docker-wine

• About docker-wine
• Getting Started
  • Download the docker-wine script
  • Run the docker-wine script
  • Run on macOS
• Build and run locally on your PC
• Volume container winehome
• ENTRYPOINT script explained
• Using docker-wine in your own Dockerfile
• Troubleshooting

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 4.0.1 (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.

Getting Started

Using the docker-wine script is the easiest way to get started and should be all you need for Linux OSes. There's a few extra hurdles to get it working on macOS, so there's instructions on what you need to do at Run on macOS.

Download the docker-wine script

On Linux:

wget https://raw.githubusercontent.com/scottyhardy/docker-wine/master/docker-wine -O /usr/local/bin/docker-wine
chmod +x /usr/local/bin/docker-wine

On macOS:

curl https://raw.githubusercontent.com/scottyhardy/docker-wine/master/docker-wine -o /usr/local/bin/docker-wine
chmod +x /usr/local/bin/docker-wine

Run 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

Run on macOS

Unfortunately there's a lot of additional barriers when attempting to run containers on macOS. At time of writing, it is not possible to directly mount UNIX sockets like you can do in Linux. There's a few different ways this problem can be solved, but essentially it comes down to using TCP sockets or a remote desktop protocol such as VNC.

Below are instructions for using TCP sockets on macOS but unfortunately performance is way slower than with UNIX sockets on Linux, plus I haven't managed to get audio working yet. If you're serious about using a Windows application on macOS then this is probably not the best solution. If you'd just like to give it a go for shits and giggles, then this should be enough to get you started.

Install homebrew

ruby -e "$(curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Homebrew/install/master/install)"

Install XQuartz

brew install xquartz

Start XQuartz

open -a xquartz

Enable network clients in XQuartz Preferences

Go to XQuartz -> Preferences...

Or use shortcut keys: ⌘,

On the Security tab, tick the option Allow connections from network clients

IMPORTANT! Restart XQuartz

Go to XQuartz -> Quit X11

Or use shortcut keys: ⌘Q

Note: If graphics are not working and you get errors that X11 is not available it's probably because you missed this step.

Run container with docker-wine script

Jump back up to Run the docker-wine script and continue from there.

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:

make run

or use the docker-wine script with the --local switch.:

docker-wine --local

Volume container winehome

When the docker-wine image is instantiated with docker-wine script, 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, you can delete it 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 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.

Use docker-wine image in a 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"]

Troubleshooting

To test video, try opening Notepad:

docker-wine wine notepad

To test sound, try using pacat just to confirm PulseAudio is working:

docker-wine pacat -vv /dev/random