When running (eg) dnf on a 32 bit i686 guest when the host is 64 bit x86_64, dnf believes it is running on a 64 bit machine and so tries to install x86_64 packages. We can 'trick' dnf into believing it's a 32 bit machine using the setarch program. $ virt-builder fedora-22 --arch i686 --install 'gperf' ... [ 27.4] Installing packages: gperf ... Running transaction test Error: Transaction check error: package libgcc-5.1.1-4.fc22.x86_64 is intended for a different architecture ... The use of a heredoc to solve quoting issues comes from: http://stackoverflow.com/a/3435460 Thanks: Jan Sedlák for finding the solution. --- customize/customize_run.ml | 10 +++++++++- 1 file changed, 9 insertions(+), 1 deletion(-) diff --git a/customize/customize_run.ml b/customize/customize_run.ml index 828c711..2283272 100644 --- a/customize/customize_run.ml +++ b/customize/customize_run.ml @@ -59,6 +59,7 @@ let run (g : Guestfs.guestfs) root (ops : ops) = * - Pass environment variables through from the host. * - Send stdout and stderr to a log file so we capture all output * in error messages. + * - Use setarch when running x86_64 host + i686 guest. * Also catch errors and dump the log file completely on error. *) let env_vars = @@ -69,11 +70,18 @@ let run (g : Guestfs.guestfs) root (ops : ops) = ) [ "http_proxy"; "https_proxy"; "ftp_proxy"; "no_proxy" ] in let env_vars = String.concat "\n" env_vars ^ "\n" in + let setarch = + match Config.host_cpu, guest_arch with + | "x86_64", ("i386"|"i486"|"i586"|"i686") -> "setarch i686" + | _ -> "" in + let cmd = sprintf "\ exec >>%s 2>&1 %s +%s <<\"__EOCMD\" %s -" (quote logfile) env_vars cmd in +__EOCMD +" (quote logfile) env_vars setarch cmd in if verbose () then printf "running command:\n%s\n%!" cmd; try ignore (g#sh cmd) -- 2.5.0