docker-ubuntu-vnc-desktop is a Docker image to provide web VNC interface to access Ubuntu LXDE/LxQT desktop environment.

• Quick Start
• VNC Viewer
• HTTP Base Authentication
• SSL
• Screen Resolution
• Default Desktop User
• Deploy to a subdirectory (relative url root)
• Sound (Preview version and Linux only)
• Generate Dockerfile from jinja template
• Troubleshooting and FAQ
• License

Run the docker container and access with port 6080

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

Browse https://127.0.0.1:6080/

Choose your favorite Ubuntu version with tags

• focal: Ubuntu 20.04 (latest)
• focal-lxqt: Ubuntu 20.04 LXQt
• bionic: Ubuntu 18.04
• bionic-lxqt: Ubuntu 18.04 LXQt
• xenial: Ubuntu 16.04 (deprecated)
• trusty: Ubuntu 14.04 (deprecated)

Forward VNC service port 5900 to host by

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

Now, open the vnc viewer and connect to port 5900. If you would like to protect vnc service by password, set environment variable VNC_PASSWORD, for example

docker run -p 6080:80 -p 5900:5900 -e VNC_PASSWORD=mypassword -v /dev/shm:/dev/shm dorowu/ubuntu-desktop-lxde-vnc

A prompt will ask password either in the browser or vnc viewer.

This image provides base access authentication of HTTP via HTTP_PASSWORD

docker run -p 6080:80 -e HTTP_PASSWORD=mypassword -v /dev/shm:/dev/shm dorowu/ubuntu-desktop-lxde-vnc

To connect with SSL, generate self signed SSL certificate first if you don't have it

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

Specify SSL port by SSL_PORT, certificate path to /etc/nginx/ssl, and forward it to 6081

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

The Resolution of virtual desktop adapts browser window size when first connecting the server. You may choose a fixed resolution by passing RESOLUTION environment variable, for example

docker run -p 6080:80 -e RESOLUTION=1920x1080 -v /dev/shm:/dev/shm dorowu/ubuntu-desktop-lxde-vnc

The default user is root. You may change the user and password respectively by USER and PASSWORD environment variable, for example,

docker run -p 6080:80 -e USER=doro -e PASSWORD=password -v /dev/shm:/dev/shm dorowu/ubuntu-desktop-lxde-vnc

You may deploy this application to a subdirectory, for example /some-prefix/. You then can access application by https://127.0.0.1:6080/some-prefix/. This can be specified using the RELATIVE_URL_ROOT configuration option like this

docker run -p 6080:80 -e RELATIVE_URL_ROOT=some-prefix dorowu/ubuntu-desktop-lxde-vnc

NOTE: this variable should not have any leading and trailing splash (/)

It only works in Linux.

First of all, insert kernel module snd-aloop and specify 2 as the index of sound loop device

sudo modprobe snd-aloop index=2

Start the container

docker run -it --rm -p 6080:80 --device /dev/snd -e ALSADEV=hw:2,0 dorowu/ubuntu-desktop-lxde-vnc

where --device /dev/snd -e ALSADEV=hw:2,0 means to grant sound device to container and set basic ASLA config to use card 2.

Launch a browser with URL https://127.0.0.1:6080/#/?video, where video means to start with video mode. Now you can start Chromium in start menu (Internet -> Chromium Web Browser Sound) and try to play some video.

Following is the screen capture of these operations. Turn on your sound at the end of video!

WARNING: Deprecated

Dockerfile and configuration can be generated by template.

• arch: one of amd64 or armhf
• flavor: refer to file in flavor/flavor.yml
• image: base image
• desktop: desktop environment which is set in flavor
• addon_package: Debian package to be installed which is set in flavor

Dockerfile and configuration are re-generate if they do not exist. Or you may force to re-generate by removing them with the command make clean.

1. boot2docker connection issue, fcwu/docker-ubuntu-vnc-desktop#2
2. Multi-language supports, fcwu/docker-ubuntu-vnc-desktop#80
3. Autostart, fcwu/docker-ubuntu-vnc-desktop#85 (comment)
4. x11vnc arguments(multiptr), fcwu/docker-ubuntu-vnc-desktop#101
5. firefox/chrome crash (/dev/shm), fcwu/docker-ubuntu-vnc-desktop#112
6. resize display size without destroying container, fcwu/docker-ubuntu-vnc-desktop#115 (comment)

See the LICENSE file for details.