nggit / dorun

running desktop applications inside a docker container has never been easier

dorun

dorun is a simple Docker helper to easily manage Containers. You can install some of your favorite apps (either GUI or Non-GUI) inside Container with native experience.

Prerequisites

• Docker Service Must Already be Running/Active

  Before you can run dorun, the Docker service must be running. In some distros check with systemctl status docker. Please install Docker Engine if you don't have one. Follow the guide on each distro. Or try https://docs.docker.com/engine/install/.

• Can run docker commands without root

  In order to run the docker command without root, you can add your user to the docker group and then re-login to apply. The general method can be seen at https://docs.docker.com/engine/install/linux-postinstall/. The group name may vary depending on the distro you are using. You can check with cat /etc/group. If the docker group is already there, just add your user, for example with the command sudo usermod -aG docker your_user.

Installation

dorun is just a shell script which is pretty easy to use. You can download it with wget:

wget https://raw.githubusercontent.com/nggit/dorun/master/dorun

then change the permissions to executable:

chmod +x dorun

Usage

Please choose the distribution image you want to use. Images can be created with Dockerfile or fetched directly from the Docker Hub repo for example with docker pull debian. Then run in terminal:

./dorun --image=debian

The above command will enter the shell. If you already have a program installed in the Container, for example firefox then it can be run as follows:

./dorun --image=debian firefox

The above command can of course be used as a shortcut, or you can install a launcher in the Container, such as rofi as in the following demo:

Wizard Mode

In the previous command example, the --image=IMAGE option means using a specific IMAGE. In "Wizard Mode" just use --image and it will show the available IMAGE to choose:

Troubleshoot

If the username in the Container is I have no name! please exit then run dorun with root:

sudo ./dorun --image=IMAGE

Then add the user according to the user on your main system, for example:

useradd your_user

You may also want to set a root password with the passwd command. So that later you can easily switch to root using su.

Help

To see available dorun options use:

./dorun --help

Warning

dorun by default shares several directories with the main system i.e. Documents, Downloads, etc. and is read-writeable. This is for convenience. But I hope you will be aware. Everything you do with dorun is entirely your own responsibility.