Run an Application with GUI with Docker

There are a few ways to achieve this, like vnc and ssh X forwarding. But in this post, I will show how to run firefox by sharing the .Xauthority file with the docker instance.

First, create a Dockerfile in a directory called docker that use an ubuntu image from dockerhub, and install the firefox application

$ mkdir docker

$ cd docker

$ cat > Dockerfile

FROM ubuntu

RUN apt update && apt install -y firefox

CMD ["/usr/bin/firefox"]

Press ctrl-d to save the file

Next, build an image using the above Dockerfile

$ sudo docker build --tag=firefox-app docker/

Then, run the image, with additional options of --network and --env, and sharing our host .Xauthority file with the container that we are going to run 

$ sudo docker run --network=host --env="DISPLAY" --volume="$HOME/.Xauthority:/root/.Xauthority:rw" --name=firefox1 firefox-app

You should be able to get a working firefox, running from a docker container, separated from the current firefox that you have in your current machine

Credit: https://medium.com/@SaravSun/running-gui-applications-inside-docker-containers-83d65c0db110

Using ssh as proxy

To create ssh tunnel is very easy. Let's say you want to use machine1.example.com as your ssh proxy, your username is foo and you choose port 8080 on your localhost to be your local proxy port. Type below command on your localhost:

$ ssh -D 8080 foo@machine1.example.com

Once connected, set your browser to use Socks5 proxy on port 8080 on your local machine. For firefox, the setting is "Tools -> Options -> Advanced -> Network -> Settings -> Manual proxy configuration" and follow below picture for the proxy setting. Just make sure to keep the ssh connection connected to reap the ssh proxy benefits :)



That's all :)