Debian image with MATE Desktop Environment. The display will be on tty10 (Ctrl-Alt-F10), coexist with the host.
Make sure tty10 is empty / not in use. Check with Ctrl-Alt-F10, make sure you don't see getty's login prompt there.
It usually doesn't matter because most distros only use 1 - 6, and 7 for display managers (lightdm, sddm, etc).
1. Installation (creating a container)
docker create -it --name debian_mate \
--privileged --tmpfs /run --tmpfs /run/lock -v /sys/fs/cgroup:/sys/fs/cgroup:ro \
-v /run/udev/control:/run/udev/control:ro -v /run/udev/data:/run/udev/data:ro \
-v /etc/localtime:/etc/localtime:ro \
nggit/debian-mate:bookworm
That should be fine in most cases.
If you are an advanced user, you might want to fine-tune the security to avoid the --privileged flag on container creation.
But this may require some patience to match the device. For example device /dev/video0 could be /dev/video10 on another device, availability of /dev/psaux etc.
docker create -it --name debian_mate \
--cap-add SYS_ADMIN --cap-add SYS_TTY_CONFIG --tmpfs /run --tmpfs /run/lock -v /sys/fs/cgroup:/sys/fs/cgroup:ro \
--device /dev/tty --device /dev/tty0 --device /dev/tty7 --device /dev/tty10 \
--device /dev/input --device /dev/psaux \
--device /dev/bus/usb --device /dev/usb \
--device /dev/snd \
--device /dev/dri --device /dev/fb0 --device /dev/video0 --device /dev/vga_arbiter \
-v /run/udev/control:/run/udev/control:ro -v /run/udev/data:/run/udev/data:ro \
-v /etc/localtime:/etc/localtime:ro \
nggit/debian-mate:bookworm
2. Run the container and check the logs
docker start debian_mate
docker logs debian_mate
You should see a line like the following at the end of the logs if the container is running properly:
Debian GNU/Linux 12 246eb7415c97 console
If not, try deleting it then re-create the container.
If you want to make the container always run automatically even if the host is restarted, you can change the restart policy on the container to always or unless-stopped:
docker update --restart unless-stopped debian_mate
3. Change the root password
docker exec -it debian_mate passwd
4. Login
You can login MATE in tty10 (Ctrl-Alt-F10).
or console mode
docker attach debian_mate
Press Enter or Ctrl-C if the login prompt has not appeared / blocked by the logs.
Done. For emergency you can enter using:
docker exec -it debian_mate bash
1. Create a group "mygroup"
docker exec -it debian_mate groupadd -g 1000 mygroup
2. Create user "myuser"
docker exec -it debian_mate useradd -mu 1000 -g 1000 -G audio,video,input,tty,sudo,systemd-journal -s /bin/bash myuser
3. Change the password of user "myuser"
docker exec -it debian_mate passwd myuser
Done. You can login with user "myuser" and your password.
Display Managers like lightdm default to tty7, and when first running will display via tty0. This means it will follow wherever you currently are, e.g. tty1. You can get tty1 back with Ctrl-Alt-F1 if it gets overwritten by lightdm.
The main problem is tty7. Make sure your host is not using lightdm on that tty7 as well.
In the case you want to re-create the containers.
docker stop debian_mate
docker rm debian_mate
MIT