DEPRECATED: Use the image from my dockerfiles repo instead: https://github.com/MaxMilton/dockerfiles/tree/master/chromium

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Chromium In A Container

Launch an ephemeral chromium instance in a Docker container. Useful for times you need to quickly launch a browser that's completely fresh, e.g. web page testing or visiting suspect sites. By default, it's likely this will only run on a Linux desktop with X11 compatibility (e.g. Wayland + xwayland).

Based on the amazing work done by jessfraz but with much customisation.

Uses a very opinionated default configuration for performance and security.

Usage

Build

docker build -t local/chromium .

Or, optionally you can download a pre-built image from Docker Hub (you'll also need to edit the launch.sh script):

docker pull maxmilton/chromium

Run

NOTE: The default page is about:blank for fast launch time.

./launch.sh

You can optionally pass an alternate Docker command:

./launch.sh http://localhost:8080 --allow-insecure-localhost

Arch Linux launch bug

If using Arch Linux the container will fail to launch, in which case you can use the alternative launch script (see comments in script):

./launch.insecure.sh

SELinux volumes

If you're using a system with SELinux enabled (e.g. Fedora Linux) you'll need to add :z to the end of each --volume so Docker labels the volume correctly. For example:

  --volume "$HOME"/Downloads:/home/chromium/Downloads:z \
  --volume "$HOME"/.config/chromium/:/data:z \

Enabling persistence

TL;DR — edit: launch.sh; uncomment code.

When run as is, the docker container is ephemeral so each time you launch an instance it's a completely fresh browser (useful for testing or as an incognito mode alternative). Browser data persistence is not enabled by default.

To make the container data persist edit the launch.sh file by commenting out the existing docker run and uncommenting the persistent docker run code. You can now sign in to create a profile etc.

The differences are:

1. Prevent removing container after exiting, so we don't need:

  --rm \

2. Mount host volumes to store the data:

NOTE: The :z sets the correct SELinux role and allows read/write access, remove it if you don't use SELinux.

  --volume "$HOME"/Downloads:/home/chromium/Downloads:z \
  --volume "$HOME"/.config/chromium/:/data:z \

Additional considerations

1. Only characters covered by Open Sans will be rendered. For additional character coverage, e.g. Japanese, you'll need to include fonts from your system. Add a line similar to this in your launch script:

--volume /usr/share/fonts/uddigikyokasho:/usr/share/fonts/uddigikyokasho \

2. Uses a custom set of chromium flags for improved security and performance, see default.conf.

3. Container timezone is set to UTC.

4. Runs as a guest session by default even when persistence is configured.

5. --volume /dev/shm:/dev/shm is necessary because Docker currently only allocates 64 MB of memory to /dev/shm but chromium needs a lot more to run without crashing. On some systems it my not be required. More info.

Licence

Released under the MIT licence; see LICENCE.

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© 2018 Max Milton