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N0rbert
Asked: 2019-05-13 06:34:38 +0800 CST

Is it possible to run some application in the chroot or container but allow DBus interaction with host system?

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I need to run old version of application in chroot (or container) and allow DBus interaction with host system. I can't install this application on host system because of serious dependency problems.

Full details about applications:

  • application to be containerized is GNOME Evolution version 3.2.3 (from Ubuntu 12.04 LTS)
  • the host system is Ubuntu MATE 16.04 LTS, it will run back-ported indicator-datetime-gtk2, which communicates with containerized Evolution through D-BUS.

I hope that it is technically possible with schroot's bind mounts or LXC/LXD.

How should I set up such configuration?

chroot 16.04 mate lxc lxd

3 Answers

  1. Check out the following guide on how to

    1. create a system container with some old version of Ubuntu (like 12.04 or 14.04), and
    2. set it up so that you can run GUI programs from within that system container and get the output on your host

    See guide from https://blog.simos.info/how-to-easily-run-graphics-accelerated-gui-apps-in-lxd-containers-on-your-ubuntu-desktop/ .

    The guide has an example on running some old Tcl/Tk utility in a Ubuntu 12.04 system container.

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  2. There is an indicator-datetime version for 16.04 which may work for you. Development seems to have stalled working on the 16.10 version however it may work for you under 18.04.

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  3. Best Answer

    Difficulties using indicator-datetime-gtk2 (from Ubuntu 12.04 LTS) on Ubuntu MATE 16.04 LTS with GNOME Evolution

    The MATE DE 1.12.1 uses GTK2 on Ubuntu 16.04 LTS, so the indicator-datetime-gtk2 itself may be ported from Ubuntu 12.04 LTS and shown in mate-indicator-applet, but the integration with modern GNOME Evolution will not work because of seriously changed API.

    The usual GTK3-based indicator-datetime or its UBports' fork will not integrate to GTK2-based mate-indicator-applet.

    The DBUS LXC/LXD solution seems to be not applicable to current problem. There is something wrong with bus-addressing or service naming.

    The solution for Ubuntu MATE 16.04 LTS

    I found only one hacky solution for Ubuntu 16.04 LTS MATE - to install Xfce4 panel and add indicator-datetime applet to it with:

    sudo apt-get install indicator-datetime evolution
sudo apt-get install xfce4-panel xfce4-indicator-plugin --no-install-recommends

    along with runnable MATE panels.

    And configure the added Xfce4 panel with the below options:

    1. Choose One empty panel on first launch
    2. Right click on the panel, select Add New Items
    3. Search for Indicator Plugin and add it
    4. Move Xfce4 Panel to the top right corner, Lock panel it and set to auto-hide (Automatically hide the panel: → Always)

    To have xfce4-panel shown on each boot I have added it to startup applications:

    mkdir -p ~/.config/autostart
cat <<EOF > ~/.config/autostart/xfce4-panel.desktop
[Desktop Entry]
Type=Application
Exec=xfce4-panel &
Hidden=false
X-MATE-Autostart-enabled=true
Name=xfce4-panel
EOF

    and optionally set indicator-datetime to 24-hours format with:

    gsettings set com.canonical.indicator.datetime time-format '24-hour'

    which gives nice looking auto-hiding syncable calendar indicator:

    • calendar is hidden xfce4-panel with indicator-datetime - hidden
    • calendar is shown xfce4-panel with indicator-datetime - shown
    • GNOME Evolution opened - GNOME Evolution with event
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