Web X11 container

Docker container base image for packaging graphical applications (X11). Graphical environment is accessible through web browser.

How to use

1. Open project directory in Bash

2. Build and start container

• Through Docker Compose

  # Docker Compose v1
  docker-compose up
  
  # Docker Compose v2
  docker compose up

• ...or directly through Docker CLI

  docker build --tag web-x11 .
  docker run \
    --interactive \
    --tty \
    --publish 8080:8080 \
    web-x11

3. Connect to the graphical environment

NOTE: Fluxbox window manager might need some time to start on the first run.

Open http://localhost:8080 in a web browser.

4. Open terminal (Bash in xterm)

Right click on the middle of the screen and navigate the menu: Applications -> Shell -> Bash as shown on a screenshot below.

How to start another process automatically

1. Add executable path to ./system/services/example_service.sh

NOTE: If you add your own script, make sure it is executable.

2. Rebuild and restart container with docker-compose

# Docker Compose v1
docker-compose up --build --force-recreate --renew-anon-volumes

# Docker Compose v2
docker compose up --build --force-recreate --renew-anon-volumes

Motivation

There are several base images with a similar setup. This base image has a few improvements:

• Up-to-date noVNC version which plays well with both Firefox and Chrome/Chromium.

• wait_for_x11_init.sh is used for starting processes which need X11 (Xvfb) initialized. This way we exclude race conditions.

• Proper process management with supervisord with ability to filter logs by process, start, stop, auto-restart processes without restarting the container. This comes handy when you add an application to the base image.

• Ubuntu 20.04.* LTS is taken as a base image for better integration with other applications (some applications are not trivial to install on Alpine Linux).

Inspiration: similar container images

• https://github.com/soffchen/tiny-remote-desktop
• https://github.com/hdavid0510/docker-novnc/
• https://wiki.xnat.org/display/CS/Container+Desktop+Access+via+noVNC