Add example to run OpenStudio GUI from container

[pachi]

This allows to run a docker instance that can be used to launch the OpenStudio GUI:

$ xhost local:root && \
    docker run -it \                                                     
    --rm \
    -e DISPLAY \
    -v /tmp/X11-unix:/tmp/X11-unix:ro \
    -v /etc/machine-id:/etc/machine-id:ro \
    -v /var/run/dbus:/var/run/dbus \
    nrel/openstudio

To launch the OpenStudio GUI from the container, just use:

/var/simdata/openstudio# QT_GRAPHICSSYSTEM=native OpenStudio

Exporting the QT_GRAPHICSSYSTEM=native is needed to overcome a rendering bug due to running the app through the X socket. Using -e QT_GRAPHICSSYSTEM=native to set this environment variable doesn't seem to work.

[nllong]

i don't think we have x11 installed on these images, do we?

[pachi]

That's why the X display, the X11 and dbus sockets are exported to the container, to be able to work with the host's X11. These are the relevant lines:

    -e DISPLAY \
    -v /tmp/X11-unix:/tmp/X11-unix:ro \
    -v /etc/machine-id:/etc/machine-id:ro \
    -v /var/run/dbus:/var/run/dbus \

But you can try and see it working ;)

[myndtrust]

I am trying to run OS 3.1.0 in Docker on Ubuntu 20.04. Can I access the GUI from the container there still? So far I have been successful in getting the CLI to run but am not able to run the the GUI.

Once I run the above commands - how do I access the X11 (I am not familiar with X11 operations).

[tijcolem]

@myndtrust Are you trying to install the OS App v1.1.0 .deb packages from https://github.com/openstudiocoalition/OpenStudioApplication/releases/tag/v1.1.0 and then get X11 to work with the docker container? The deb package from https://github.com/NREL/OpenStudio/releases/tag/v3.1.0 is the OS CLI only as of v3.0.0.