Ubuntu Container on macOS (Apple Container) as an Alternative Development Environment

[shengwen-tw]

Sharing my attempt to build an Ubuntu-based development environment for semu using Apple container on macOS.
This setup provides a lightweight Linux environment with GUI (Openbox + Tint2) access via VNC.

1. Install Apple Container

Follow the official guide:
https://github.com/apple/container

2. Create and Run Ubuntu Container

container run -it \
  --name ubuntu \
  --cpus 11 \
  --memory 16g \
  -p 5901:5901 \
  --volume ${HOME}/container-data/ubuntu-home:/home \
  docker.io/library/ubuntu:24.04 \
  bash

container exec -it ubuntu /bin/bash

3. Install Basic Development Packages

apt-get update
apt-get install -y \
  git vim htop \
  python3 python3-pip npm \
  tigervnc-standalone-server tigervnc-common \
  openbox lxterminal \
  iproute2 net-tools procps \
  python3-venv python3-tk tint2 \
  file wget cpio unzip rsync bc device-tree-compiler curl flex

4. Fix UTF-8 / Locale Issues (VNC Environment)

apt-get install -y \
  locales \
  language-pack-en \
  fonts-dejavu \
  fonts-liberation \
  fonts-noto \
  fonts-noto-cjk \
  fonts-noto-color-emoji \
  fontconfig

locale-gen en_US.UTF-8
update-locale LANG=en_US.UTF-8

cat <<'EOF' >> ~/.bashrc
export LANG=en_US.UTF-8
export LC_ALL=en_US.UTF-8
EOF

5. Configure VNC Startup

mkdir -p /home/.vnc

cat > /home/.vnc/xstartup <<'EOF'
#!/bin/sh
unset SESSION_MANAGER
unset DBUS_SESSION_BUS_ADDRESS

xsetroot -solid '#2E2E2E' &

(sleep 2 && /usr/bin/tint2) &

exec /usr/bin/openbox
EOF

chmod +x /home/.vnc/xstartup

6. Add VNC Start Script

cat <<'EOF' > ~/start_vnc.sh
vncserver :1 -geometry 1920x1080 -depth 24 -localhost no -xstartup /home/.vnc/xstartup
EOF

chmod +x ~/start_vnc.sh

7. Set VNC Password

vncpasswd

8. Start VNC Server

~/start_vnc.sh

9. Connect via VNC Viewer

127.0.0.1:5901