Boot2docker VM graphics

Question

Boot2docker is a lightweight Linux distribution running in VirtualBox VM. All basic functionality works fine, I am able to use docker containers in MacOS X.

However my application requires OpenGL rendering and I cannot get it working. How do I control which graphics acceleration is used inside that VirtualBox VM? I want to completely remove any 3D acceleration functions, because Mesa software drivers should just work perfectly (tested on VMware VM).

Is there a way to control boot2docker VM graphics settings like I do for normal VirtualBox VMs?

Answer 1

I'd say the most straightforward way (and I'd place this as a feature/bug request with the boo2docker devs) would be to install a pure Mesa llvm softpipe build for OpenGL. This should give you OSMesa. However for a classical OpenGL context you'll probably need some kind of X server (until EGL / offscreen Wayland works satisfactory). A X.org server with a dummy device should work perfectly, as long as you use framebuffer objects.

Answer 2

It turns out that boot2docker is just a wrapper around the VBoxManage command. And if you really want to, you can control the VM created by boot2docker using VBoxManage command - you can change 3D graphics acceleration, VMem, etc.