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Headless Debian/Xfce containers with VNC/noVNC for programming

Project accetto/headless-coding-g3

Version: G3v6

User Guide - Docker Hub - Changelog - sibling Wiki - sibling Discussions

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Introduction

This GitHub repository contains resources and tools for building Docker images for headless working.

The images are based on the current Debian 12 and include Xfce desktop, TigerVNC server and noVNC client. The popular web browsers Chromium and Firefox are also included.

This User guide describes the images and how to use them.

The content of this GitHub project is intended for developers and image builders.

Ordinary users can simply use the images available in the following repositories on Docker Hub:

This is a sibling project to the project accetto/debian-vnc-xfce-g3.

Building images

You can execute the individual hook scripts in the folder /docker/hooks/. However, the provided utilities are more convenient.

The script builder.sh builds individual images. The script ci-builder.sh can build various groups of images or all of them at once.

Before building the images you have to prepare and source the file secrets.rc (see example-secrets.rc).

Features that are enabled by default can be explicitly disabled via environment variables. This allows building even smaller images by excluding the individual features (e.g. noVNC).

The resources for building the individual images and their variations (tags) are in the subfolders of the /docker/ folder.

The individual README files contain quick examples of building the images:

Each image also has a separate README file intended for Docker Hub. The final files should be generated by the utility util-readme.sh and then copied to Docker Hub manually.

The following resources describe the image building subject in details:

Image generations

This is the third generation (G3) of my headless images. The second generation (G2) contains the GitHub repository accetto/xubuntu-vnc-novnc. The first generation (G1) contains the GitHub repository accetto/ubuntu-vnc-xfce.

Project versions

This file describes the sixth version (G3v6) of the project.

However, also this version keeps evolving. Please check the CHANGELOG for more information about the changes.

The previous versions are still available in this GitHub repository as the branches named as archived-generation-g3v{d}.

Remark: The version number G3v4 has been skipped, to align the numbering with the sibling project accetto/ubuntu-vnc-xfce-g3.

The main purpose of the version G3v6 is to keep the project and the images uniform with the ones from the sibling Ubuntu projects.

The version G3v5 has brought only one significant change comparing to the previous version G3v3 and it also introduces the portable Visual Studio Code installation.

  • The updated script set_user_permissions.sh, which is part of Dockerfiles, skips the hidden files and directories now. It generally should not have any unwanted side effects, but it may make a difference in some scenarios, hence the version increase.

The version G3v3 has brought the following major changes comparing to the previous version G3v2:

  • The updated startup scripts that support overriding the user ID (id) and group ID (gid) without needing the former build argument ARG_FEATURES_USER_GROUP_OVERRIDE, which has been removed.
  • The user ID and the group ID can be overridden during the build time (docker build) and the run time (docker run).
  • The user name, the group name and the initial sudo password can be overridden during the build time.
  • The permissions of the files /etc/passwd and /etc/groups are set to the standard 644 after creating the user.
  • The content of the home folder and the startup folder belongs to the created user.
  • The created user gets permissions to use sudo. The initial sudo password is configurable during the build time using the build argument ARG_SUDO_INITIAL_PW. The password can be changed inside the container.
  • The default id:gid has been changed from 1001:0 to 1000:1000.
  • Features NOVNC and FIREFOX_PLUS, that are enabled by default, can be disabled via environment variables.
  • If FEATURES_NOVNC="0", then
    • image will not include noVNC
    • image tag will get the -vnc suffix (e.g. latest-vnc, 20.04-firefox-vnc etc.)
  • If FEATURES_FIREFOX_PLUS="0" and FEATURES_FIREFOX="1", then
    • image with Firefox will not include the Firefox Plus features
    • image tag will get the -default suffix (e.g. latest-firefox-default or also latest-firefox-default-vnc etc.)
  • The images are based on Debian 11 (formerly on Ubuntu 20.04 LTS).

The version G3v2 has brought the following major changes comparing to the previous version G3v1:

  • Significantly improved building performance by introducing a local cache (g3-cache).
  • Auto-building on the Docker Hub and using of the GitHub Actions have been abandoned.
  • The enhanced building pipeline moves towards building the images outside the Docker Hub and aims to support also stages with CI/CD capabilities (e.g. the GitLab).
  • The local stage is the default building stage now. However, the new building pipeline has already been tested also with a local GitLab installation in a Docker container on a Linux machine.
  • Automatic publishing of README files to the Docker Hub has been removed, because it was not working properly any more. However, the README files for the Docker Hub can still be prepared with the provided utility util-readme.sh and then copy-and-pasted to the Docker Hub manually.

The changes affect only the building pipeline, not the Docker images themselves. The Dockerfile, apart from using the new local g3-cache, stays conceptually unchanged.

Please refer to the sibling project to learn more about the older project versions.

Project goals

Please refer to the sibling project to learn more about the project goals.

Project features

Please refer to the sibling project to learn more about the project features.

Getting help

If you have found a problem or you just have a question, please check the User guide, Issues and the sibling Wiki first. Please do not overlook the closed issues.

If you do not find a solution, you can file a new issue. The better you describe the problem, the bigger the chance it'll be solved soon.

If you have a question or an idea and you don't want to open an issue, you can use the sibling Discussions.

Credits

Credit goes to all the countless people and companies, who contribute to open source community and make so many dreamy things real.