Docker

Running GUI apps on Docker containers is relatively easier in the sense that it doesn't require a GUI desktop. You should be able to forward X11 configuration from the host and run GUI apps on the container smoothly.

Build container

Neither mesa-dri-drivers nor mesa-libGL library could provide compatible environment for display in a docker container. Hence, I had to install NVIDIA-Linux-x86_64-430.40.run driver. See the full list of NVIDIA drivers at https://www.nvidia.com/en-us/drivers/unix/.

docker build -t glxgears-docker -f Dockerfile .

Push the container

docker tag -t glxgears-docker tbillah/glxgears-docker
docker login
docker push tbillah/glxgears-docker

Pull the container

docker pull tbillah/glxgears-docker

Run the container

Linux/MAC

Isolated way

docker run --rm -ti -v /tmp/.X11-unix:/tmp/.X11-unix -e DISPLAY=$DISPLAY --privileged glxgears-docker glxgears

Or get in the container first and then run glxgears:

docker run --rm -ti -v /tmp/.X11-unix:/tmp/.X11-unix -e DISPLAY=$DISPLAY  --privileged glxgears-docker
(inside the docker container) glxgears

--privileged enables direct rendering required for glxgears. Before forwarding the DISPLAY port like above, xhost + might be necessary:

xhost +

access control disabled, clients can connect from any host

Hacky way

I was able to run glxgears on docker container and Linux host by mounting the whole /usr/lib64 directory without having to install any NVIDIA or mesa drivers on the container:

docker run --rm -ti -v /tmp/.X11-unix:/tmp/.X11-unix -v /usr/lib64:/usr/hostLib64 -e DISPLAY=$DISPLAY -e LD_LIBRARY_PATH=/usr/hostLib64 --privileged glxgears-docker glxgears

Windows

Install X server https://sourceforge.net/projects/vcxsrv/ and have it running in the background.

You must uncheck the Native opengl option that exports LIBGL_ALWAYS_INDIRECT variable. Checking Disable access control might be necessary. See the image below:

Finally, save the configuration file:

Launch Docker Desktop. See a few important settings below:

Launch Windows PowerShell. I DIDN'T require to launch PowerShell with Run as administrator.
Obtain your IP address:

ipconfig

Wireless LAN adapter Wi-Fi:

   Connection-specific DNS Suffix  . : partners.org
   Link-local IPv6 Address . . . . . : fe80::111e:3245:4393:ed21%24
   IPv4 Address. . . . . . . . . . . : 10.22.138.136
   Subnet Mask . . . . . . . . . . . : 255.255.248.0
   Default Gateway . . . . . . . . . : 10.22.136.1

IPv4 should be your IP address. The above command should print a bunch of IPv4 addresses. Any of them can be used. Moreover, you won't need an active internet connection to enable display in a docker container.

Set up DISPLAY variable in the PowerShell:

Set-Variable -name DISPLAY -Value 10.22.138.136:0.0

Finally:

docker run --rm -ti -e DISPLAY=$DISPLAY --privileged glxgears-docker glxgears

Or get in the container first and then run glxgears:

docker run --rm -ti -e DISPLAY=$DISPLAY --privileged glxgears-docker
(inside the docker container) glxgears

Docker references

Docker known issues

    (fsleyes:203): Gdk-ERROR **: 16:01:14.549: The program 'fsleyes' received an X Window System error.
    This probably reflects a bug in the program.
    The error was 'GLXBadCurrentWindow'.
      (Details: serial 95219 error_code 159 request_code 149 minor_code 5)
      (Note to programmers: normally, X errors are reported asynchronously;
       that is, you will receive the error a while after causing it.
       To debug your program, run it with the --sync command line
       option to change this behavior. You can then get a meaningful
       backtrace from your debugger if you break on the gdk_x_error() function.)
    /root/fsl-5.0.11-centos7/bin/fsleyes: line 6:   202 Trace/breakpoint trap   ${FSLDIR}/bin/FSLeyes/fsleyes $@

This issue didn't affect anything I know of, so I labeled this as Won't Fix.

