I'm trying to automate the creation of a solus docker image (for which I need a copy of the base filesystem installation).

I've seen you provide base .img files (main-x86_64.img.xz) in https://www.solus-project.com/image_root/.
Unfortunately, accessing the contents of it needs mounting rights (aka root, usually, which are usually not provided by free CI sites like gitlab).
Note: mounting rights on free CI systems with docker runners, would imply --privileged containers. This is usually a paid feature AFAIK.
I've explored alternatives (e2tools, fs-utils) but none seem straight forward and required some work hacking.

I would be willing to help set up an automatic build for the base docker image if this compressed file is made available.
The alternative to this is to manually create such file with a virtual machine but that would probably lag behind the latest image.

Some of the uses of a docker base image (that I can think of) are:

• automatic 3rd party packages can be build for Solus
• automatic tests
• open doors for devs not running Solus

solbuild seems to solve some of these things, but it requires root permissions too.

Anyway, I would like to know if this is possible and if there's interest in the community.

tl;dr: It would be REALLY helpful for the automatic build of a solus base docker image if you could provide some compresesd file of the base filesystem installation (which you already seem to build).

edit: format, thanks for the proper title/tag.