Container on myByways

Running Kokoro TTS via macOS Containerisation Framework

Sun, 17 Aug 2025 00:00:00 +0000

A short 2-in-1 post of two things I’ve been meaning to try out on macOS - first, to try the new macOS Container framework on macOS 15.5… and second, to spin up Kokoro Text-to-Speech (TTS) in a container.

Using Rosetta in a UTM Linux VM with Docker on Apple Silicon

Sun, 12 Mar 2023 00:00:00 +0000

I have been using UTM on M1/M2 macs for all my virtualization needs for a while, but never posted much because it practically works out of the box. Since around October 2022, UTM v4.0.9 on macOS Ventura allows Apple Hypervisor Virtualization Virtual Machines to use Rosetta 2.

Running GFPGAN Face Restoration in a container

Mon, 01 Aug 2022 00:00:00 +0000

Almost a year ago, Tencent researchers released their GFPGAN Face Restoration, an AI model which is trained specifically on faces, to better upscale and restore details in low-resolution or damaged portrait photos. I thought I’d give it a whirl.

Running x86 docker images in Multipass on an ARM M1 mac

Fri, 29 Jul 2022 00:00:00 +0000

Did you know it is possible to run x86_64 Docker containers on an ARM-based M1 mac? It’s quite staightforward with Multipass and Docker (if you are new to Multipass, check out my Multipass for Docker containers on macOS post from a few months ago).

Multipass for Docker containers on macOS

Thu, 17 Mar 2022 00:00:00 +0000

I previously setup Lima as a replacement for Docker Desktop on macOS. A while ago I tried Multipass by Canonical, which makes it really easy to spin up a Ubuntu VM (using Hyperkit) without all the setup and installation typically required with Virtual Box or QEMU.

Minuscule Lima setup to replace Docker on macOS

Thu, 07 Oct 2021 00:00:00 +0000

Today’s post will be a long one - recently, Docker announced some changes to the Docker Desktop license, so I figured I’d check out the Lima for macOS instead. As always, I end up complicating things by doing everything my way…

Configuring Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL2)

Sat, 13 Feb 2021 00:00:00 +0000

Here is how I configure Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL). I do things a bit strangely: by changing the mounts, by running a GUI Desktop, and by running Docker in WSL2 and not on the Host…

Testing Grav 1.7 in a container

Fri, 22 Jan 2021 00:00:00 +0000

When I first used Grav, “a modern open source flat-file CMS,” to host this site, I setup a local development environment using macOS’s built-in Apache and PHP. But this is getting harder with each macOS release, so it’s time to use a Docker container instead.

Custom icons in Windows Start Menu Medium Tiles

Thu, 21 Jan 2021 00:00:00 +0000

In the Windows 10 Start Menu, I used Pin To Start to a medium sized tile for Firefox - and the icon is nice and large - but is not the case for other shortcuts. I was wondered why… and how to make all the icons have a more consistent look.

Running Linux GUI applications in a Docker container using Xpra

Sun, 17 Jan 2021 00:00:00 +0000

There are multiple ways to run Linux GUI applications in a Docker container, but today I’ll highlight a method that I found interesting: using Xpra to forward X11 screens from containers to a web browser. This post is based on Eugene Yaremenko’s docker-x11-bridge, which I simplified.

Bulma customisation with Sass

Fri, 08 Jan 2021 00:00:00 +0000

I’ve been putting of this post for too long. I use Bulma as the CSS framework for this site. I previously used Bulma Customizer to customize some settings but this does not seem to work anymore. So here is how to customize Bulma CSS yourself.

Running Sass in a container

Wed, 17 Jun 2020 00:00:00 +0000

Here is how to create a Docker container on macOS to “compile” Sass stylesheets to CSS. In my case, I wanted to (re)compile my Bulma-based theme with the latest version 0.9.0 with my variable overrides.

OCRmyPDF: searchable text from images

Mon, 16 Dec 2019 00:00:00 +0000

I recently had a bunch of screen shots that I wanted to OCR, so that I could search for text content in the future. I found an open source solution called OCRmyPDF (created by jbarlow83 over on GitHub) to be very simple to use. It’s also very well documented with many usage examples, including my preferred option - from a Docker container.

Running Db2 Data Server Manager in a container

Sun, 20 Oct 2019 00:00:00 +0000

I previously played around with MongoDB in a few containers. Recently, I tried IBM Db2 Community Edition and learnt a few new things about containers along the way. The challenge was rolling my own Db2 Data Server Manager container, working around the background process that the startup script kicks off.

Automatically setup a development stack with Appsody

Thu, 05 Sep 2019 00:00:00 +0000

In a previous series of posts, I described how I set up Node.js in a Docker container for development on my macBook. It’s quite a lot of steps!

Well, there is a much simpler way - introducing Appsody.

Creating a container with an entrypoint to run code

Tue, 28 May 2019 00:00:00 +0000

I recently wanted to test a web app written in Node.js and exposed via fixed port. The instructions asked me to install Node.js locally, which I resist! So, here is how I built my Docker container to run the code.

Prototyping with a Node-RED container

Tue, 16 Apr 2019 00:00:00 +0000

If the preceding posts on Node.js and MongoDB have been too complex for you, let me introduce you to a simpler drag-and-drop “flow-editor,” Node-RED.. It was developed and open-sourced by IBM, and is now hosted by the OpenJS Foundation (the same foundation that hosts projects like jQuery, and Dojo). I’ve used Node-RED for quick prototypes and demos, as it’s easy to explain each step of the flow. It saves a lot of coding effort and reduces errors buy providing built-in and pre-built third-party “nodes”.

Wiring up Node.js and MongoDB containers

Sat, 13 Apr 2019 00:00:00 +0000

Previously, I described my development environment setup using Docker containers. I do it in a totally different way from most tutorials, which I don’t believe leverage containers and complicate things by having to build images for development.

Here I explain how I wire up (i.e. network) a few containers - a MongoDB database, a Mongo Express User Interface to manage the database, and a Node.js container using JSON Web Tokens (JWT) to authenticate users against the database.

Setting up Node.js in a Docker container

Fri, 12 Apr 2019 00:00:00 +0000

In this post I share with you how I set up a simple Docker container for Node.js development. I’ve never found a simple tutorial for beginners that meets my needs!

My requirement is to do all development debugging in a container, so I am assured of consistent behaviour in any environment. I do not want to install Node.js or npm locally on my mac! I cannot be bothered to use a Makefile or Dockerfile to build images - this is only required in the final stage for production!