Since there is no way to reboot a docker container, NVIDIA driver won't load properly. Rather, it would only provide libraries required to run glxgears or fsleyes. Hence, commands like below run into errors:

nvidia-smi

NVIDIA-SMI has failed because it couldn't communicate with the NVIDIA driver. Make sure that the latest NVIDIA driver is installed and running.

However, I was able to eliminate this error by installing a version of NVIDIA driver on docker container that matches with my host machine. Again, See the full list of NVIDIA drivers at https://www.nvidia.com/en-us/drivers/unix/.

Singularity

Singularity containers i.e. "sylabs/singularity-3.3-centos-7-64" don't come with GUI enabled. You may forward X11 from windows host by means of an X server. This approach worked fine for lightweight apps like xclock and xeyes but wasn't able to run OpenGL hungry apps like glxgears. So, the most manageable way of running OpenGL apps on Singularity containers should be through a GUI desktop.

Build image

singularity build xclock-glxgears Singularity

Push the image

Create new access token, give it a nice name i.e. tuna-salad

https://cloud.sylabs.io/auth

Copy the access token into your clipboard. Save the access token to ~/.singularity/sylabs-token file for future use.
Login to Singularity cloud:
```
 singularity remote login SylabsCloud
```

When asked, just paste the access token. After login is complete, you should be able to push your images to Singularity Cloud:

singularity push tuna-image library://tbillah/collection/tuna-image:0.0.0

Before pushing an image, you will be asked to sign and verify it. Follow the link below to be able to do that:

https://sylabs.io/guides/3.0/user-guide/signNverify.html

But, you can push an unsigned image with '-U' flag:

singularity push -U ~/Documents/tuna-image library://tbillah/collection/tuna-image:0.0.0

Linux/MAC

Running OpenGL apps on singularity container for a Linux/MAC host is easier than running on docker container.

Pull the image

singularity pull xlock-glxgears library://tbillah/collection/xclock-glxgears

Run the image

singularity shell --writable-tmpfs xclock-glxgears
(inside the singularity shell) glxgears

If you have NVIDIA driver in your host machine, you can also use --nv flag to export host NVIDIA libraries. In this case, you wouldn't need another mesa-dri-drivers when you build the container.

Not using --nv flag may result in Singularity known issues #2

Windows

Download Oracle VirtualBox from here.

From CentOS7 ISO (recommended)

Download a complete CentOS7 image from your preferred mirror.
Open Oracle VM VirtualBox Manager and create a new Virtual Machine. Allocate memory and other resources as you see like. You can choose dynamic allocation. See important steps below (there should be other steps in between):

Start the virtual machine, provide the ISO you downloaded.

CentOS7 installation requires little user intervention. You need to Select the device, switch ON internet connection, and create ROOT PASSWORD. The rest of the settings could be left as they are. See important steps below (there should be other steps in between):

After initramfs creation is complete, the machine should reboot itself. The Virtual Machine should automatically eject the ISO you provided. However, if it does not and upon reboot it goes back to CentOS installation prompt, eject the ISO manually:

Now Start your virtual machine again.

After successful installation of CentOS7, open a terminal on GUI desktop, switch to root, and install the following:
```
 sudo su -
 yum -y install epel-release
 yum -y install singularity
 exit
```

From standard CentOS7 box

This section is put here for learning purpose:

Install Vagrant for Windows https://www.vagrantup.com/downloads.html
Install Vagrant manager for Windows http://vagrantmanager.com/downloads/

Launch Windows PowerShell and do the following:

 mkdir gui-container
 New-Item Vagrantfile

Save the following configuration in the Vagrantfile

Vagrant.configure("2") do |config|
    
    config.vm.box = "centos/7"
    config.vm.provider "virtualbox" do |v|
      v.gui = true
      v.memory = 2048
      v.cpus = 2
    end

end

Keep Oracle VM VirtualBox Manager running in the background and start the virtual machine defined by Vagrantfile:
```
 vagrant up
 vagrant ssh
```

