waipotn/ros-novnc repository overview

⁠Docker container images with ROS Kinetic (desktop-full) and noVNC web client

⁠Adapted from: henry2423/docker-ros-vnc⁠ :clap:

⁠Features

• Ubuntu 16.04
• ROS Kinectic (desktop-full)
• noVNC web client
• IceWM desktop
• GPU version: CUDA 8.0 with cuDNN 6.0

⁠Usage

• (If not available) Install Docker Engine

  curl -sSL https://get.docker.com/ | sh
  

  Copy

• Run command with mapping to local port 5901 (vnc protocol) and 6901 (vnc web access):

  docker run -d -p 5901:5901 -p 6901:6901 wn1980/ros-vnc:cpu
  

  Copy

• If you want to get into the container use interactive mode -it and bash

  docker run -it -p 5901:5901 -p 6901:6901 wn1980/ros-vnc:cpu bash
  

  Copy

• If you want to connect to tensorboard, run command with mapping to local port 6006:

  docker run -it -p 5901:5901 -p 6901:6901 -p 6006:6006 wn1980/ros-vnc:cpu
  

  Copy

• Build an image from scratch:

  docker build -t wn1980/ros-vnc:cpu -f Dockerfile.cpu .
  

  Copy

Note For GPU, please change xxx:cpu to xxx:gpu and replace the command docker with nvidia-docker.

⁠Connect & Control

If the container runs up, you can connect to the container throught the following

• connect via VNC viewer localhost:5901, default password: vncpassword
• connect via noVNC HTML5 full client: http://localhost:6901/vnc.html⁠, default password: vncpassword
• connect via noVNC HTML5 lite client: http://localhost:6901/?password=vncpassword⁠
• connect to Tensorboard if you do the tensorboard mapping above: http://localhost:6006⁠
• The default username and password in container is ros:ros

⁠Detail Environment setting

⁠1.1) Using root (user id 0)

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

docker run -it --user root -p 5901:5901 wn1980/ros-vnc:cpu

⁠1.2) Using user and group id of host system

Add the --user flag to your docker run command (Note: uid and gui of host system may not able to map with container, which is 1000:1000. If that is the case, check with 3):

docker run -it -p 5901:5901 --user $(id -u):$(id -g) wn1980/ros-vnc:cpu

⁠2) Override VNC and Container 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: 1920x1080
• VNC_PW, default: vncpassword
• USER, default: ros
• PASSWD, default: ros

⁠2.1) 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 -p 5901:5901 -p 6901:6901 -e VNC_PW=vncpassword wn1980/ros-vnc:cpu

⁠2.2) 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 -p 5901:5901 -p 6901:6901 -e VNC_RESOLUTION=800x600 wn1980/ros-vnc:cpu

⁠3) Mounting local directory to conatiner

You should run with following environment variable in order to mapping host user/group with container, and retrieve R/W permission of mounting directory in container (Note: after running this command, the user account in container will be same as host account):

  docker run -it -p 5901:5901 \
    --user $(id -u):$(id -g) \
    --volume /etc/passwd:/etc/passwd \
    --volume /etc/group:/etc/group \
    --volume /etc/shadow:/etc/shadow \
    --volume /home/ros/Desktop:/home/ros/Desktop:rw \
    wn1980/ros-vnc:cpu

⁠4) Connecting jupyter notebook within container

• Run command with mapping to local port 8888 (jupyter protocol) and 8888 (host web access):

  docker run -d -p 8888:8888 wn1980/ros-vnc:cpu
  

  Copy

• Check your local IP within container using $ifconfig, then you can start up jupyter notebook in container with following command:

  jupyter notebook --ip={YOUR CONTAINER IP} --port=8888 --allow-root
  

  Copy

• After start up the jupyter kernel, you can access the notebook from host browser through HTTP service.

  http://localhost:8888/
  

  Copy

⁠Acknowledgments

• henry2423/docker-ros-vnc⁠ - A docker environment with ROS, Gazebo, Xfce4 VNC Desktop and Tensorflow
• ConSol/docker-headless-vnc-container⁠ - developed the ConSol/docker-headless-vnc-container