Ever wondered how to create a minimal Linux image using nothing but some menu selections? This guide walks you through using Buildroot’s menu system to craft your own custom OCI image, step by step using the graphical interface.

Now that you’ve built an image by hand, you may be wondering if there are tools that might make this process easier. This week we’ll explore one of those – Buildroot – and look at how it can be used to automate building custom images.

Ever found yourself needing to create a container image, but Docker just isn’t an option? Sometimes the best solutions come from thinking outside the box … and outside the usual tools. In this post, I explore what’s in an image and the DIY path to building your own OCI images.

A common question I’ve heard is “how do I run Docker commands from within a GitHub Actions job container?” In this post, I’ll explore how GitHub Actions implements job and service containers using Docker, and how you can use that to run your own Docker commands from inside a job container.

Running Docker-in-Docker inside Kubernetes can be tricky … especially when you need to access private registries. Learn how to securely authenticate DinD containers.

Sometimes you need to test an OCI image in Kubernetes. Or perhaps you want to validate a new Helm chart to ensure it will deploy as expected. If you’re trying to build and test components for Kubernetes, Minikube can make that process easier.

Did you know that dev containers can have their own private Visual Studio Code extensions? By understanding some of the life cycle of the container, it’s possible to create and use extensions that are designed to support a specific dev container or Codespaces environment.

If you’re using Actions Runner Controller, the provided base image may not be enough. In fact, it’s important to build your own to ensure that you have all the dependencies you need for your workflows.

Minimizing network activity improves your build times, speeds up builds, and reduces costs. With ARC, you rely on multiple Actions steps in your workflow. What if you could avoid needing to download your most frequently used Actions? This post walks you through creating images with an Actions archive cache to eliminate those downloads.

If you’re going to build custom images for ARC or standalone VM runners, then you probably want to take some time to preload it with the tools that matter to your builds. If you want that process to work well for the GitHub-provided tools and actions/setup- Actions, then you’ll want to know how to prepopulate the runner’s tool cache.