Docker VNC server

An Ubuntu graphical environment using the i3 windows manager which display maximized applications.

Applications can be accessed with any VNC viewer.

• On a Mac, VNC connect is highly recommended
• On a Linux distro, please use TigerVNC's vncviewer

Usage

Run xfce4-terminal by default.

docker run -d --name vnc -p 5900:5900 gcanal/vcn

You can connect to the remote VNC session by connecting to localhost:5900

Note: The default password is changeme,
you can peek a new one by using -e VNC_PASS=here_your_new_password

Detailed usages

Preserve your user's home directory

When you discard a container using docker stop vnc && docker rm vnc, by default, all your work will be lost.

To prevent it, you can leverage a docker volume to preserve the user's home directory.

docker run -d --name vnc -p 5900:5900 -v workspace:/home/user gcanal/vcn

⚠ Caution : I won't recommend mounting a directory from your host machine, instead, use a docker volume as demonstrated above.

Customize the default user

By default, the container create a user which look like this:

$ id
> uid=1000(user) gid=1000(user) groups=1000(user)

You can customize the user creation process by using environment variables:

Name	Description	Default value
USER_NAME	User name	user
USER_UID	User UID	1000
USER_GROUP	User primary group name	$USER_NAME
USER_GID	User primary group GID	$USER_UID
USER_SHELL	User's login shell (available: bash, zsh)	/bin/bash
HOME	User's home directory	/home/user

Example:

docker run --rm -d --name vnc \
-e USER_NAME=jane \
-e USER_UID=1001 \
-e USER_GROUP=jane \
-e USER_GID=1001 \
-e USER_SHELL=/bin/zsh \
-e HOME=/home/jane \
gcanal/vnc

Adjust the screen geometry and DPI

When creating a new container

By default, applications are run on a 1280x1024 screen, with a dpi of 96.

You can customize the default screen geometry and dpi using environment variables before starting your container.

# A geometry and dpi adapted for retina screens
docker run --rm -d --name vnc \
-e VNC_GEOMETRY=2880x1800 \
-e VNC_DPI=180 \
gcanal/vnc

For an existing container

The geometry can although be ajusted dynamically:

docker exec -ti vnc change-geometry DISPLAY_NUM WIDTH HEIGHT REFRESH_RATE

Name	Description	Default value
DISPLAY_NUM	The X11 display number	0
WIDTH	The screen width in pixels	1280
HEIGHT	The screen height in pixels	800
REFRESH_RATE	The screen refresh rate in Hz	60

HiDPI on a retina display

Running Docker GUI applications on MacOS which look nice and crisp on retina display and that fell right proven challenging.

To be documented...

Customization

This project come with a default theme and support colored emoji, it may not be suitable to you.

For now, it's not customizable, but it MAY be in the future.