What I'd like to do is have
- a container (OCI container, preferably) that works without a host session manager interface exposed "into" it, and
- runs a wayland compositor
- has a >= gnome40 session including all the UI elements in it
- allows for remote display and interaction via RDP or VNC
So, that dictates/suggests as tooling, respectively:
podman
mutter
(as that what Gnome would want)gnome-shell
gnome-remote-desktop
, which comes with Gnome42
What I'm currently doing is
podman run -it --rm -p 9999:9999 ubuntu:22.04
# ^---------------------------------Interactive
# ^-----------------------------Don't keep state after finishing
# ^------------------------We'll need a port fwd into the container for RDP/VNC
# ^------------Not a great fan of Canonical, but 22.04 brings Gnome42
root@container$> apt update; apt install -y mutter gnome-remote-desktop gnome-shell
[… [success]]
root@container$> mutter --no-x11 --wayland --headless --virtual-monitor 1600x1000
mutter-Message: 10:30:35.151: Running Mutter (using mutter 42.0) as a Wayland display server
mutter-Message: 10:30:35.191: Created surfaceless renderer without GPU
mutter-Message: 10:30:35.205: Disabling DMA buffer screen sharing (not hardware accelerated)
mutter-Message: 10:30:35.205: Added virtual monitor Meta-0
(mutter:13413): mutter-WARNING **: 10:30:35.211: WL: error: XDG_RUNTIME_DIR not set in the environment
(mutter:13413): mutter-ERROR **: 10:30:35.211: Failed to create socket
root@container$> export XDG_RUNTIME_DIR=/run/user/0/ ; mkdir -p ${XDG_RUNTIME_DIR}
root@container$> mutter --no-x11 --wayland --headless --virtual-monitor 1600x1000
mutter-Message: 10:30:47.657: Running Mutter (using mutter 42.0) as a Wayland display server
mutter-Message: 10:30:47.698: Created surfaceless renderer without GPU
mutter-Message: 10:30:47.712: Disabling DMA buffer screen sharing (not hardware accelerated)
mutter-Message: 10:30:47.712: Added virtual monitor Meta-0
mutter-Message: 10:30:47.717: Using Wayland display name 'wayland-0'
**
mutter:ERROR:../src/wayland/meta-wayland.c:379:set_gnome_env: assertion failed: (session_bus)
Bail out! mutter:ERROR:../src/wayland/meta-wayland.c:379:set_gnome_env: assertion failed: (session_bus)
[1]+ Aborted (core dumped) mutter --sm-disable --no-x11 --wayland --headless --virtual-monitor 1600x1000
Not quite sure where to go from here. Should I be starting a gnome shell directly?
# fresh container to avoid any conflicts
root@7396d1bb8693:/> gnome-shell --no-x11 --wayland --headless --virtual-monitor 1600x1000
mutter-Message: 10:45:06.276: Running GNOME Shell (using mutter 42.0) as a Wayland display server
mutter-Message: 10:45:06.323: Created surfaceless renderer without GPU
mutter-Message: 10:45:06.337: Disabling DMA buffer screen sharing (not hardware accelerated)
mutter-Message: 10:45:06.338: Added virtual monitor Meta-0
Failed to connect to session bus: Cannot autolaunch D-Bus without X11 $DISPLAYroot@7396d1bb8693:/>
Doesn't work either.
- How do I start a headless gnome wayland session in an unprivileged container?