kaiyhou/ubuntu-web-vnc repository overview

Source⁠

⁠Ubuntu Web VNC Container

Run Ubuntu Web VNC within Docker with one command!

Credit: based on ConSol⁠ 's Version (achieved)

Current TODOs: changelog and TODOs⁠

Features:

• Desktop environment: Xfce4⁠
• VNCServer: latest TigerVNC⁠
  • which doesn't rely on unreliable xstartup to start desktop session!
• HTML5 VNC client: noVNC⁠
• Software:
  • Mozilla Firefox
  • Chromium (not work for ARM)
  • Sublime
  • Docker

⁠OS & UI sessions:

• kaiyhou/ubuntu-web-vnc:
  • Ubuntu 18.04 with Xfce4 UI session
    • X86-64
    • ARM-64

⁠Usage

• Run command with mapping to local port 8001 (vnc protocol) and 8002 (vnc web access):

  bash run-container.sh [password]
  
  # the latest tigerVNC server only allows localhost connections. So, 8001 cannot be accessd outside localhost.
  # in vnc_startup.sh, add "-localhost no" option to vncserver line would diable this setting.
  # TODO: add an option in run-container.sh
  

  Copy

• Build an image from scratch:

  # for single arch
  bash build-dev.sh
  
  # for multi arch (amd64, arm64) with proper tags
  bash build-multi-arch.sh
  

  Copy

⁠Connect & Control

If the container is started like mentioned above, connect via one of these options:

• noVNC HTML5 full client: http://localhost:8002/vnc.html⁠, default password: VNC_PASSWORD

  • With clipboard and Scale!

• noVNC HTML5 lite client: http://localhost:8002/?password=VNC_PASSWORD⁠

• TODO: connect via VNC viewer localhost:8001, default password: VNC_PASSWORD

⁠Hints

⁠1) Extend a Image with your own software

All images run as non-root user per default, so if you want to extend the image and install software, you have to switch back to the root user:

## Custom Dockerfile
FROM kaiyhou/ubuntu-web-vnc

# Switch to root user to install additional software
USER 0

## Install a gedit
RUN apt-get install -y gedit \
    && apt-get clean all

## switch back to default user
USER ubuntu

⁠2) Using root (user id 0)

Add the --user flag to your docker run command:

docker run -it --user 0 ... kaiyhou/ubuntu-web-vnc

⁠2) Using user and group id of host system

Add the --user flag to your docker run command:

docker run -it --user $(id -u):$(id -g) ... kaiyhou/ubuntu-web-vnc

⁠3) Override VNC environment variables

The following VNC environment variables can be overwritten at the docker run phase to customize your desktop environment inside the container:

• VNC_COL_DEPTH, default: 24
• VNC_RESOLUTION, default: 1600x900
• VNC_PW, default: VNC_PASSWORD

⁠3.1) Example: Override the VNC password

Simply overwrite the value of the environment variable VNC_PW. For example in the docker run command:

docker run -it -e VNC_PW=my-pw ... kaiyhou/ubuntu-web-vnc

⁠3.2) Example: Override the VNC resolution

Simply overwrite the value of the environment variable VNC_RESOLUTION. For example in the docker run command:

docker run -it -e VNC_RESOLUTION=800x600 ... kaiyhou/ubuntu-web-vnc

⁠4) View only VNC

Since version 1.2.0 it's possible to prevent unwanted control via VNC. Therefore you can set the environment variable VNC_VIEW_ONLY=true. If set, the startup script will create a random password for the control connection and use the value of VNC_PW for view only connection over the VNC connection.

 docker run -it -e VNC_VIEW_ONLY=true ... kaiyhou/ubuntu-web-vnc

⁠5) Chromium crashes with high VNC_RESOLUTION

The problem there is the too small /dev/shm size in the container. Except the solution below, we can also use -v /dev/shm:/dev/shm

docker run --shm-size=256m -it VNC_RESOLUTION=1920x1080 ... kaiyhou/ubuntu-web-vnc

⁠Contributors

At this point we want to thank all contributors, which helped to move this great project by submitting code, writing documentation, or adapting other tools to play well together with the docker headless container.

• Tobias Schneck⁠
• Robert Bohne⁠ - IceWM images
• hsiaoyi0504⁠ - PR #66⁠
• dmhumph⁠ - PR #44⁠
• Simon Hofmann⁠

⁠Changelog

The current changelog is provided here: changelog.md⁠