Installed lxc but can not execute any commands

[yzfrr7]

NOTE: I am running Linux Mint Sylvia

I am attempting to install lxc

I su'd to root and ran the following command:

# sudo apt install lxc
Reading package lists... DoneBuilding dependency tree       
Reading state information... Done
The following NEW packages will be installed:
  lxc
0 upgraded, 1 newly installed, 0 to remove and 453 not upgraded.
Need to get 2,912 B of archives.
After this operation, 69.6 kB of additional disk space will be used.
Get:1 http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu xenial-backports/main amd64 lxc all 3.0.2-0ubuntu4~16.04.1 [2,912 B]
Fetched 2,912 B in 0s (26.0 kB/s)
Selecting previously unselected package lxc.
(Reading database ... 212358 files and directories currently installed.)
Preparing to unpack .../lxc_3.0.2-0ubuntu4~16.04.1_all.deb ...
Unpacking lxc (3.0.2-0ubuntu4~16.04.1) ...
Setting up lxc (3.0.2-0ubuntu4~16.04.1) ...

I THINK THE PROBLEM MIGHT BE HERE: it unpack and sets up lxc but I see no talk about installation, in any case ...

To check if it has been installed I run the following command:

# lxc -ls
The program 'lxc' is currently not installed. You can install it by typing:
apt install lxd-client

By this stage I am curious so I run the following:

# sudo apt-cache policy lxc
lxc:
  Installed: 3.0.2-0ubuntu4~16.04.1
  Candidate: 3.0.2-0ubuntu4~16.04.1
  Version table:
 *** 3.0.2-0ubuntu4~16.04.1 500
        500 http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu xenial-backports/main amd64 Packages
        500 http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu xenial-backports/main i386 Packages
        100 /var/lib/dpkg/status
     2.0.8-0ubuntu1~16.04.2 500
        500 http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu xenial-updates/main amd64 Packages
        500 http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu xenial-updates/main i386 Packages
     2.0.7-0ubuntu1~16.04.2 500
        500 http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu xenial-security/main amd64 Packages
        500 http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu xenial-security/main i386 Packages
     2.0.0-0ubuntu2 500
        500 http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu xenial/main amd64 Packages
        500 http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu xenial/main i386 Packages

To understand the policy command shown above I took a look at the man page for apt_preferences saw the following:
priority 100 to the version that is already installed (if any) and to the versions coming from archives which in
their Release files are marked as "NotAutomatic: yes" and "ButAutomaticUpgrades: yes" like the Debian
backports archive since squeeze-backports.


priority 500
to the versions that do not belong to the target release.

I interpret the above as saying that all the packages marked as 500 are not part of/not required by lxc?
Only one package has been marked with 100 aka. installed that is /var/lib/dpkg/status?

I decided to try another means to determine if the package had been installed:

# dpkg -l lxc
Desired=Unknown/Install/Remove/Purge/Hold
| Status=Not/Inst/Conf-files/Unpacked/halF-conf/Half-inst/trig-aWait/Trig-pend
|/ Err?=(none)/Reinst-required (Status,Err: uppercase=bad)
||/ Name                    Version          Architecture     Description
+++-=======================-================-================-===================================================
ii  lxc                     3.0.2-0ubuntu4~1 all              Transitional package - lxc -> lxc-utils

This also leads me to believe that lxc has been installed.
I am out of ideas so I remove lxc:

# sudo apt remove lxc
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree       
Reading state information... Done
The following packages were automatically installed and are no longer required:
  bridge-utils liblxc-common liblxc1 lxc-utils
Use 'sudo apt autoremove' to remove them.
The following packages will be REMOVED:
  lxc
0 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 1 to remove and 453 not upgraded.
After this operation, 69.6 kB disk space will be freed.
Do you want to continue? [Y/n] Y
(Reading database ... 212361 files and directories currently installed.)
Removing lxc (3.0.2-0ubuntu4~16.04.1) ...

I try installing again, same results as shown above, can anyone explain what is going on or what state I am in?

Thank you

[wildmanne39]

Thread moved to MINT for a more appropriate fit.

[yzfrr7]

Apologies, new to the forums. Thanks wildmanne39

[spjackson]

The Ubuntu package lxc provides a set of commands beginning with lxc- e.g. lcx-create, lxc-ls, lxc-start, lxc-stop etc. but does not provide an lxc command. After installing the lxc package, you could get a list by

ls /usr/bin/lxc*

I can't be certain that the same applies to Linux Mint Sylvia but it may well do.

[yzfrr7]

Great thanks, I found those commands based on your advice but something is still not right (see below):

$ ls /usr/bin/lxc*
/usr/bin/lxc-attach       /usr/bin/lxc-destroy   /usr/bin/lxc-stop
/usr/bin/lxc-autostart    /usr/bin/lxc-device    /usr/bin/lxc-top
/usr/bin/lxc-cgroup       /usr/bin/lxc-execute   /usr/bin/lxc-unfreeze
/usr/bin/lxc-checkconfig  /usr/bin/lxc-freeze    /usr/bin/lxc-unshare
/usr/bin/lxc-checkpoint   /usr/bin/lxc-info      /usr/bin/lxc-update-config
/usr/bin/lxc-config       /usr/bin/lxc-ls        /usr/bin/lxc-usernsexec
/usr/bin/lxc-console      /usr/bin/lxc-monitor   /usr/bin/lxc-wait
/usr/bin/lxc-copy         /usr/bin/lxc-snapshot
/usr/bin/lxc-create       /usr/bin/lxc-start

If I try create a container I don't encounter any issues:

$ /usr/bin/lxc-create testContainer

But if I try to get info on this newly created container I get the following message:

$ /usr/bin/lxc-info testContainer
testContainer doesn't exist

Now I am a total noob with containers, this is my first time experimenting so I am not entirely sure of where I go from here, any ideas?

[wildmanne39]

No worries!

[spjackson]

If I try create a container I don't encounter any issues:

$ /usr/bin/lxc-create testContainer

But if I try to get info on this newly created container I get the following message:

$ /usr/bin/lxc-info testContainer
testContainer doesn't exist

Now I am a total noob with containers, this is my first time experimenting so I am not entirely sure of where I go from here, any ideas?

I am not familiar with lxc. The Getting Started page https://linuxcontainers.org/lxc/getting-started/ indicates some set up to do before creating your first container.