This tutorial will allow you to run multiple Android Apps using ARC Welder inside individual Docker containers.
-
Setup
Use a Docker image that already has Chrome installed.
docker pull jess/chrome
- Start a container
docker run -it \
--net host \
--cpuset-cpus 0 \
--memory 512mb \ # max memory it can use
-v /tmp/.X11-unix:/tmp/.X11-unix \ # mount the X11 socket
-e DISPLAY=unix$DISPLAY \
-v $HOME/Downloads:/root/Downloads \
--device /dev/snd \ # so we have sound
--security-opt seccomp:unconfined \
--entrypoint /bin/bash \
--name chrome \
jess/chrome:latest
- Start Chrome (Manual)
google-chrome --user-data-dir=/data
A Chrome Browser window will appear.
- Install ARC Welder (Manual)
Navigate to : https://developer.chrome.com/apps/getstarted_arc
Click on "The ARC Welder app"
Select "+ add to chrome"
This will take a few minutes while it downloads the ARC Welder and runtime.
Confirm it is installed : Settings, Extensions.
- Enable WebGL
Step 1: Type chrome://flags in the address bar
Step 2: Press Ctrl + f and type ” Rendering list “, “Override software rendering list” should come up, Now click on Enable and restart the browser.
Step 3: Close the Chrome window.
- Commit these changes to a new image
Get the container image id :
docker ps -a |head -2
Commit these changes to a new image :
docker commit <container id> arc-welder:base
- Almost there. This is our base image. You can run this and provide an entrypoint or you can use a Dockerfile.
Create a Dockerfile with contents :
FROM arc-welder:base
ENTRYPOINT [ "/usr/bin/google-chrome" ]
#This is the app-id of ARC Welder that we installed
CMD [ "--user-data-dir=/data", "--app-id=emfinbmielocnlhgmfkkmkngdoccbadn" ]
Build a new image :
docker build -t arc-welder:latest .
Start the ARC Welder container :
docker run -it \
--net host \
--cpuset-cpus 0 \
--memory 512mb \ # max memory it can use
-v /tmp/.X11-unix:/tmp/.X11-unix \ # mount the X11 socket
-e DISPLAY=unix$DISPLAY \
-v $HOME/Downloads:/root/Downloads \
--device /dev/snd \ # so we have sound
--security-opt seccomp:unconfined \
--name arcwelder \
arc-welder:latest
Note : If you want to save the state of any apps you run then you will need to add in this line when starting the container :
-v $HOME/.config/google-chrome/:/data \ # if you want to save state
The ARC Welder app will appear.
You will be prompted for a .apk file. In the command above we setup this volume : $HOME/Downloads:/root/Downloads. On your host you can download a .apk file from http://www.apkmirror.com/ and then select this in the ARC Welder gui.
That's it.
Tested Angry Birds, Instagram, Twitter, Evernote.
Tried Facebook, Netflix and AirDroid but hit issues.
- What's the point?
This allows Developers or Testers to start Android apps just by starting a container. Multiple apps can be run at the same time in complete isolation. No changes have been made to your host system.
- Future work :
Automate the install of ARC Welder The end user should be able to pass in the location of a .apk at container runtime and this gets started.