Docker image to provide HTML5 VNC interface to access a Ubuntu 20.04 LXDE desktop environment.
Available on Docker hub
The source files are available on GitHub
Based on the work by Doro Wu, see on Docker
Typical usage is:
docker run --rm -d -p 6080:80 -v $PWD:/workspace:rw -e USERNAME=username -e USERID=userid -e RESOLUTION=1680x1050 --name ubuntu-novnc fredblgr/ubuntu-novnc:20.04
Run ./startUbuntu.sh, you will have Ubuntu 20.04 in your browser, with the current working directory mounted on /workspace. The container will be removed when it stops, so save your work in /workspace if you want to keep it.
There is a startUbuntu.ps1 for the PowerShell of Windows. You may have to allow the execution of scripts with the command:
Set-ExecutionPolicy -ExecutionPolicy Unrestricted -Scope CurrentUser.
Run the docker container and access with port 6080
docker run -p 6080:80 fredblgr/ubuntu-novnc:20.04
Browse http://127.0.0.1:6080/
Forward VNC service port 5900 to host by
docker run -p 6080:80 -p 5900:5900 fredblgr/ubuntu-novnc:20.04
Now, open the vnc viewer and connect to port 5900. If you would like to protect vnc service by password, set environment variable VNC_PASSWORD, for example
docker run -p 6080:80 -p 5900:5900 -e VNC_PASSWORD=mypassword fredblgr/ubuntu-novnc:20.04
A prompt will ask password either in the browser or vnc viewer.
This image provides base access authentication of HTTP via HTTP_PASSWORD
docker run -p 6080:80 -e HTTP_PASSWORD=mypassword fredblgr/ubuntu-novnc:20.04
To connect with SSL, generate self signed SSL certificate first if you don't have it
mkdir -p ssl
openssl req -x509 -nodes -days 365 -newkey rsa:2048 -keyout ssl/nginx.key -out ssl/nginx.crt
Specify SSL port by SSL_PORT, certificate path to /etc/nginx/ssl, and forward it to 6081
docker run -p 6081:443 -e SSL_PORT=443 -v ${PWD}/ssl:/etc/nginx/ssl fredblgr/ubuntu-novnc:20.04
The Resolution of virtual desktop adapts browser window size when first connecting the server. You may choose a fixed resolution by passing RESOLUTION environment variable, for example
docker run -p 6080:80 -e RESOLUTION=1920x1080 fredblgr/ubuntu-novnc:20.04
The default user is root. You may change the user and password respectively by USERNAME, USERID and PASSWORD environment variables, for example,
docker run -p 6080:80 -e USERNAME=`id -n -u` -e USERID=`id -u` -e PASSWORD=password fredblgr/ubuntu-novnc:20.04
This way, you will have the same name and uid in the container as on the host machine, which is very convenient when you mount a directory in the container using --volume.
You may deploy this application to a subdirectory, for example /some-prefix/. You then can access application by http://127.0.0.1:6080/some-prefix/. This can be specified using the RELATIVE_URL_ROOT configuration option like this
docker run -p 6080:80 -e RELATIVE_URL_ROOT=some-prefix fredblgr/ubuntu-novnc:20.04
NOTE: this variable should not have any leading and trailing slash (/)
Apache License Version 2.0, January 2004 http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
Original work by Doro Wu
Adapted by Frédéric Boulanger