Today I learned Docker recently introduced USB/IP protocol support in Docker Desktop version 4.35.0. Since Docker containers do not support native USB passthrough, this feature makes it possible for Docker containers to remotely access USB devices attached to a machine running Docker Desktop. This is exciting because it opens the door to using Docker containers for embedded development workflows that need to access real hardware via USB.
There is a great introductory article on the Golioth blog by founder and CEO Jonathan Beri, where he describes how he worked with the Docker team to integrate USB/IP support into Docker Desktop. The article walks through setting up a USB/IP server and how to connect to USB devices from a Docker container running in Docker Desktop.
https://blog.golioth.io/usb-docker-windows-macos/
In that article, Jonathan points out a couple limitations of the USB/IP approach on macOS:
Unfortunately, macOS doesn’t have a complete server but I was able to use this Python library to program a development board (I also tried this Rust library but it’s missing support for USB to serial devices). Developing a USB/IP server for macOS is certainly one area the community can contribute!
I’m hopefully optimistic that there will eventually be a robust open-source USB/IP server for macOS.
But, if you need a cross platform solution that works today, and you are OK paying for a commercial product, a good alternative is VirtualHere. VirtualHere is a mature USB-over-IP solution that supports Mac, Windows, and Linux. I put together a simple test repository with an example Dockerfile showing how to connect to USB devices from within a Docker container.
Check it out here: https://github.com/cgnd/docker-virtualhere-client
In theory, this all seems pretty neat. However, after testing both of the USB-over-IP solutions above, I found that the current limitations/setup overhead are still too much of an annoyance for me to integrate them into my normal day-to-day development workflow.
If you’re successfully using tools like these for interacting with USB devices in Docker containers, let me know in the comments below!