Overview ¶

The article addresses running Linux GUI applications on macOS through Docker. The setup requires:

• Installing Homebrew
• Installing socat
• Installing XQuartz
• Installing Docker (via Kitematic beta)
• Obtaining a Docker image with desired GUI application
• Running the container with display forwarding

Installation Steps ¶

Homebrew Installation ¶

ruby -e "$(curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Homebrew/install/master/install)"

socat Installation ¶

brew install socat

XQuartz is installed from the official package. Kinematic serves as the Docker client for macOS.

Retrieving QGIS Docker Image ¶

docker pull kartoza/qgis-desktop

Running QGIS ¶

Four startup steps are required:

1. Start socat
2. Launch XQuartz
3. Open Kinematic
4. Run the QGIS container

socat Command ¶

socat TCP-LISTEN:6000,reuseaddr,fork UNIX-CLIENT:"$DISPLAY"

QGIS Container Launch ¶

docker run --rm -e DISPLAY=192.168.0.3:0 \
    -i -t -v /Users/timlinux:/home/timlinux \
    kartoza/qgis-desktop qgis

The article demonstrates how “QGIS (from a Linux container)” can execute on macOS desktops, with applications for testing Docker-orchestrated environments.