Running Java Swing GUI application on Docker

Question

I am trying to run a custom java swing GUI using the docker toolbox in windows. I want to now containerize this application however getting following error:

Exception in thread "main" java.lang.UnsatisfiedLinkError: 
/opt/jdk1.8.0_202/jre
/lib/amd64/libawt_xawt.so: libXext.so.6: cannot open shared object file: 
No such file or directory

I am running a dockerfile. The setup is:

1) Install Linux

2) Install JDK

3) Copy over the folder containing the JAR

4) run the docker container which would bring up the GUI ( not the linux front-end , not using a vnc is preferred).

I am using Xlaunch for the terminal on windows and am able to launch a firefox on docker using this.

This is the first docker file

FROM anapsix/alpine-java
COPY ./myJarFolder /home/myJarFolder
CMD ["java","-jar","/home/myJarFolder/myJarFile.jar"]

This is the second docker file

FROM alpine:3.2

MAINTAINER Anastas Dancha [...]

# Install cURL

RUN apk --no-cache add ca-certificates

# Java Version

ENV JAVA_VERSION_MAJOR 8

ENV JAVA_VERSION_MINOR 45

ENV JAVA_VERSION_BUILD 14

ENV JAVA_PACKAGE       jdk

# Download and unarchive Java

RUN mkdir /opt && / curl -jksSLH "Cookie: oraclelicense=accept-securebackup-cookie" && / http://download.oracle.com/otn-pub/java/jdk/${JAVA_VERSION_MAJOR}u${JAVA_VERSION_MINOR}-b${JAVA_VERSION_BUILD}/${JAVA_PACKAGE}-${JAVA_VERSION_MAJOR}u${JAVA_VERSION_MINOR}-linux-x64.tar.gz | tar -xzf - -C /opt && / ln -s /opt/jdk1.${JAVA_VERSION_MAJOR}.0_${JAVA_VERSION_MINOR} /opt/jdk && / rm -rf /opt/jdk/*src.zip && /opt/jdk/lib/missioncontrol && /opt/jdk/lib/visualvm && /opt/jdk/lib/*javafx* && /opt/jdk/jre/lib/plugin.jar && /opt/jdk/jre/lib/ext/jfxrt.jar && /opt/jdk/jre/bin/javaws && /opt/jdk/jre/lib/javaws.jar && /opt/jdk/jre/lib/desktop && /opt/jdk/jre/plugin && /opt/jdk/jre/lib/deploy* && /opt/jdk/jre/lib/*javafx* && /opt/jdk/jre/lib/*jfx* && /opt/jdk/jre/lib/amd64/libdecora_sse.so && /opt/jdk/jre/lib/amd64/libprism_*.so && /opt/jdk/jre/lib/amd64/libfxplugins.so && /opt/jdk/jre/lib/amd64/libglass.so && /opt/jdk/jre/lib/amd64/libgstreamer-lite.so && /opt/jdk/jre/lib/amd64/libjavafx*.so &&    /opt/jdk/jre/lib/amd64/libjfx*.so

# Set environment

ENV JAVA_HOME /opt/jdk

ENV PATH ${PATH}:${JAVA_HOME}/bin   

# COPY myJarFolder from local repository to the image

COPY ./myJarFolder /usr/local/myJarFolder 

# Start the image with the jar file as the entrypoint

ENTRYPOINT ["java", "-jar", "usr/local/myJarFolder/myJarFile.jar"]

# EOF

I am getting this error with the first dockerfile

$ docker run -ti --rm -e DISPLAY=10.193.146.124:0.0 myDocker:1.0 Exception in thread "main" java.lang.UnsatisfiedLinkError: /opt/jdk1.8.0_202/jre /lib/amd64/libawt_xawt.so: libXext.so.6: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory at java.lang.ClassLoader$NativeLibrary.load(Native Method) at java.lang.ClassLoader.loadLibrary0(ClassLoader.java:1941) at java.lang.ClassLoader.loadLibrary(ClassLoader.java:1824) at java.lang.Runtime.load0(Runtime.java:809) at java.lang.System.load(System.java:1086) at java.lang.ClassLoader$NativeLibrary.load(Native Method) at java.lang.ClassLoader.loadLibrary0(ClassLoader.java:1941) at java.lang.ClassLoader.loadLibrary(ClassLoader.java:1845) at java.lang.Runtime.loadLibrary0(Runtime.java:870) at java.lang.System.loadLibrary(System.java:1122) at java.awt.Toolkit$3.run(Toolkit.java:1636) at java.awt.Toolkit$3.run(Toolkit.java:1634) at java.security.AccessController.doPrivileged(Native Method) at java.awt.Toolkit.loadLibraries(Toolkit.java:1633) at java.awt.Toolkit.(Toolkit.java:1670) at java.awt.Component.(Component.java:593) at java.lang.Class.forName0(Native Method) at java.lang.Class.forName(Class.java:348) at org.eclipse.jdt.internal.jarinjarloader.JarRsrcLoader.main(JarRsrcLoa der.java:56)

I am getting permission error with the second dockerfile at mkdir /opt line.

Can someone please let me know the correct way of doing it in windows.

You will find it vastly easier to just install a JVM on your host and run the jar file there. To make this work you also need an X server on your Windows host system and deal with X forwarding and permissions issues between the Docker Toolbox VM, the container, and the host; and this is after you get the correct library stack in your image. From everything I’ve seen Docker just isn’t a good way to run interactive desktop applications. — David Maze
A couple of other comments: 1. You're using Alpine 3.2 - that's ancient. 2. More importantly, the error message suggest Java fails to load a native library - this could mean deep libc incompatibility (Alpine is based on musl libc, rather than the more common glibc). Consider trying with ubuntu:18.04. — valiano
@David Maze Tried with Ubuntu but got some permission error while using either curl or mkdir — Deep

Deep Deep · Accepted Answer · 2019-04-17T09:02:07

Did some more research and by hit and trial following code seems to launch the GUI ,there are some errors after that but that must be due to some other issues in the GUI itself:

FROM openjdk:8

# Set environment

ENV JAVA_HOME /opt/jdk

ENV PATH ${PATH}:${JAVA_HOME}/bin   

# COPY myJarFolder from local repository to the image

COPY ./myJarFolder /usr/local/myJarFolder

# Start the image with the jar file as the entrypoint

ENTRYPOINT ["java", "-jar", "/usr/local/myJarFolder/myJarFile.jar"]

# EOF

Running Java Swing GUI application on Docker

This is the first docker file

This is the second docker file

I am getting this error with the first dockerfile

1 Answers