Local LXD X11 Container, How to overcome errors?

LXD
1

I have lxd containers running locally successfully but can not start X11 applications back to the host. I have tried following @simos great blog post Running X11 software in LXD containers – Mi blog lah! but it generates errors during container creation. Any help or guidance is appreciated.

Base error before following blog

$ lxc launch images:mint/vanessa mint-container -s pool1
$ lxc shell mint-container
lxd$ firefox
	X11 connection rejected because of wrong authentication.
	mkdir: cannot create directory '/run/user/1001': Permission denied
	Error: cannot open display: localhost:10.0

Following Blog Error 1
The error occurs during creation due to NVIDO container tools. Initial brief search didn’t find much context.

$ lxc launch images:mint/vanessa --profile default --profile x11 mbrowse -s pool1
	Error: Load go-lxc struct: The NVIDIA container tools couldn't be found
	Try `lxc info --show-log local:mbrowse` for more info
$ lxc launch ubuntu:18.04 --profile default --profile x11 mycontainer -s pool1

Comment Nvidia in Profile Config: Error 2
Under the argument that I don’t need GPU acceleration I thought why not try without the GPU labelled explicitly in the config. This second error returns more results in forum but I haven’t figured out yet how they might help. For instance I already have nvidia-smi installed.

$ lxc profile edit x11
       commented lines starting nvidia.* and mygpu config tree
$ lxc launch images:mint/vanessa --profile default --profile x11 mbrowse -s pool1
	Creating mbrowse
	Starting mbrowse                          
	Error: Error occurred when starting proxy device: Error: Failed to receive fd from listener process: Failed to receive file descriptor via abstract unix socket
	Try `lxc info --show-log local:mbrowse` for more info

$ lxc info --show-log local:mbrowse
	Name: mbrowse
	Status: STOPPED
	Type: container
	Architecture: x86_64
	Created: 2022/10/20 08:25 CDT
	Last Used: 2022/10/20 08:25 CDT
Log:
	lxc mbrowse 20221020132530.205 WARN     cgfsng - cgroups/cgfsng.c:fchowmodat:1251 - No such file or directory - Failed to fchownat(40, memory.oom.group, 1000000000, 0, AT_EMPTY_PATH | AT_SYMLINK_NOFOLLOW )

context

  • I have previously gotten lxc privileged container to run X11 applications.
  • nvidia-smi is installed
2

@Crumbs350

Sorry to derail the thread a bit.

Does your “use case” require that the X11 has to run on the Host?

I install desktops (ubuntu, Lubuntu, Lubuntu, Mate, Cinnamon, etc) and XRDP in LXD containers along with xRDP but not the xRDP in the repositories but I use c-energy’s great XRDP install script which can build from latest source both xRDP & Pulseaudio & xRDP & install them.

c-energy custom xrdp/pulseaudio install script for linux

On host I install freerdp2 and create a 1 line bash script to access the Desktops in the container

when using LXD Desktops I have audio, printing, shared Folder w the host,
Cut & Paste w the Host etc

Performance is immediate and you can run as many LXD Desktops as want

If you want to try this it’s easy & only takes about 15 min to install everything

Using LXD proxy on remote LXD Host’s
You can use the same setup and run remote LXD Desktops w great performance also

Contact me & I can share a doc & some scripts I made.

3

@bmullan interesting proposal. I think I’d be interested in the scripts but I’d still like to solve the X11 problem from a 1) curiosity, 2) this should work, and 3) simplicity perspective.

if xRDP with full desktop in a container then…

  • more packages to regularly update
  • container image is bigger which raises the question of why you’d still use a container vs just use virtualbox images that you group launch and xRDP to
  • the Ubuntu environment focus makes me wonder if xRDP has snap dependencies
  • does alt+tab work or get confused as it sometimes does with windows RDP? i.e. am I alt+tabbing in the host or the guest?

Please correct or extend my naive perspective.

4

  • more packages to regularly update
    yup but that can be automated for many cases

  • container image is bigger which raises the question of why you’d still use a container vs just use virtualbox images that you group launch and xRDP to

w/virtual box images you are not sharing the linux kernel the virtual box VMs will each have to include their own kernel

  • why use a container?

because I can “install” or “try” applications or configurations in the LXD container desktop that I rather not “install” or “try” on my real Desktop.

because I can clone very quickly, copy easily to remote lxd hosts

If you have more questions lets take it offline
thanks
brian

5

Curious if anyone know if nvidia container tools is necessary to get X11 to work. Also curious if anyone can comment on the following error for X11 access.

Error: Error occurred when starting proxy device: Error: Failed to receive fd from listener process: Failed to receive file descriptor via abstract unix socket
	Try `lxc info --show-log local:mbrowse` for more info