How to get an arch linux codespace?

[FunnyCheese4Me]

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I a trying to build a project that requires arch linux, as it won't work on other distros. How do I create an arch linux based codespace?

[FunnyCheese4Me]

Okay I'll try that.

[FunnyCheese4Me]

This worked! Thank you so much!

[Jimmybillbob0102]

I get sent to recovery container

[Kreijstal]

@FunnyCheese4Me the correct solution is too minimal try this one
on
.devcontainer/Dockerfile

FROM archlinux:latest

# Update and install base dependencies, sudo, git, and github-cli
# Also install 'which' as it's often used by scripts and might be missing
RUN pacman -Syu --noconfirm && \
    pacman -S --noconfirm bash sudo git github-cli which less && \
    pacman -Scc --noconfirm

# Create the codespace user with a home directory, add to wheel group (for sudo)
# Set bash as the default shell
RUN useradd -m -G wheel -s /bin/bash codespace && \
    echo 'codespace ALL=(ALL) NOPASSWD:ALL' > /etc/sudoers.d/codespace && \
    chmod 0440 /etc/sudoers.d/codespace

/.devcontainer/devcontainer.json

{
  "name": "Arch Linux Codespace with Dockerfile",
  "build": {
    "dockerfile": "Dockerfile"
  },
  "remoteUser": "codespace",
   "containerEnv": {
    "GIT_EDITOR": "code --wait"
  },
  "postStartCommand": "echo \"Attempting to configure Git. GIT_COMMITTER_NAME='${GIT_COMMITTER_NAME}', GIT_COMMITTER_EMAIL='${GIT_COMMITTER_EMAIL}'\"\nCURRENT_GIT_USER=$(git config --global --get user.name)\nCURRENT_GIT_EMAIL=$(git config --global --get user.email)\necho \"Current git config user.name='${CURRENT_GIT_USER}', user.email='${CURRENT_GIT_EMAIL}'\"\nif [ -z \"${GIT_COMMITTER_NAME}\" ] || [ -z \"${GIT_COMMITTER_EMAIL}\" ]; then\n  echo 'Warning: GIT_COMMITTER_NAME or GIT_COMMITTER_EMAIL is empty. Cannot automatically configure Git identity from these. Attempting gh auth setup-git.'\n  if command -v gh >/dev/null && gh auth status >/dev/null 2>&1; then\n    echo 'GitHub CLI is installed and authenticated. Running gh auth setup-git...'\n    gh auth setup-git\n    echo \"Git config after gh auth setup-git: user.name='$(git config --global user.name)', user.email='$(git config --global user.email)'\"\n  else\n    echo 'Warning: GitHub CLI not available or not authenticated. Please configure git manually: git config --global user.name \\\"Your Name\\\" && git config --global user.email \\\"you@example.com\\\"'\n  fi\nelif [ -z \"${CURRENT_GIT_USER}\" ] || [ -z \"${CURRENT_GIT_EMAIL}\" ] || [ \"${CURRENT_GIT_USER}\" != \"${GIT_COMMITTER_NAME}\" ] || [ \"${CURRENT_GIT_EMAIL}\" != \"${GIT_COMMITTER_EMAIL}\" ]; then\n  echo 'Configuring Git user name and email using Codespaces environment variables...'\n  git config --global user.name \"${GIT_COMMITTER_NAME}\"\n  git config --global user.email \"${GIT_COMMITTER_EMAIL}\"\n  echo \"Git configured with user: $(git config --global user.name), email: $(git config --global user.email)\"\nelse\n  echo 'Git user name and email already configured and match GIT_COMMITTER variables.'\nfi\necho 'Final git config:'\ngit config --global --list | grep user",

  "customizations": {
    "vscode": {
      "settings": {
        "terminal.integrated.defaultProfile.linux": "bash",
        "terminal.integrated.profiles.linux": {
          "bash": {
            "path": "/bin/bash"
          }
        }
      }
    }
  }
}

This will make git be already integrated with github codespaces, so you dont need to register twice with git just like with the ubuntu images

[kailando]

it crashed my gh codespace
i dont know where
uhhhhhhh

[Kreijstal]

Logs?

[m74278803-cmyk]

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I a trying to build a project that requires arch linux, as it won't work on other distressed. How do I create an arch linux based code space?

[Thyrail]

You can run Arch Linux in GitHub Codespaces by using a custom devcontainer. You don’t need a VM or docker-compose to launch the Codespace-Codespaces builds the container defined in .devcontainer/.

Folder structure

.your-repo/
└─ .devcontainer/
   ├─ devcontainer.json
   └─ Dockerfile

.devcontainer/devcontainer.json

{
  "name": "Arch Codespace",
  "build": { "dockerfile": "Dockerfile" },
  "remoteUser": "vscode",
  "updateRemoteUserUID": true,
  "postCreateCommand": "sudo pacman -Syu --noconfirm"
}

.devcontainer/Dockerfile

FROM archlinux:latest

RUN pacman -Sy --noconfirm archlinux-keyring && \
    pacman -Syu --noconfirm && \
    pacman -S --noconfirm base-devel git sudo

ARG USERNAME=vscode
ARG USER_UID=1000
ARG USER_GID=1000
RUN groupadd -g $USER_GID $USERNAME && \
    useradd -m -u $USER_UID -g $USER_GID $USERNAME && \
    echo "$USERNAME ALL=(ALL) NOPASSWD:ALL" >/etc/sudoers.d/90-$USERNAME && \
    chmod 0440 /etc/sudoers.d/90-$USERNAME

USER $USERNAME
WORKDIR /workspaces

Open the repo in Codespaces; it will build and start an Arch-based dev container.
Note: Codespaces doesn’t provide systemd/--privileged; run services as regular processes if needed. If you prefer, push a prebuilt Arch image to GHCR and reference it with "image": "ghcr.io/<owner>/<image>:tag" instead of "build".