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IMPORTANT NOTE: We're starting to migrate contents of this repo to the devcontainers org, as part of the work on the open dev container specification.

We've currently migrated the desktop-lite Feature to devcontainers/features/src/desktop-lite.

For more details, you can review the announcement issue.

Desktop (Lightweight) Install Script

Adds a lightweight Fluxbox based desktop to the container that can be accessed using a VNC viewer or the web. GUI-based commands executed from the built-in VS code terminal will open on the desktop automatically.

Script status: Preview

OS support: Debian 9+, Ubuntu 18.04+, and downstream distros.

Maintainer: The VS Code and GitHub Codespaces teams

Note: When using a VNC Viewer client, you may need to set the quality level to get high color since it can default to "low" with some clients.

Syntax

./desktop-lite-debian.sh [Non-root user] [Desktop password] [Install web client flag] [VNC port] [Web port]

Or as a feature:

"features": {
    "desktop-lite": {
        "password": "vscode",
        "webPort": "6080",
        "vncPort": "5901"
    }
}
Argument Feature option Default Description
Non-root user automatic Specifies a user in the container other than root that will be using the desktop. A value of automatic will cause the script to check for a user called vscode, then node, codespace, and finally a user with a UID of 1000 before falling back to root.
Desktop password password vscode Password for connecting to the desktop.
Install web client flag true Flag (true/false) that specifies whether to enable web access to the desktop using noVNC.
VNC Port vncPort 5901 Port to host a VNC server that you can use to connect to the desktop using a VNC Viewer.
Web port webPort 6080 Port to host the noVNC web client that you can use to connect to the desktop from a browser.

Usage

Feature use

You can use this script for your primary dev container by adding it to the features property in devcontainer.json.

"features": {
    "desktop-lite": {
        "password": "vscode",
        "webPort": "6080",
        "vncPort": "5901"
    }
}

If you run into applications crashing, you may need to increase the size of the shared memory space. For example, this will bump it up to 1 GB in devcontainer.json when you are referencing an image or Dockerfile:

"runArgs": ["--shm-size=1g"]

Or when using Docker Compose:

services:
  your-service-here:
    # ...
    shm_size: '1gb'
    # ...

[Optional] You may also want to enable the tini init process to handle signals and clean up Zombie processes if you do not have an alternative set up. To enable it, add the following to devcontainer.json if you are referencing an image or Dockerfile:

"runArgs": ["--init"]

Or when using Docker Compose:

services:
  your-service-here:
    # ...
    init: true
    # ...

If you have already built your development container, run the Rebuild Container command from the command palette (Ctrl/Cmd + Shift + P or F1) to pick up the change.

Script use

  1. Add desktop-lite-debian.sh to .devcontainer/library-scripts

  2. Add the following to your .devcontainer/Dockerfile:

    COPY library-scripts/desktop-lite-debian.sh /tmp/library-scripts/
RUN apt-get update && bash /tmp/library-scripts/desktop-lite-debian.sh
ENV DBUS_SESSION_BUS_ADDRESS="autolaunch:" \
    VNC_RESOLUTION="1440x768x16" \
    VNC_DPI="96" \
    VNC_PORT="5901" \
    NOVNC_PORT="6080" \
    DISPLAY=":1" \
    LANG="en_US.UTF-8" \
    LANGUAGE="en_US.UTF-8"
ENTRYPOINT ["/usr/local/share/desktop-init.sh"]
CMD ["sleep", "infinity"]

    The ENTRYPOINT script can be chained with another script by adding it to the array after desktop-init.sh. If you need to select a different locale, be sure to add it to /etc/locale.gen and run locale-gen.

  3. And the following to .devcontainer/devcontainer.json if you are referencing an image or Dockerfile:

    "runArgs": ["--init"],
"forwardPorts": [6080, 5901],
"overrideCommand": false

    Or if you are referencing a Docker Compose file, just include the forwardPorts property in devcontainer.json and add this to your docker-compose.yml instead:

    your-service-here:
  init: true

    The runArgs / Docker Compose setting allows the container to take advantage of an init process to handle application and process signals in a desktop environment. However, this is optional.

  4. [Optional] If you run into applications crashing, you may need to increase the size of the shared memory space. For example, this will bump it up to 1 GB in devcontainer.json:

    "runArgs": ["--init", "--shm-size=1g"]

    Or using Docker Compose:

    services:
  your-service-here:
    # ...
    init: true
    shm_size: '1gb'
    # ...

  5. Once you've started the container / codespace, you'll be able to use a browser on port 6080 from anywhere or connect a VNC viewer to port 5901 when accessing the codespace from VS Code.

  6. Default password: vscode

The window manager is installed is Fluxbox. Right-click to see the application menu. In addition, any UI-based commands you execute in the VS Code integrated terminal will automatically appear on the desktop.

Customizing Fluxbox

You can customize the contents of the application menu by editing ~/.fluxbox/menu (just type code ~/.fluxbox/menu or code-insiders ~/.fluxbox/menu to edit). See the menu documentation for format details.

More information on additional customization can be found in Fluxbox's help and general documentation.

Installing a browser

If you need a browser, you can install Firefox ESR by adding the following to .devcontainer/Dockerfile:

RUN apt-get update && export DEBIAN_FRONTEND=noninteractive && apt-get install -y firefox-esr

If you want the full version of Google Chrome in the desktop:

  1. Add the following to .devcontainer/Dockerfile

    RUN apt-get update && export DEBIAN_FRONTEND=noninteractive \
    && curl -sSL https://dl.google.com/linux/direct/google-chrome-stable_current_amd64.deb -o /tmp/chrome.deb \
    && apt-get -y install /tmp/chrome.deb

  2. Chrome sandbox support requires you set up and run as a non-root user. The debian-common.sh script can do this for you, or you set one up yourself. Alternatively, you can start Chrome using google-chrome --no-sandbox

That's it!