docker-wine

• About docker-wine
• Running from Docker Hub image
  • Create a Docker volume container for user data
  • Run without sound
  • Run using PulseAudio for sound
• Build and run locally on your PC
• Running the docker-wine script
• Volume container winehome
• ENTRYPOINT script explained
• Using docker-wine in your own Dockerfile

About docker-wine

The docker-wine image was created so I could experiment with Wine while learning the ropes for using Docker containers. The image is based on Ubuntu 18.04 and includes Wine version 4.0 (stable branch) and the latest version of Winetricks to help manage your Wine bottles.

Included below are instructions for running the docker-wine container that allows you to use the Docker host's X11 session to display graphics and its PulseAudio server for sound through the use of UNIX sockets.

The source code is freely available from the scottyhardy/docker-wine GitHub repository for you to build the image yourself and contributions are welcome.

Running from Docker Hub image

Create a Docker volume container for user data

Create a volume container so user data is kept separate and can persist after the docker-wine container is removed:

docker volume create winehome

Please note: It is not recommended to use your own home folder for storing data as it will change ownership to wineuser, which has a UID and GID of 1010.

Run without sound

The recommended commands for running docker-wine are:

docker run -it \
    --rm \
    --env="DISPLAY" \
    --volume="${XAUTHORITY}:/root/.Xauthority:ro" \
    --volume="winehome:/home/wineuser" \
    --net="host" \
    --name="wine" \
    scottyhardy/docker-wine <Additional arguments e.g. wine notepad.exe>

This assumes the $XAUTHORITY environment variable is set to the location of the MIT magic cookie. If not set, the default location is in the user's home so you can replace ${XAUTHORITY} with ${HOME}/.Xauthority. This file is required to allow the container to write to the current user's X session. For this to work you also need to include the --net=host argument when executing docker run to use the host's network stack which includes the X11 socket.

Run using PulseAudio for sound

As a one-off, you will need to create the file .config/pulse/default.pa in your home folder, to enable you to create a shared UNIX socket /tmp/pulse-socket to allow other users on the same host to access the user's PulseAudio server:

mkdir -p "${HOME}/.config/pulse"
echo -e ".include /etc/pulse/default.pa\nload-module module-native-protocol-unix auth-anonymous=1 socket=/tmp/pulse-socket" > ${HOME}/.config/pulse/default.pa

Restart your PulseAudio server to create the new socket:

pulseaudio -k
pulseaudio --start

Now you're ready to run the container using PulseAudio for sound:

docker run -it \
    --rm \
    --env="DISPLAY" \
    --volume="${XAUTHORITY}:/root/.Xauthority:ro" \
    --volume="/tmp/pulse-socket:/tmp/pulse-socket" \
    --volume="winehome:/home/wineuser" \
    --net="host" \
    --name="wine" \
    scottyhardy/docker-wine <Additional arguments e.g. winetricks vlc>

Build and run locally on your PC

First, clone the repository from GitHub:

git clone https://github.com/scottyhardy/docker-wine.git

To build the container, simply run:

make

To run the container and start an interactive session with /bin/bash run either:

make run

or use the docker-wine script as described below.

Running the docker-wine script

When the container is run with the docker-wine script, you can override the default interactive bash session by adding wine, winetricks, winecfg or any other valid commands with their associated arguments:

./docker-wine wine notepad.exe

./docker-wine winecfg

./docker-wine winetricks msxml3 dotnet40 win7

Volume container winehome

When the docker-wine image is instantiated with ./docker-wine script or with the recommended docker volume create and docker run commands, the contents of the /home/wineuser folder is copied to the winehome volume container on instantiation of the wine container.

Using a volume container allows the wine container to remain unchanged and safely removed after every execution with docker run --rm .... Any user environments created with docker-wine will be stored separately and user data will persist as long as the winehome volume is not removed. This effectively allows the docker-wine image to be swapped out for a newer version at anytime.

You can manually create the winehome volume container by running:

docker volume create winehome

If you don't want the volume container to persist after running ./docker-wine, just add --rm as your first argument. e.g.

./docker-wine --rm wine notepad.exe

Alternatively you can manually delete the volume container by using:

docker volume rm winehome

ENTRYPOINT script explained

The ENTRYPOINT set for the docker-wine image is simply /usr/bin/entrypoint. This script is key to ensuring the user's .Xauthority file is copied from /root/.Xauthority to /home/wineuser/.Xauthority and ownership of the file is set to wineuser each time the container is instantiated.

Arguments specified after ./docker-wine or after the docker run ... docker-wine command are also passed to this script to ensure it is executed as wineuser.

For example:

./docker-wine wine notepad.exe

The arguments wine notepad.exe are interpreted by the wine container to override the CMD directive, which otherwise simply runs /bin/bash to give you an interactive bash session as wineuser within the container.

Using docker-wine in your own Dockerfile

If you plan to use scottyhardy/docker-wine as a base for another Docker image, you should set up the same entrypoint to ensure you run as wineuser and X11 graphics continue to function by adding the following to your Dockerfile:

FROM scottyhardy/docker-wine:latest
... <your code here>
ENTRYPOINT ["/usr/bin/entrypoint"]

Or if you prefer to run a program by default you could use:

ENTRYPOINT ["/usr/bin/entrypoint", "wine", "notepad.exe"]

Or if you want to be able to run a program by default but still be able to override it easily you could use:

ENTRYPOINT ["/usr/bin/entrypoint"]
CMD ["wine", "notepad.exe"]