Open a GUI in a Docker container running on a headless machine

PabPabPab

11/8/22, 8:51 AM

I'm trying to open Firefox GUI on a Docker container. I'm avoiding most common solution which seems to use at one point /tmp/.X11-unix from host because I want the container to work on any host, including a headless host without X11.

The goal is just to use selenium to open Firefox GUI and take a screenshot. I'm not quite sure if it possible but I guess it is.

FROM ubuntu:latest

RUN DEBIAN_FRONTEND="noninteractive" apt-get -y update
RUN DEBIAN_FRONTEND="noninteractive" apt-get -y install python3 python3-pip firefox-geckodriver x11vnc xvfb
RUN DEBIAN_FRONTEND="noninteractive" apt-get -y install x11-xserver-utils
RUN DEBIAN_FRONTEND="noninteractive" pip install --upgrade --no-cache-dir pip-with-requires-python && \
    pip install --upgrade --no-cache-dir --prefer-binary selenium

WORKDIR /app

COPY entrypoint.sh .
COPY script.py .

RUN chmod +x entrypoint.sh

CMD ["x11vnc", "-create", "-forever"]
ENV DISPLAY :0
CMD ["xhost", "+"]

ENTRYPOINT ["/app/entrypoint.sh"]

Currently xhost ouput xhost: unable to open display :0. I'm not sure about the :0 but I tried several values.

Selenium of course also fails with:

Unable to init server: Could not connect: Connection refused
Error: cannot open display: :0

I'm running out of ideas so anything would be appreciated :) I'm probably missing an important part.

358

0 + 1

vnc

xorg

container

docker

muru

11/8/22, 8:59 AM

You're not going to start a GUI that depends on X11 without X11 running *somewhere*. You could start Firefox itself in a headless mode and ask it to take the screenshot or whatever, e.g., https://stackoverflow.com/a/48377879/2072269

Elon Musk

I sit in a Tesla and translated this thread with Ai:

EN: Open a GUI in a Docker container running on a headless machine

TH: เปิด GUI ในคอนเทนเนอร์ Docker ที่ทำงานบนเครื่องที่ไม่มีส่วนหัว

RO: Deschideți o interfață grafică într-un container Docker care rulează pe o mașină fără cap

RU: Откройте графический интерфейс в контейнере Docker, работающем на безголовой машине.

VI: Mở GUI trong bộ chứa Docker chạy trên máy không đầu

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