imodstyle/baseimage-gui repository overview

⁠A minimal docker baseimage to ease creation of X graphical application containers based of Jlesage, this intended for educational purpose only

This is a docker baseimage that can be used to create containers able to run any X application on a headless server very easily. The application's GUI is accessed through a modern web browser (no installation or configuration needed on the client side) or via any VNC client.

⁠Content

Here are the main components of the baseimage:

• An init system.
• A process supervisor, with proper PID 1 functionality (proper reaping of processes).
• TigerVNC⁠, a X server with an integrated VNC server.
• Openbox⁠, a window manager.
• noVNC⁠, a HTML5 VNC client.
• NGINX⁠, a high-performance HTTP server.
• Useful tools to ease container building.
• Environment to better support dockerized applications.

⁠Versioning

Images are versioned. Version number follows the semantic versioning⁠. The version format is MAJOR.MINOR.PATCH, where an increment of the:

• MAJOR version indicates that a backwards-incompatible change has been done.
• MINOR version indicates that functionality has been added in a backwards-compatible manner.
• PATCH version indicates that a bug fix has been done in a backwards-compatible manner.

⁠Tags

For each distribution-specific image, multiple tags are available:

⁠Getting started

The Dockerfile for your application can be very simple, as only three things are required:

• Instructions to install the application.
• A script that starts the application (stored at /startapp.sh in container).
• The name of the application.

Here is an example of a docker file that would be used to run the xterm terminal.

In Dockerfile:

# Pull base image.
FROM imodstyle/baseimage-gui:alpine-3.15-v4

# Install xterm.
RUN add-pkg xterm

# Copy the start script.
COPY startapp.sh /startapp.sh

# Set the name of the application.
RUN set-cont-env APP_NAME "Xterm"

In startapp.sh:

#!/bin/sh
exec /usr/bin/xterm

Then, build your docker image:

docker build -t docker-xterm .

And run it:

docker run --rm -p 5800:5800 -p 5900:5900 docker-xterm

You should be able to access the xterm GUI by opening in a web browser:

http://[HOST IP ADDR]:5800

⁠Documentation

Full documentation is available at https://github.com/imodstyle/docker-baseimage-gui⁠.