Gitpod: Error while adding gitpod layer

[JesterOrNot]

Describe the bug
After a successful workspace build got an unfamiliar error Error: Error while adding Gitpod layer.
To Reproduce
here is the URL https://gitpod.io/#https://github.com/JesterOrNot/nushell just open it.
Expected behavior
start workspace normally

[JesterOrNot]

fixed it sorry

[jankeromnes]

@JesterOrNot Cool that you fixed it! Just curious, what was the problem? (Maybe others will run into the same situation in the future, and stumble upon this issue.)

[JesterOrNot]

I was trying to create a gitpod area for a project I was starting and I noticed they had some docker images already created so I tried to use the docker image they had and when I tried it built the image successfully but gave an error saying failed to build on gitpod layer here is the URL to the project github.com/nushell/nushell

[jankeromnes]

Thanks a lot for the additional infos @JesterOrNot!

I see that nushell's Dockerfile is based on FROM ubuntu:18.04, which should in theory be supported by Gitpod.

So this looks indeed like a bug in Gitpod! Thank you for reporting it.

[JesterOrNot]

This happened with google cloud shell image here is the image URL
https://github.com/JesterOrNot/Gitpod-Test

[jankeromnes]

@JesterOrNot Thanks for reporting this. These problems happen when the underlying Docker image differs from what Gitpod expects, i.e. a Ubuntu or Debian base image, with a user called gitpod, and I think there are a few other assumptions that we haven't documented yet.

That's why I usually prefer using one of the official gitpod/* images.

Do you know what OS the gcr.io/cloudshell-images/cloudshell:latest image is based on? I noticed a few apt-get occurrences, so probably an Ubuntu/Debian-like, but I couldn't find more info.

[JesterOrNot]

Here is the uname -a output: Linux cs-6000-devshell-vm-1a7247f9-8133-45f1-a247-ca0f33402e7a 4.19.72+ #1 SMP Thu Sep 26 23:10:22 PDT 2019 x86_64 GNU/Linux

[JesterOrNot]

https://gitpod.io/#https://github.com/JesterOrNot/android-test
FROM ubuntu:17.10
in base image

[JesterOrNot]

some more
https://gitpod.io/#https://github.com/JesterOrNot/Gitpod-Docker
https://gitpod.io/#https://github.com/JesterOrNot/android-test/tree/fork1

[JesterOrNot]

What can be done about these issues?

[JesterOrNot]

@svenefftinge @jankeromnes Ooh heres one where the base image is gitpod/workspace-full
https://github.com/JesterOrNot/gosh/tree/test

[svenefftinge]

@svenefftinge @jankeromnes Ooh heres one where the base image is gitpod/workspace-full
https://github.com/JesterOrNot/gosh/tree/test

This one seem to work nicely, though.

[JesterOrNot]

oh sorry at the time of writing, it had failed

[bangyogesh]

(From issue#879 )

I have been experimenting with kalilinux and trying to create the environment in gitpod using base image of kalilinux.
During the container image build, it fails with the error
"Error: Error while adding Gitpod layer."

The URL to create the container is https://gitpod.io/#https://github.com/bangyogesh/kalilinuxdev .

The screenshot of the error is attached herewith

[JesterOrNot]

So say the issue is with the base image what do we do about it?

[bangyogesh]

@JesterOrNot

So say the issue is with the base image what do we do about it?

I tried building the docker image using the same dockerfile and it worked perfectly on my local Ubuntu box (as explained in above post, it fails with gitpod).
How to know if Gitpod layer has issue with base-image and what corrective action needs to be taken ?

[JesterOrNot]

here is a link to an alpine based image that works
https://hub.docker.com/r/szczepano/v-alpine/dockerfile
and a example repo
https://github.com/JesterOrNot/Gitpod-V/

[JesterOrNot]

So to solve this we could try to get the gitpod image builder to recognize other distros how does the builder do that @svenefftinge

[RossComputerGuy]

My repository is failing which uses archlinux/base. (https://github.com/RossComputerGuy/stardustos)

[geropl]

@RossComputerGuy We currently support debian and alpine based distros only.

[meysholdt]

Can we close this issue and create "Support distro foobar" issues instead for the linux distros we could potentially support?

[RossComputerGuy]

Why only debian and alpine? There'll be some cases where Arch based ones are needed and this is one.

[jankeromnes]

Why only debian and alpine? There'll be some cases where Arch based ones are needed and this is one.

Gitpod needs to make a few changes to Docker images to ensure that they work properly (i.e. checking that there is a non-root gitpod user, that required tools and language servers are installed, things like that).

Since we're familiar with Debian and Alpine, we maintain these Gitpod-specific instructions for both distros (i.e. we adapt the instructions when we notice bugs with them), but we haven't done that work for other distros yet.

I think we could support more distros though. A good way to request it would be to create a "Support distro X" issue, as suggested by Moritz.

[JesterOrNot]

How can the community help bring this support to gitpod?

[Kreyren]

any info on this? I'm very slowly losing my mind and table over using apt >.<

[JesterOrNot]

I will ask my colleagues when they are back @Kreyren

[Kreyren]

@JesterOrNot any info on this? I would like to use paludis docker for paludis downstream development

[JesterOrNot]

We don't have the resources right now. However, if you don't like APT you can use some Alpine based images where you can use APK.

[Kreyren]

@JesterOrNot Elaborate on the resources?