rDoD (remote Desktop on Docker)

Quick reference

Where to get help

Github Issues Tracker

Where to file issues

Github issues Tracker

Maintained by

Matthieu Derasse

Description

Have you ever dreamed moving from a desk to another without having to rebuild your environment ? To be able to access to your apps from home, job, in the bus or in the train ? rDoD can be the solution for you !

With rDoD you will be able to launch a full Ubuntu Desktop environment in a Docker and access to it by VNC / noVNC

Default Versions

rDoD (Image Tag: latest)

• Desktop environment Xfce4
• VNC Server TigerVNC (default VNC port 5901)
• HTML5 VNC Client noVNC (default http port 5911)
• Browsers:
  • Firefox
• Tools:
  • openssh-client
  • Default Network Tools

Customized Versions

List of Customized Versions

Launch rDoD

1) Set Up your rDoD

rDod can be launch as it but you might want to customize. To do so, a few environment variables are available such as :

• RESOLUTION: Screen resolution of the desktop initialized by VNC Server (Default: 1920*1080)
• USE_SSL: Enable/Disable SSL Encryption between VNC Client <-> Server. If set to true, Certificate will be auto-generated at launch (Default: false)
• VNC_RW_PASSWORD: Password for log in as a Read-Write user. If not set, the password will be auto-generated at launch (Optional)
• VNC_RO_PASSWORD: Password for log in as a Read-Only user. If not set, the password will be auto-generated at launch (Optional)

If you are using docker-compose you can also edit the docker-compose file to customize rDod

2) Start rDoD

rDod cab be launch by 2 different ways :

a) Docker-Compose

Docker-Compose is the easiest way to launch rDoD. By using it the Home of the rDod user will be persistent.

You can use Docker-Compose to download and launch rDoD by using the following command:

docker-compose up

It's also possible to launch rDoD in "detach" mode by adding the -d parameter:

docker-compose up -d

b) Docker CLI

You can launch rDoD by using the classical Docker CLI. That way permit a better customization but will require to write a longer command line.

docker run -p 5901:5901 -p 5911:5911 mderasse/rdod:latest

Of course you can replace latest by another image tag.

You might also want to have a persistent Home. You can do this by using the parameter -v like :

docker run -p 5901:5901 -p 5911:5911 -v $(pwd)/home:/home/user mderasse/rdod:latest

You might also want to use those parameter :

• -d : launch the image in "detach" mode
• -e : set a environment variable. (-e USE_SSL='true')

3) Access to rDoD

rDoD currently provide 2 different ways of access.

VNC

In order to acces to rDoD by using VNC you will have to install the TigerVNC viewer.
You can find the different binary depending of your OS on that link: TigerVNC Viewer

After the installation done you will have to launch the client and connect to : YOUR_IP:5901

noVNC

noVNC is a HTML5 Client. You can access it directly by using your favorite Web Browser http://YOUR_IP:5911

Don't forget to change HTTP to HTTPS is USE_SSL is enabled.

Create you own Customized Version

rDoD is made in a way that it's really easy to extend it.
Do to so you will have to create a Dockerfile like the following one:

FROM mderasse/rdod:latest

LABEL maintainer="Matthieu DERASSE <github@derasse.fr>"

# Back to Root
USER 0

# Configure Custom System
COPY ....
RUN ....

# Back to User
USER 1000

Please, take a look at the customs directory, that can be a good source of inspiration. Feel free to share your version by creating a pull Request!

Known Issues

1. noVNC does not handle well all the keyboard key