The container creates a dummy "user" account, and mounts the dummy user /home folder to the specified local user /home folder.
The first part is configuring the container with correct permissions, the second part is setting up desktop forwarding.
NOTE: For this to work, the host must support ssh with X11 forwarding. Google it if you don't know what that means.
====== PART 1 ======
You need to know the UID and /home folder for the local user first. For example, if we wanted to find this out for user "localuser", we would execute:
grep "localuser" /etc/passwd
And you would get an output similar to:
localuser:x:1001:1001::/home/localuser:/bin/bash
From this we know that the UID is "1001", and the /home folder is "/home/localuser"
My recommended command to start the container is :
docker run -d --name=chrome-remote-desktop --restart=always -e LOCAL_USER_ID=<localuseruid> -v /home/<localuser>:/home/user billyball1517/chrome-remote-desktop
So in our example we would run (remembering to swap out the appropriate values):
docker run -d --name=chrome-remote-desktop --restart=always -e LOCAL_USER_ID=1001 -v /home/localuser:/home/user billyball1517/chrome-remote-desktop
====== PART 2 ======
Now is the time to note that GNOME (and GNOME apps like gnome-terminal, gnome-software, etc.) does not support X11 forwarding, therefore if you use GNOME (or a derivative like Pantheon or Cinnamon), you will need to install an additional desktop environment. LXDE is a good lightweight option.
yum install -y lxde-common
https://support.google.com/chrome/answer/1649523?co=GENIE.Platform%3DDesktop&hl=en
Look in /usr/share/xsessions/ for the .desktop file for your preferred desktop environment.
For example, LXDE has a file named LXDE.desktop with the following command: Exec=/usr/bin/startlxde
Create the session configuration file for localuser at /home/localuser/.chrome-remote-desktop-session
In our example (using LXDE and localuser) the file will look like this:
#!/bin/bash
exec ssh -tY [email protected] /usr/bin/startlxde
For context, this command is telling the container where to get the desktop from. In the default docker configuration, 172.17.0.1 will always be the host machine.
Finally, we need to do some one-time configuration within the container. Unfortunatly these steps can't be included in the build file.
docker exec -it crd_session /bin/bash
Then switch the the "dummy" user.
su - user
We need to generate and propagate ssh keys so the container can make a connection without authenticating every time. Just accept the defaults, and don't require a passphrase.
ssh-keygen
ssh-copy-id [email protected]
Answer yes to the fingerprint question, and enter the password for your local user.
Now, set up remote desktop with the instructions from https://remotedesktop.google.com/headless. You don't have to install anything, just skip through to the part where it gives you a code. Then copy and paste the code into the container terminal.
At this point it should spit out some text and say Host ready to receive connections. If it doesn't, you probably missed a step. To double check go to https://remotedesktop.google.com/access and see if you can access your desktop.
Exit container
Ctrl+D, Ctrl+D
Congratulations, you now have a remote desktop connection that will persist across reboots!
If anyone has a better idea of how to script the headless setup part, please let me know. :)
Sometimes GNOME dosn't play well with other Desktop Environments. If you're using GNOME locally, and a different DE for your remote connection. Try logging into the secondary DE locally first to see if it works.
If in doubt, have you tried turning it off and on again.