Running Firefox in Docker? Yes, with a GUI and noVNC

Nov 21, 2025 - 3 min read - 366 words

Daniel Pepuho

IT Infra. Lost in the Cloud(s)

Docker isn’t just for serve your code, appliactions. you can actually run a full desktop app inside it. In this project, I containerized Firefox with a virtual desktop and made it accessible through a browser using noVNC.

It creates a lightweight container that:

• Runs a minimal desktop environment (Fluxbox)

• Launches Firefox

• Serves a VNC display using x11vnc

• Exposes that desktop through noVNC (so you can open it in your web browser)

You can literally open Firefox running inside Docker, from your browser tab. All using a single docker compose up.

Here’s a quick breakdown of what happens inside the container:

Everything runs headlessly, there’s no physical display, but the combo of Xvfb + Fluxbox gives Firefox a virtual desktop.

FROM alpine:edge

RUN apk add --no-cache \
    faenza-icon-theme \
    firefox \
    fluxbox \
    xfce4 \
    xvfb \
    x11vnc \
    novnc \
    supervisor \
    bash \
    net-tools

# Install noVNC & websockify from source code
RUN apk add --no-cache git python3 py3-pip \
    && rm -rf /usr/share/novnc \
    && git clone https://github.com/novnc/noVNC.git /usr/share/novnc \
    && git clone https://github.com/novnc/websockify.git /usr/share/novnc/utils/websockify \
    && ln -sf /usr/share/novnc/vnc.html /usr/share/novnc/index.html

ENV DISPLAY=:1
ENV RESOLUTION=1920x1080x24

# Set vnc password
ARG VNC_PASS=dummypass

# Create vnc password file
RUN mkdir -p /root/.vnc && \
    x11vnc -storepasswd "$VNC_PASS" /root/.vnc/passwd

COPY supervisord.conf /etc/supervisord.conf

EXPOSE 5900 6080

CMD ["supervisord", "-c", "/etc/supervisord.conf", "-n"]

version: '3.8'
services:
  vnc_firefox:
    build: .
    container_name: vnc_firefox
    ports:
      - "5901:5900" # VNC
      - "6080:6080" # noVNC web UI
     healthcheck:
      test: ["CMD-SHELL", "netstat -tln | grep -q 6080 || exit 1"]
      interval: 1m30s
      timeout: 30s
      retries: 5
      start_period: 30s

Everything is managed by supervisord, which runs:

• Xvfb - virtual framebuffer display

• x11vnc - provides VNC access

• fluxbox - lightweight window manager (WM)

• firefox - your GUI browser

• novnc_proxy - web socket bridge

Example supervisord.conf:

# Supervisor main config
[supervisord]
nodaemon=true
logfile=/var/log/supervisord.log
pidfile=/var/run/supervisord.pid
childlogdir=/var/log

# XVirtual Framebuffer (Xvfb)
# Creates a virtual display environment (:1)
[program:xvfb]
command=/usr/bin/Xvfb :1 -screen 0 1920x1080x24
autostart=true
autorestart=true
priority=10

# x11vnc, VNC server
[program:x11vnc]
command=/usr/bin/x11vnc -display :1 -rfbauth /root/.vnc/passwd -forever -shared -rfbport 5900
autostart=true
autorestart=true
priority=20

# fluxbox, lightweight window manager
[program:fluxbox]
command=/usr/bin/fluxbox
environment=DISPLAY=":1"
autostart=true
autorestart=true
priority=30

# Runs firefox inside the Xvfb + Fluxbox environment
[program:firefox]
command=/usr/bin/firefox
environment=DISPLAY=":1"
autostart=true
autorestart=true
priority=40

# noVNC, WebSocket VNC Proxy
# Bridges VNC (port 5900) to a web interface (port 6080)
[program:novnc]
command=/usr/share/novnc/utils/novnc_proxy --vnc localhost:5900 --listen 6080
autostart=true
autorestart=true
priority=50

Our project structure should look likes this:

.
├── docker-compose.yml
├── Dockerfile
└── supervisord.conf

1. Build & start the container:

$ docker compose up --build -d

2 Access it by using your browser or VNC client. Using dummypass as password:

• Using noVNC Web: http://localhost:6080

• Open any VNC viewer (e.g., RealVNC, TigerVNC, Remmina), then connect to: localhost:5901

While this is mostly a fun experiment, it can be used for:

• Headless browser testing environments

• Remote browsing (isolated Firefox)

• Demonstrating GUI automation setups

Docker is more than backend services you can literally containerize entire user experiences.

Projects like this prove that containers aren’t limited to APIs, databases, and background workers. With a bit of creativity, you can run full desktops, interactive UIs, browsers, automation toolchains, and even full development environments inside isolated, reproducible containers.

Running Firefox inside Docker with noVNC shows how:

• system-level components (Xvfb, window managers, VNC)

• web technologies (WebSockets, noVNC)

• and container orchestration (Docker + Compose) can blend together to create something both useful and fun.

Cheers, and happy containerizing! 🐳