Running Linux GUI Apps in Windows using Docker

There’s been several posts about running Linux GUI apps on a Mac using Docker, such as Jesse Frazelle’s post. I thought I’d try doing it on Windows. This is so I can remember what I did. I’ve only tested this with Firefox so far. Sound is going to be more complicated.

What I had installed:

• Windows 8.1
• Docker Toolbox - You’ll need this to run Docker, obvs
• Cygwin/X - Cygwin doesn’t come with an X server by default, so you’ll need the Cygwin/X version. This let’s you run an X11 server on your machine.

I’m actually relatively new to setting up and running X servers, so feel free to offer any comments/suggestions for improvement.

Start up the Cygwin terminal.

$ export DISPLAY=*your-machine-ip*:0.0
$ startxwin -- -listen tcp &
$ xhost + *your-machine-ip*
$ eval "$(docker-machine env *your-machine-name*)"
$ docker run --rm -e DISPLAY=$DISPLAY -v /tmp/.X11-unix:/tmp/.X11-unix firefox