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