Once in the Virtual Machine, open a terminal, switch to root, and install the following:

sudo su -

yum -y groupinstall 'gnome desktop'
yum -y install 'xorg*'
yum -y install epel-release
yum -y install singularity

yum remove -y initial-setup initial-setup-gui

Now switch to GUI:

systemctl isolate graphical.target
systemctl set-default graphical.target

Upon doing the above, you should see GUI desktop in your virtual box window. It may be useful to reboot at this point (from the host terminal):

vagrant halt
vagrant up

Pull the image

Finally, open a terminal on GUI desktop and pull the image:

singularity pull xclock-glxgears library://tbillah/collection/xclock-glxgears

Run the image

singularity shell --writable-tmpfs xclock-glxgears
(inside the singularity shell) glxgears

Singularity references

https://codingbee.net/vagrant/vagrant-enabling-a-centos-vms-gui-mode

Singularity known issues

https://github.com/sylabs/singularity/issues/4290

Upon running xclock-glxgears, you may get the following error:

 libGL: screen 0 does not appear to be DRI2 capable
 libGL: OpenDriver: trying /usr/lib64/dri/tls/swrast_dri.so
 libGL: OpenDriver: trying /usr/lib64/dri/swrast_dri.so
 libGL: Can't open configuration file /root/.drirc: No such file or directory
 libGL: Can't open configuration file /root/.drirc: No such file or directory

If you have matching libraries across host and image accompanied by X configuration, this error might go away. One solution is to have NVIDIA driver on the host and use --nv flag while running singularity image. However, I labeled this issue as Won't Fix.

Useful tips

1. Enable/Disable Hyper-V

Docker Desktop requires Hyper-V enabled while Oracle/Vagrant VirtualBox requires it disabled. Follow Microsoft documentation to do the required: https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/3204980/virtualization-applications-do-not-work-together-with-hyper-v-device-g

However, enabling/disabling Hyper-V required me to restart my machine twice instead of once asked.

2. Display for root

You usually log into Singularity container as vagrant. You might need to switch to root for running certain GUI applications. See the instruction below to set up display for root user:

(i) Obtain your display parameters

echo $DISPLAY

YOUR-DISPLAY-SOCKET

xuath list

YOUR-DISPLAY-COOKIE

(ii) Export display parameters to root

Now switch to root user:

sudo su -

Add the display parameters for root user:

export DISPLAY=${YOUR-DISPLAY-SOCKET}
xauth add ${YOUR-DISPLAY-COOKIE}

Test display for root user now:

xeyes

glxgears

(iii) But, if you need to use GUI with root user, it may be useful to log out and log in as root directly. Use cases include running containers with root privileges.

(iv) If needed, you may follow this suggestion to create .XAuthority files:

https://superuser.com/questions/806637/xauth-not-creating-xauthority-file

3. 3D acceleration

Running fsleyes required me to disable 3D acceleration from VirtualBox Manager Settings:

4. X forwarding on Windows host

You need to install Git Bash first. The following should be included to Vagrantfile:

config.ssh.forward_x11 = true

Details can be found below:

https://stackoverflow.com/questions/40056227/warning-no-xauth-data-using-fake-authentication-data-for-x11-forwarding

Name		Name	Last commit message	Last commit date
Latest commit History 8 Commits
screenshots		screenshots
.gitignore		.gitignore
Dockerfile		Dockerfile
README.md		README.md
Singularity		Singularity

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Table of Contents

Docker

Build container

Push the container

Pull the container

Run the container

Linux/MAC

Isolated way

Hacky way

Windows

Docker references

Docker known issues

Singularity

Build image

Push the image

Linux/MAC

Pull the image

Run the image

Windows

From CentOS7 ISO (recommended)

From standard CentOS7 box

Pull the image

Run the image

Singularity references

Singularity known issues

Useful tips

1. Enable/Disable Hyper-V

2. Display for root

3. 3D acceleration

4. X forwarding on Windows host

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Table of Contents

Docker

Build container

Push the container

Pull the container

Run the container

Linux/MAC

Isolated way

Hacky way

Windows

Docker references

Docker known issues

Singularity

Build image

Push the image

Linux/MAC

Pull the image

Run the image

Windows

From CentOS7 ISO (recommended)

From standard CentOS7 box

Pull the image

Run the image

Singularity references

Singularity known issues

Useful tips

1. Enable/Disable Hyper-V

2. Display for root

3. 3D acceleration

4. X forwarding on Windows host

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