Electron SIGSEGV Error When Running in Docker Container

[jbanayo]

Issue Description:
I am trying to run an Electron application inside a Docker container, but I encounter the following error:

Electron Version: 13.6.9
Docker Version: 25.0.3
Operating System: MacOS

Questions:

What could be causing the SIGSEGV signal when running Electron in Docker?
How can I troubleshoot and resolve this issue to have Electron running successfully inside a Docker container?

> electron . --no-sandbox
/app/node_modules/electron/dist/electron exited with signal SIGSEGV

Expected Behavior:
I expect the Electron application to run successfully inside the Docker container, but it exits with a SIGSEGV signal.

Steps Taken:
I have used a Dockerfile based on a Debian stretch image to set up the necessary environment for Electron, including installing X11 libraries and other dependencies. Here is the Dockerfile I used:

Dockerfile

# Use a Debian-based image as the base image
FROM debian:stretch

# Set the ARG variables for user and Debian mirror
ARG user=electron
ARG debian_mirror=deb.debian.org

# Update the apt sources.list to use the specified Debian mirror
RUN sed -r -i -e s/deb.debian.org/$debian_mirror/ /etc/apt/sources.list \
    && apt-get update \
    && apt-get install -y --force-yes \
        build-essential \
        bzip2 \
        ca-certificates \
        curl \
        git \
        wget \
        python \
        vim \
        screen \
        net-tools \
        xvfb \
        fakeroot \
        gconf2 \
        gconf-service \
        gvfs-bin \
        libasound2 \
        libcap2 \
        libgconf-2-4 \
        libgtk2.0-0 \
        libnotify4 \
        libnss3 \
        libxkbfile1 \
        libxss1 \
        libxtst6 \
        libgl1-mesa-glx \
        libgl1-mesa-dri \
        xdg-utils \
    && useradd --create-home --shell /bin/bash $user

# Switch to the user we created
USER $user

# Set the working directory to the user's home directory
WORKDIR /home/$user

# Set the NVM and Node.js versions as ARG variables
ARG nvm_version=v0.34.0
ARG node_version=v10

# Install NVM (Node Version Manager) and Node.js
RUN wget -q -O /tmp/install.sh https://raw.githubusercontent.com/creationix/nvm/$nvm_version/install.sh \
    && . /tmp/install.sh \
    && export NVM_DIR="/home/$user/.nvm" \
    && [ -s "$NVM_DIR/nvm.sh" ] && . "$NVM_DIR/nvm.sh" \
    && nvm install $node_version \
    && npm install -g npm

# Install Electron globally
RUN npm install -g electron

# Switch back to the root user to copy the application files
USER root

# Copy the application directory into the container
COPY app /home/$user/app

# Set ownership of the application directory to the user we created
RUN chown $user.$user /home/$user/app -R

# Switch back to the user we created
USER $user

# Set the working directory to the application directory
WORKDIR /home/$user/app

# Install application dependencies
RUN npm install

# Set the default command to start the Electron application
CMD ["npm", "start"]

[codebytere]

Could you please attach a crash dump to help us get more information? You can collect them by adding the following snippet to your main process code, before app.whenReady:

const { app, crashReporter } = require('electron')
console.log(app.getPath('crashDumps'))
crashReporter.start({ submitURL: '', uploadToServer: false })

Then reproduce the crash, zip up the crash dumps directory and attach it here.

[jbanayo]

I was able to resolve the issue by following these steps:

Setting Up xvfb and Electron:

sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get install -y xvfb
sudo apt-get install xvfb x11-apps x11-xkb-utils libx11-6 libx11-xcb1
sudo Xvfb :99 -ac -screen 0 1280x1024x16 &
export DISPLAY=:99
npm install --save-dev electron
sudo npm i -g electron-mocha

By this time, there is no more error with npm start however no window is appearing.

The solution for the window is

Configuring XQuartz on macOS:
To set up XQuartz for Docker and X11 forwarding on macOS:

1. Launch XQuartz and enable TCP connections:

open -a XQuartz
defaults write org.macosforge.xquartz.X11 nolisten_tcp -boolean false

2. Restart XQuartz for changes to take effect.
3. Allow connections to the X server from Docker container:
   xhost +127.0.0.1
4. Launch Docker container with appropriate display settings:

docker run --rm -e DISPLAY=host.docker.internal:0 \
  -v /tmp/.X11-unix:/tmp/.X11-unix \
  <your-container-image>

Inside the Docker container, test X11 forwarding with:
xeyes
If configured correctly, you should see the xeyes application window displayed on your macOS desktop. With that using npm start electron works!

I've tested this setup successfully