This file is part of: App-X11-Forward Development Template Stack
Copyright (c) 2024 Nico Jan Eelhart
This source code is licensed under the MIT License found in the ‘LICENSE.md’ file in the root directory of this source tree.
Announcement:
This container is deprecated and will be removed on June 1, 2025.
Where New
The new container with the same sub container can be found here
What
This is a Docker Linux (Ubuntu 24.04) template container with GUI output to an X11 server on a Windows host. The container is designed for use on a Windows Docker Desktop host, enabling the development of GUI applications within a Docker container. Additionally, the container can be used to run other Linux GUI applications.
This container consists of a Base Container and several Sub Containers. The Base Container is required for any Sub Container and provides the infrastructure for outputting GUI data from the Linux application to the X11 server on Windows. The Sub Containers contain development environments for GUI application running on Linux.
Available Sub-container
| Container name | Quick reference (if available) |
|---|---|
| Afx-X11-Forward-NET-Service | . |
| Afx-X11-Forward-Avalonia-Service | . |
| Afx-X11-Forward-NET-Service-GTK# | Specific quick setup |
| Afx-X11-Forward-PHP-Python-Rust# | Specific quick setup |
Quick setup (general)
This is the general quick setup procedure. In the sub-container project you may find index.md file with specific quick setup instruction in case these instruction make you feel insecure.
If you have previously installed this (or a similar) AFX Forward container, you can use the quick setup steps below. Otherwise please first read the main documentation page howto_create_a_dev_container. or refer to one of the ‘index.md’ files in the sub-container, when available it contains detailed instructions for the specific sub-container
1) Create the WSLs
In case you don’t have the WSL container, open CMD in a base container folder, for example: ‘APP-X11-Forward-Development-Template-Stack\Base-Container\Afx-Base-Service' and execute:
wsl --import Ubuntu-docker-App-X11-Win32Dev ./wsl2-distro "install.tar.gz"
Remark:
By default the WSL image is created in the sub folder of the current directory (./wsl2-distro) you may choose to store this image more central, for example like in ‘d:\wsl-data\afx-stacks’, this way you can reuse this WSL distribution for different AFX stacks
2) Create docker base container (Afx-Base-PyCRust-Service)
Use the following to create the basic docker base container, on which the sub-containers depend
docker-compose -f compose_app_forward_x11_base.yml up -d --build --force-recreate --remove-orphans
3) Create a specific docker sub-container
Create a Command Line Shell in the correct sub-container folder (i.e. Sub-Containers\Afx-X11-Forward-NET-Service-GTK#) and execute:
docker-compose -f compose_net_x11_gtk#__project.yml up -d --build --force-recreate --remove-orphans
4) Start the Docker sub container via the WSL
Execute the following commands:
wsl -d Ubuntu-docker-App-X11-Win32Dev docker exec -it afx-x11-forward-net-service-gtk-axf-dotnet-gtksharp-container-1 /bin/bash # i.e for NET GTK#
Warning:
When the container cannot be found, restart the Docker app and ensure WSL integration is enabled in Docker settings!
5) Configure and start the sub container in Visual Studio Code (VSC)
After this you should be able to open the container in VSC and start developing, be sure to run the required extension commands(in the container)
More information!
See the main documentation page how to create a development container. Which explains the installation of the Base Container and any available Sub Containers in more details.