Run Ubuntu Linux in Docker with Desktop Environment and VNC

Step 1 – Install Docker on your System

sudo systemctl start docker && sudo systemctl enable docker

Add your system user to the Docker group to be able to execute Docker commands without *sudo*.

sudo usermod -aG docker $USER
newgrp docker

Verify the installed Docker version.

$ docker version
Client: Docker Engine - Community
 Version:           20.10.12
 API version:       1.41
 Go version:        go1.16.12
 Git commit:        e91ed57
 Built:             Mon Dec 13 11:45:48 2021
 OS/Arch:           linux/amd64
 Context:           default
 Experimental:      true
....

Step 2 – Pull the Ubuntu Docker Image

As said earlier, there are several images for Ubuntu that can be pulled. These images are available on the Docker page and can be pulled using Docker as shown.

##For Ubuntu 20.04 (latest)
docker pull dorowu/ubuntu-desktop-lxde-vnc:latest

##For Focal with LXDE
docker pull dorowu/ubuntu-desktop-lxde-vnc:focal

##For Focal with LXQt
docker pull dorowu/ubuntu-desktop-lxde-vnc:focal-lxqt

##For Bionic with LXDE
docker pull dorowu/ubuntu-desktop-lxde-vnc:bionic

##For Bionic with LXQt
docker pull dorowu/ubuntu-desktop-lxde-vnc:bionic-lxqt

##For Trusty 
docker pull dorowu/ubuntu-desktop-lxde-vnc:trusty

##For Xenial
docker pull dorowu/ubuntu-desktop-lxde-vnc:xenial

Once the desired Ubuntu image has been pulled, check if it is available in the local registry.

$ docker images
REPOSITORY                       TAG       IMAGE ID       CREATED         SIZE
dorowu/ubuntu-desktop-lxde-vnc   latest    1a89db715923   10 months ago   1.32GB

Step 3 – Run the Ubuntu Container with Desktop Environment

Here, we will go through several methods with configuration on how you can run the Ubuntu container to give you an intuitive experience.

Quick Start.

You can simply run the container and access it via port 6080 using the command below.

docker run -d \
  --name ubuntu_desktop \
  -v /dev/shm:/dev/shm \
  -p 6080:80 \
  dorowu/ubuntu-desktop-lxde-vnc

In the above command, we have set the container name to ubuntu_desktop** and a persistent volume at /dev/shm* Remember to replace ubuntu-desktop-lxde-vnc* with the appropriate image pulled.

Check if the container is running with the port exposed.

$ docker ps
CONTAINER ID   IMAGE                            COMMAND         CREATED          STATUS                             PORTS                                   NAMES
f8fd69e3865e   dorowu/ubuntu-desktop-lxde-vnc   "/startup.sh"   17 seconds ago   Up 15 seconds (health: starting)   0.0.0.0:6080->80/tcp, :::6080->80/tcp   ubuntu_desktop

As seen from the output, we have port 6080 exposed. Allow it through the firewall and proceed to access the Ubuntu Desktop using the URL http://IP_Address:6080/.

Set HTTP Base Authentication

You can also set a password to be used when accessing the HTTP page on port 6080 by adding the HTTP_PASSWORD variable to the above command:

docker run -d \
  --name ubuntu_desktop \
  -e HTTP_PASSWORD=Passw0rd \
  -v /dev/shm:/dev/shm \
  -p 6080:80 \
  dorowu/ubuntu-desktop-lxde-vnc

Now accessing the page, you will be required to provide a password.

Enable VNC Viewer

The VNC viewer is accessed via a separate port 5900 that needs to be exposed in order to access it. The VNC Viewer port can be exposed as below.

docker run -d \
  --name ubuntu_desktop \
  -v /dev/shm:/dev/shm \
  -p 6080:80 \
  -p 5900:5900 \
  dorowu/ubuntu-desktop-lxde-vnc

Here, the VNC viewer should be available on port *5900*.

You can as well set a password for the viewer by adding the VNC_PASSWORD variable to the above command:

docker run -d \
  --name ubuntu_desktop \
  -e VNC_PASSWORD=StrongPassword \
  -v /dev/shm:/dev/shm \
  -p 6080:80 \
  -p 5900:5900 \
  dorowu/ubuntu-desktop-lxde-vnc

Encrypt with SSL.

You can generate SSL certificates for encryption. In this guide, we will generate self-signed certificates as below.

Ensure that OpenSSL is installed on your system before you proceed:

mkdir -p ssl
openssl req -x509 -nodes -days 365 -newkey rsa:2048 -keyout ssl/nginx.key -out ssl/nginx.crt

Now when running the container, you need to specify the SSL_PORT and the path to the generated certificate as below.

docker run -d \
  --name ubuntu_desktop \
  -v /dev/shm:/dev/shm \
  -p 6081:443 \
  -e SSL_PORT=443 \
  -v ${PWD}/ssl:/etc/nginx/ssl \
  dorowu/ubuntu-desktop-lxde-vnc

Here, you can access the Ubuntu Desktop using the URL https://IP_address:6081.

Ref

https://computingforgeeks.com/run-ubuntu-linux-in-docker-with-desktop-environment-and-vnc/https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=umqz7kKWxyw)