Docker GUI with Mac how to

Question

I am recently starting with docker and I am facing a problem in setting-up an existing docker-desktop image and showing is t on my screen. This will be the first step to then personalize the whole image:

I followed instruction from several sites but the easiest one is the following: dockerfile/ubuntu-desktop

• No problem in downloading the image

• When I run it I obtain the following output:

  $ docker run -it --rm -p 5901:5901 -e USER=root dockerfile/ubuntu-desktop     bash -c "vncserver :1 -geometry 1280x800 -depth 24 && tail -F /root/.vnc/*.log"
  You will require a password to access your desktops.
  Password: 
  Verify:   
  Would you like to enter a view-only password (y/n)? n
  New 'X' desktop is 0792f104dfd0:1
  Creating default startup script /root/.vnc/xstartup
  Starting applications specified in /root/.vnc/xstartup
  Log file is /root/.vnc/0792f104dfd0:1.log
  03/02/15 14:10:08 Copyright (C) 2000-2007 TightVNC Group
  03/02/15 14:10:08 Copyright (C) 1999 AT&T Laboratories Cambridge
  03/02/15 14:10:08 All Rights Reserved.
  03/02/15 14:10:08 See http://www.tightvnc.com/ for information on TightVNC
  03/02/15 14:10:08 Desktop name 'X' (0792f104dfd0:1)
  03/02/15 14:10:08 Protocol versions supported: 3.3, 3.7, 3.8, 3.7t, 3.8t
  03/02/15 14:10:08 Listening for VNC connections on TCP port 5901
  Font directory '/usr/share/fonts/X11/Type1/' not found - ignoring
  Font directory '/usr/share/fonts/X11/75dpi/' not found - ignoring
  Font directory '/usr/share/fonts/X11/100dpi/' not found - ignoring
  xrdb: No such file or directory
  xrdb: can't open file '/root/.Xresources'
  AUDIT: Tue Feb  3 14:10:09 2015: 17 Xtightvnc: client 6 rejected from local host
  

The container inspection output is the following:

    $ docker inspect -f '{{json .NetworkSettings }}' 0792f104dfd0 
    {"Bridge":"docker0","Gateway":"172.17.42.1",
    "IPAddress":"172.17.0.21","IPPrefixLen":16,
    "MacAddress":"02:42:ac:11:00:15",
    "PortMapping":null,
    "Ports":{"5901/tcp":[{"HostIp":"0.0.0.0","HostPort":"5901"}]}}

When I try to connect with VCN I get errors.

Could you help me in finding what I should change to have a running, visible desktop on mac using Docker?

Answer 1

If you are just missing the .Xresources file try adding an empty file there. This discussion seems to imply that it is not really needed. You can add the file by using:

docker run -it --rm -p 5901:5901 -e USER=root dockerfile/ubuntu-desktop \
    bash -c "touch /root/.Xresources && \
    vncserver :1 -geometry 1280x800 -depth 24 && \ 
    tail -F /root/.vnc/*.log"

Docker on OSX (and any non-linux OS) runs inside a boot2docker vm and that VM's network is not available on localhost outside the VM. To get to the network interfaces use the Boot2docker IP which your can retrieve using the boot2docker ip command. This IP is usually 192.168.59.103 although that is not guaranteed.