Winbox on Linux through Docker

Discovered an excellent wine in docker solution today and so I thought it would be fun to use it to run winbox on my linux laptop. This was very easy to do, with great results, so I am writing it here for future use.

You will need:

  • A working docker installation in Linux
  • A NIC for docker to bridge for use by winbox
  1. Create directories for wine data and templates
    mkdir -p ~/docker-data/{wine-data,wine-templates}
  2. Write the winbox wine template script:
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    cat <<EOF > ~/docker-data/wine-templates/winbox.template
    #!/bin/bash
    export WINEPREFIX=/home/docker/wine/winbox
    export WINEARCH='win32'
    if [ ! -f /home/docker/wine/winbox/drive_c/winbox/winbox.exe ]
    then
        winetricks liberation corefonts
        mkdir -p /home/docker/wine/winbox/drive_c/winbox
        cd /home/docker/wine/winbox/drive_c/winbox
        curl -SLo winbox.exe https://mt.lv/winbox
    fi
    wine /home/docker/wine/winbox/drive_c/winbox/winbox.exe
    exit
    EOF
  3. Write the docker run script. Be sure to update the parent NIC specified with yours.
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    cat <<EOF > ~/docker-winbox.sh
    xhost +si:localuser:$(whoami) >/dev/null
    docker network create -d macvlan -o parent=enp7s0 winbox_net
    docker run \
      --rm \
      -ti \
      --network=winbox_net \
      -e DISPLAY \
      -v /tmp/.X11-unix:/tmp/.X11-unix:ro \
      -v ~/docker-data/wine-templates:/mnt \
      -v ~/docker-data/wine-data:/home/docker/wine/ \
      -u docker \
      yantis/wine sh /mnt/winbox.template
    docker network remove winbox_net
    EOF
    chmod +x ~/docker-winbox.sh
  4. Execute it as needed, but first read the note below
    ~/docker-winbox.sh

The first execution will try to download assets from the web such as fonts for wine and the executable to winbox itself. These get cached and internet access is not needed for subsequent invocations. Running a custom network is liable to break the internet within the container, so execute the following in order to get everything cached, and then flip back to the script for future invocations.

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xhost +si:localuser:$(whoami) >/dev/null
docker run \
  --rm \
  -ti \
  -e DISPLAY \
  -v /tmp/.X11-unix:/tmp/.X11-unix:ro \
  -v ~/docker-data/wine-templates:/mnt \
  -v ~/docker-data/wine-data:/home/docker/wine/ \
  -u docker \
  yantis/wine sh /mnt/winbox.template

Reference

https://docs.docker.com/network/macvlan/
https://hicu.be/macvlan-vs-ipvlan