This script is excellent in these situations:
- Customizing a new Raspbian image - installing packages, configuring raspi-config, changing wallpaper, etc.
- Migrating to a clean install of Raspbian and want to compare the appearance of both OS'es at once.
- Running two versions of software at the same time, one in the host, other in the guest.
- Running something you might want to undo (such as compiling) and don't want your main OS modified.
- "Switch" OSes without ever shutting down or swapping SD cards.
- Running Raspbian Stretch on a Pi 4.
Download the disk image
Ships with vdesktop installed, and a handy menu shortcut to boot a pre-downloaded Stretch img file.
git clone https://github.com/Botspot/vdesktop
sudo ~/vdesktop/vdesktop
Boot from an image file: sudo ~/vdesktop/vdesktop /home/pi/2019-09-26-raspbian-buster.img
Or a block device: sudo ~/vdesktop/vdesktop /dev/sda
Or the guest's directory: sudo ~/vdesktop/vdesktop /home/pi/raspbian-stretch/
A second word specifies the boot mode: cli, cli-login, and gui. If none
specified, cli mode is assumed.
Once the container has booted, you have to log in with the guest's credentials. Then the guest's GUI will display in the Xephyr window.
- vdesktop/ - The main vdesktop folder. Located at /home/pi by default.
- vdesktop - The main script
- clipboardsync - Keeps the guest's and host's clipboards in sync, like VNC.
- nspawn - The systemd-nspawn command. This was broken out of
vdesktopto allow for lots of bind-mounts. (for sound sync) - profile - This is temporarily mounted to the selected device to start the desktop session. (If enabled via Settings)
- shadow - This is mounted to /etc/shadow of the selected device to ensure the user pi's password is raspberry.
- version - Lets Vdesktop keep track of what version it is to see when an update is available.
- README.md - You're reading this right now.
- Write up a more comprehensive set of instructions, and add come CLI flags. Check! CLI flags choose what boot mode, and instructions are in the form of the Pi Power Tools GUI app.
- autologin to the guest, so the user doesn't have to do it manually.
- auto-detect default desktop session profile to correctly boot pi-top OS and Raspbian that doesn't have raspberrypi-ui-mods installed.
- Sync sound between host and guest, while avoiding pulseaudio.
- Sync clipboards between host and guest.
- display text at guest's default size instead of autoscaling to Xephyr's aspect ratio.
- display guest's default mouse pointer instead of the fallback Adwaita.