Can you run GUI applications in a Docker container?

Question

How can you run GUI applications in a Docker container?

Are there any images that set up vncserver or something so that you can - for example - add an e

Answer 1

I just found this blog entry and want to share it here with you because I think it is the best way to do it and it is so easy.

http://fabiorehm.com/blog/2014/09/11/running-gui-apps-with-docker/

PROS:
+ no x server stuff in the docker container
+ no vnc client/server needed
+ no ssh with x forwarding
+ much smaller docker containers

CONS:
- using x on the host (not meant for secure-sandboxing)

in case the link will fail someday I have put the most important part here:
dockerfile:

FROM ubuntu:14.04

RUN apt-get update && apt-get install -y firefox

# Replace 1000 with your user / group id
RUN export uid=1000 gid=1000 && \
    mkdir -p /home/developer && \
    echo "developer:x:${uid}:${gid}:Developer,,,:/home/developer:/bin/bash" >> /etc/passwd && \
    echo "developer:x:${uid}:" >> /etc/group && \
    echo "developer ALL=(ALL) NOPASSWD: ALL" > /etc/sudoers.d/developer && \
    chmod 0440 /etc/sudoers.d/developer && \
    chown ${uid}:${gid} -R /home/developer

USER developer
ENV HOME /home/developer
CMD /usr/bin/firefox

build the image:

docker build -t firefox .

and the run command:

docker run -ti --rm \
   -e DISPLAY=$DISPLAY \
   -v /tmp/.X11-unix:/tmp/.X11-unix \
   firefox

of course you can also do this in the run command with sh -c "echo script-here"

HINT: for audio take a look at: https://stackoverflow.com/a/28985715/2835523