Script

Optionally create a .igloo.sh in your project root to install dependencies on first creation:

#!/bin/bash
apt-get update
apt-get install -y build-essential libgtk-4-dev meson ninja-build

To reprovision after changing .igloo.sh, run igloo destroy then igloo.

Commands

Command	Description
igloo	Enter the container (creates it if needed)
igloo destroy	Remove the container completely
igloo --no-gui	Enter without display/GPU passthrough

What Happens on First Run

1. Detects your host distro from /etc/os-release (follows ID_LIKE for derivatives)
2. Creates an Incus container with matching image
3. Maps your user (same UID/GID, sudo access)
4. Mounts the project directory at the same absolute path
5. Copies dotfiles (.gitconfig, .ssh/, .bashrc, .profile, .bash_profile)
6. Sets up X11/Wayland display passthrough with GPU
7. Runs .igloo.sh if it exists
8. Drops you into a shell

On subsequent runs, it just enters the existing container (starting it if stopped) and refreshes display passthrough.

Installation

Prerequisites

• Incus installed and configured
• Your user added to the incus group

From Source

git clone https://github.com/frostyard/igloo.git
cd igloo
make build
sudo cp igloo /usr/local/bin/

Tips

• Each project directory gets its own container (igloo-<dirname>)
• GUI apps just work inside the container (GTK, Qt, Firefox, VS Code, etc.)
• The --no-gui flag is useful when SSHed into the machine or running headless builds
• Multiple projects can each have their own igloo, completely isolated

Credits

• Distrobox -- The original inspiration
• Blincus -- Blincus is igloo version 0

License

MIT