lxc-create with non default user

Question

When using "lxc-create -t ubuntu" how does one specify the user of the new container? I don't want the default ubuntu:ubuntu but to specify my own unique username and password.

I'm using lxc 1.0.0~beta3 on ubuntu 14.04.

Answer 1

User creation is done in the template file, so you must to change ubuntu template file, i.e: lxc-ubuntu. Templates are stored in /usr/local/share/lxc/templates or /usr/lib/lxc/templates/. Open it with your favorite editor and find the following lines (They are in configure_ubuntu() function of template file):

if [ -z "$bindhome" ]; then
    chroot $rootfs useradd --create-home -s /bin/bash ubuntu
    echo "ubuntu:ubutu" | chroot $rootfs chpasswd
fi

Replace ubuntu with your own username and password, i.e these line will be:

if [ -z "$bindhome" ]; then
    chroot $rootfs useradd --create-home -s /bin/bash USERNAME
    echo "USERNAME:PASSWORD" | chroot $rootfs chpasswd
fi

Then create your container as usual.

Answer 2

A simpeler option for one-time use would be to create the user yourself. Newer (at least the ubuntu I just tried) templates don't even come with the default ubuntu/ubuntu user anymore, see this message:

You just created an Ubuntu container (release=trusty, arch=amd64, variant=default)

To enable sshd, run: apt-get install openssh-server

For security reason, container images ship without user accounts and without a root password.

Use lxc-attach or chroot directly into the rootfs to set a root password or create user accounts.

Using lxc-attach is the quickest as far as I'm conserned, just do this:

you@hostbox:/$ lxc-attach -n yourlxc
root@yourlxc:/# adduser username

Answer 3

You can pass Comandline options to the Template/Script, that is installing and configuring the Ubuntu LXC Container /usr/share/lxc/templates/lxc-ubuntu

lxc-create -t ubuntu -n <CONTAINER_NAME> -- --user <USER_NAME> --password <USER_PASSWORD>

Other Options are:

./lxc-ubuntu -h|--help [-a|--arch] [-b|--bindhome <user>] [-d|--debug]
   [-F | --flush-cache] [-r|--release <release>] [ -S | --auth-key <keyfile>]
   [--rootfs <rootfs>] [--packages <packages>] [-u|--user <user>] [--password <password>]
   [--mirror <url>] [--security-mirror <url>]
release: the ubuntu release (e.g. precise): defaults to host release on ubuntu, otherwise uses latest LTS
bindhome: bind <user>'s home into the container
          The ubuntu user will not be created, and <user> will have
          sudo access.
arch: the container architecture (e.g. amd64): defaults to host arch
auth-key: SSH Public key file to inject into container
packages: list of packages to add comma separated
mirror,security-mirror: mirror for download and /etc/apt/sources.list