singularity-ubuntu-vnc-xfce

This is a singularity container of a headless Ubuntu 20.04 with Xfce desktop. You can access the instance via a VNC viewer or a web broswer.

Usage

Build

sudo singularity build ubuntu-vnc-xfce.sif Singularity

But practically it’s better to add several more packages to the container before use, even if you configure conda. Singularity.da is an example which adds several packages to ubuntu-vnc-xfce.sif.

sudo singularity build ubuntu-vnc-xfce.da.sif Singularity.da

Invoke

mkdir newhome
singularity instance start --bind $PWD/newhome:$HOME ubuntu-vnc-xfce.sif vnc

In the first run it may ask a password for the VNC connection. Port 5901 is waiting for your connection via the standard VNC viewers. Directory $PWD/newhome is the home directory of the instance; you may change it as you want.

It accepts options for vncserver; ex. if you would like to from the other, then add -localhost no.

Shutdown

singularity instance stop vnc

Tips

• [2022-03-21 Mon] To run this container on aarch64 (ex. through UTM on M1 Mac), temporarily an option --env=LD_PRELOAD=/lib/aarch64-linux-gnu/libgcc_s.so.1 for singularity instance start is required.