This repository shows an example to customize a base bootc image with desired features. This repository also contains quadlet files (for running systemd managed podman containers) to embed an AI chat application, Use the examples from this repository to create your own customized bootc-enabled operating system image.

To launch a bootc-enabled virtual machine with KVM/QEMU, see virt-install document

To build a custom bootc image derived from quay.io/centos-bootc/centos-bootc:stream9, customize the Containerfile as desired, then run

podman build -t quay.io/your-repo/your-os:tag .
podman push quay.io/your-repo/your-os:tag

ssh -i ~/.ssh/your-key centos@vm-ipaddress

sudo bootc switch quay.io/your-repo/your-os:tag
sudo reboot

From a centOS 9 or RHEL 9 ec2 instance: See bootc install docs for more info.

ssh ec2-user@vm-ipaddress
sudo su
podman run --rm --privileged -v /:/target \
             --pid=host --security-opt label=type:unconfined_t \
             quay.io/centos-bootc/centos-bootc-cloud:stream9 \
             bootc install to-filesystem --replace=alongside /target
systemctl reboot

Note: When you ssh in again, the cloud user has changed from ec2-user to cloud-user in AWS instance. The system is now bootc enabled and tracking the given OCI image for updates

The base images available currently are listed below.

# for customizing CentOS or RHEL OS image
FROM quay.io/centos-bootc/centos-bootc:stream9

# for customizing cloud images (AMIs) that are CentOS or RHEL based
FROM quay.io/centos-bootc/centos-bootc-cloud:stream9

# for customizing fedora OS image
FROM quay.io/centos-bootc/fedora-bootc:eln

The base bootc images are configured with podman-autoupdate. With podman-autoupdate the system is updated by pushing a new bootc OCI image to a registry - on a timer, when the image digest changes, the host will automatically fetch it and reboot with bootc upgrade --apply.

To switch the bootc image that your system is tracking, run

bootc switch quay.io/your/newimage:custom

Upon a reboot, the system will now be running with your custom OS. At the time of this writing, it is not possible to switch from a CentOS based bootc image to a Fedora based image, or vice versa.

Embedded in the bootable image built from bootc-build/Containerfile are quadlet files for running an AI powered chatbot. The files /etc/containers/systemd/chatbot.kube, /etc/containers/systemd/chatbot.yaml, and /etc/systemd/chatbot.image result in a systemd service, chatbot that includes an LLM, a model-service, and an example application. This service manages a podman pod.

Interact with the application by navigating to the browser at http://machine-ip:8080 or http://machine-ip:8051 depending on which chatbot is embedded.