Wayland Apps in WireGuard Docker Containers

Running WireGuard in a Docker container can be a convenient way to isolate a WireGuard network from the rest of a system. We’ve covered a variety of different patterns for using WireGuard in containers in the past; in this article we’ll dive deep into one particular pattern: using GUI (Graphical User Interface) Linux applications inside Docker containers to access remote sites through WireGuard.

We’ll build on the core “Container Network” technique covered previously, where we use a shared network namespace to allow other containers to access the WireGuard network of a dedicated WireGuard container. In this case, we’ll build and run several custom containers with a couple of GUI applications, allowing their GUIs to be used seamlessly as part of the container host’s Wayland display — while still being able to access remote servers through the isolated WireGuard network of the WireGuard container.

We’ll work our way up to running a full-fledged Firefox browser with video and audio in a container to access an isolated WireGuard network, but first we’ll cover a number of intermediate steps before we get there:

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