If your distribution packages rkt, then you should generally use their version. However, if you need a newer version, you may choose to manually install the rkt-provided rpm and deb packages.
rkt is available in the Community Repository and can be installed using pacman:
sudo pacman -S rkt
rkt is available in the CentOS Community Build Service for CentOS 7. However, this is not yet ready for production use due to pending systemd upgrade issues.
rkt is an integral part of Container Linux, installed with the operating system. The Container Linux releases page lists the version of rkt available in each Container Linux release channel.
If the version of rkt included in Container Linux is too old, it's fairly trivial to fetch the desired version via a systemd unit.
rkt is currently packaged in Debian sid (unstable).
sudo apt-get install rkt
If you don't run sid, or wish for a newer version, you can install manually.
Since Fedora version 24, rkt packages are available in the main repository. We recommend using recent Fedora releases or a manually installed package in order to have an up-to-date rkt binary.
sudo dnf install rkt
rkt's entry in the Fedora package database tracks packaging work for this distribution.
rkt does not work with the SELinux policies currently shipped with Fedora versions 24 and 25.
As a workaround, SELinux can be temporarily disabled:
sudo setenforce Permissive
Or permanently disabled by editing /etc/selinux/config:
SELINUX=permissive
Fedora uses firewalld to dynamically define firewall zones. rkt is not yet fully integrated with firewalld. The default firewalld rules may interfere with the network connectivity of rkt pods. To work around this, add a firewalld rule to allow pod traffic:
sudo firewall-cmd --add-source=172.16.28.0/24 --zone=trusted
172.16.28.0/24 is the subnet of the default pod network. The command must be adapted when rkt is configured to use a different network with a different subnet.
rkt is packaged for gentoo and available via portage.
sudo emerge rkt
rkt can be installed on NixOS using the following command:
nix-env -iA rkt
The source for the rkt.nix expression can be found on GitHub
rkt is available in the Virtualization:containers project on openSUSE Build Service. Before installing, the appropriate repository needs to be added (usually Tumbleweed or Leap):
sudo zypper ar -f obs://Virtualization:containers/openSUSE_Tumbleweed/ virtualization_containers
sudo zypper ar -f obs://Virtualization:containers/openSUSE_Leap_42.1/ virtualization_containers
Install rkt using zypper:
sudo zypper in rkt
rkt is not packaged currently in Ubuntu. Instead, install manually using the rkt debian package.
rkt is available in the official binary packages for the Void Linux distribution. The source for these packages is hosted on GitHub.
As part of the rkt build process, rpm and deb packages are built. If you need to use the latest rkt version, or your distribution does not bundle rkt, these are available.
Currently the rkt upstream project does not maintain its own repository, so users of these packages must upgrade manually.
gpg --recv-key 18AD5014C99EF7E3BA5F6CE950BDD3E0FC8A365E
wget https://github.com/rkt/rkt/releases/download/v1.27.0/rkt-1.27.0-1.x86_64.rpm
wget https://github.com/rkt/rkt/releases/download/v1.27.0/rkt-1.27.0-1.x86_64.rpm.asc
gpg --verify rkt-1.27.0-1.x86_64.rpm.asc
sudo rpm -Uvh rkt-1.27.0-1.x86_64.rpm
gpg --recv-key 18AD5014C99EF7E3BA5F6CE950BDD3E0FC8A365E
wget https://github.com/rkt/rkt/releases/download/v1.27.0/rkt_1.27.0-1_amd64.deb
wget https://github.com/rkt/rkt/releases/download/v1.27.0/rkt_1.27.0-1_amd64.deb.asc
gpg --verify rkt_1.27.0-1_amd64.deb.asc
sudo dpkg -i rkt_1.27.0-1_amd64.deb