[LXD] Forward X11 & Wayland to container

lxd-forward-desktop.md

Steps

First, create a LXD profile named forward-desktop:

lxc profile create forward-desktop

Edit the profile:

lxc profile forward-desktop

Replace config: {} and devices: {} with:

config:
  user.user-data: |
    #cloud-config
    packages:
      - va-driver-all
      - vdpau-driver-all
      - qtwayland5
      - at-spi2-core
    write_files:
      - path: /etc/systemd/system/setup-forward-symlinks.service
        content: |
          [Unit]
          After=sysinit.target

          [Service]
          Type=oneshot
          ExecStart=/opt/setup-forward-symlinks.sh

          [Install]
          WantedBy=multi-user.target
      - path: /opt/setup-forward-symlinks.sh
        permissions: '0755'
        content: |
          #!/bin/bash
          USER_UID=1000 # Replace this with your container user UID
          RUNTIME_DIR=/run/user/$USER_UID
          mkdir -p $RUNTIME_DIR
          chmod 700 $RUNTIME_DIR
          chown $USER_UID:$USER_UID $RUNTIME_DIR
          ln -sf /mnt/wayland-socket $RUNTIME_DIR/wayland-0
          chown $USER_UID:$USER_UID $RUNTIME_DIR
          mkdir -p /tmp/.X11-unix
          ln -sf /mnt/x11-socket /tmp/.X11-unix/X0
          chmod 776 /tmp/.X11-unix/X0
          chown $USER_UID:$USER_UID /tmp/.X11-unix/X0
    runcmd:
      - systemctl daemon-reload
      - systemctl enable setup-forward-symlinks.service
      - systemctl --no-block start setup-forward-symlinks.service
      # Replace '/home/user' with your home directory
      - 'echo "export DISPLAY=:0 WAYLAND_DISPLAY=wayland-0 XDG_SESSION_TYPE=wayland" >> /home/user/.bashrc'
devices:
  gpu:
    gid: "44" # GID of 'video' group
    type: gpu
  wayland-socket:
    bind: container
    connect: unix:/run/user/1000/wayland-0 # Replace this with `$XDG_RUNTIME_DIR/$WAYLAND_DISPLAY`
    listen: unix:/mnt/wayland-socket
    type: proxy
    security.uid: "1000" # Replace this with your host user UID
    security.gid: "1000" # Replace this with your host user GID
    uid: "1000" # Replace this with your container user UID
    gid: "1000" # Replace this with your container user GID
  x11-socket:
    bind: container
    connect: unix:/tmp/.X11-unix/X0 # Replace 'X0' with your X display ($DISPLAY)
    listen: unix:/mnt/x11-socket
    type: proxy
    security.uid: "1000" # Replace this with your host user UID
    security.gid: "1000" # Replace this with your host user GID
    uid: "1000" # Replace this with your container user UID
    gid: "1000" # Replace this with your container user GID

Create a container with forward-desktop profile:

lxc launch ubuntu:20.04 test -p default -p forward-desktop

In container: Install and run gedit:

sudo apt install gedit --no-install-recommends --no-install-suggests
gedit

Test environment

• Host: Ubuntu 21.04 (LXD 4.13)
• Container: Ubuntu 20.04
• GPU: Intel Graphics
  • Hardware acceleration with Intel GPU works fine
  • NVIDIA hasn't been tested

References

• https://gist.github.com/jeffcogswell/62395900725acef1c0a5a608f7eb7a05
• https://github.com/lxc/lxd/issues/4540

Using it with the open source nVidia driver (NVK) should work fine
proprietary driver: make sure to match the kernel module version with the driver version exactly. (nvidia container toolkit can help with this)