Getting the following error when Rancher Desktop is about to ask for sudo password:

at maybeClose (node:internal/child_process:1092:16)
    at Socket.<anonymous> (node:internal/child_process:451:11)
    at Socket.emit (node:events:527:28)
    at Pipe.<anonymous> (node:net:709:12) {
  code: 127,
  killed: false,
  signal: null,
  cmd: `cd "/home/ubuntu"; "/usr/bin/pkexec" --disable-internal-agent /bin/bash -c "echo SUDOPROMPT; /bin/sh -xec 'ln -sf \\"/home/ubuntu/.rd/docker.sock\\" \\"/var/run/docker.sock\\"'"`
}

Running Rancher Desktop on headless (i.e. no UI) Ubuntu 20.04 server, displaying Rancher Desktop UI on MacOS using XQuartz. @fast-garage-66093

How do you start the application? I would avoid the

sudo

prompt by running without admin access, i.e.

rdctl start --application.admin-access=false ...

I can try that, but I need docker socket

Either set the docker context, or

export DOCKER_HOST=unix:///home/USERNAME/.rd/docker.sock

@fast-garage-66093 you just made my day! Everything started, and after that, I was able to run docker context use rancher-desktop and can see running containers with docker ps. Now, given that this is a Jenkins agent/worker, and largely must run unattended, including that it can restart at any moment, what would you recommend? I remember, since v1.8.1 Rancher Desktop can start automatically, and I can add a service that sets docker context after Rancher Desktop started and initialized

In meetings now...

no worries, but if you get some ideas, get back to be when you have time we can use a systemd service (I have some experience) to completely automate this and not need UI at all - maybe

The auto-start functionality is tied to the user logging in, so I don't know if that would work in a headless setup. Controlling it via a service seems to be better.

Generally, do you think if all the configuration necessary for functionality is provided (as in config files), there will be no real need for the UI? Services can depend on each other, and wait for dependencies to be ready before running, systemd shines at it. I think headless as service might be an important use case, and given the integration in Rancher Desktop it’ll be better solutions than competition offers - and I mean not only Docker Desktop, but things like minikube etc

You can configure (almost) everything with options from

rdctl start

. The exceptions right now are: WSL Integration, muted diagnostics, and list of allowed images. None of those are relevant for headless operation on Linux.

perfect, thank you for reminding me about rdctl!