--- title: "Deploy Debian 13 KDE Plasma Desktop in Your Browser" description: "Debian 13 KDE Plasma desktop in a browser tab with a persistent home." category: "Other" url: https://railway.com/deploy/debian-13-kde-plasma-desktop-in-your-bro --- # Deploy Debian 13 KDE Plasma Desktop in Your Browser Debian 13 KDE Plasma desktop in a browser tab with a persistent home. **[Deploy Debian 13 KDE Plasma Desktop in Your Browser on Railway](https://railway.com/template/debian-13-kde-plasma-desktop-in-your-bro)** Machine-readable deploy manifest (JSON, validated by TemplateCI): https://railway.com/deploy/debian-13-kde-plasma-desktop-in-your-bro/manifest.json - **Creator:** bento - **Category:** Other - **Total deploys:** 1 ## Template content ### Desktop https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/gh/homarr-labs/dashboard-icons/svg/debian-linux.svg - **Source:** baranberkay96/debian-kde-desktop-railway - **Health check:** /healthz - **Public domain:** Yes ## Documentation # Deploy and Host Debian 13 KDE Plasma Desktop with Railway [![Deploy on Railway](https://railway.com/button.svg)](https://railway.com/deploy/debian-kde-desktop?referralCode=20H68q) A full Debian 13 (trixie) desktop with KDE Plasma that you open in a browser tab. It comes with Chromium, the Dolphin file manager, the Konsole terminal, KWrite and Gwenview. A generated password protects it, and your home directory (files, settings, browser profile) lives on a persistent volume. ## About Hosting Debian 13 KDE Plasma Desktop A browser desktop needs a display server, a desktop session, a streaming server, a login in front of it, and storage that outlives rebuilds. This community template uses the linuxserver.io image `webtop` (pinned release `debian-kde-8ef9e32c-ls204`), which streams the desktop with Selkies over a single HTTPS WebSocket. Railway runs its own init as PID 1, which the image's s6-overlay init refuses to run under, so a small start script brings up the image's own services under s6 supervision instead. nginx requires a login on every page except `/healthz`. `/config` (the home directory) is a Railway volume. ## Common Use Cases - Work in a full Linux environment from any device with a browser, including managed work laptops - A KDE workstation for Qt and KDE development or for testing apps on Debian - Open untrusted links or files in a cloud browser instead of on your own computer - A ready Linux environment for training sessions, demos and support work ## Dependencies for Debian 13 KDE Plasma Desktop Hosting - One service built from a small Dockerfile on top of `lscr.io/linuxserver/webtop` (no database, no external API keys) - A Railway volume mounted at `/config` for the home directory ### Deployment Dependencies - [linuxserver/docker-webtop (debian-kde branch)](https://github.com/linuxserver/docker-webtop/tree/debian-kde) - [linuxserver/docker-baseimage-selkies](https://github.com/linuxserver/docker-baseimage-selkies) - [Selkies configuration reference](https://docs.linuxserver.io/selkies/user-guide/configuration/) - [Selkies web client guide (sidebar, clipboard, files)](https://docs.linuxserver.io/selkies/user-guide/web-client/) - [Debian 13 "trixie"](https://www.debian.org/releases/trixie/) ### Implementation Details | Service | What runs inside | Volume | Port | |---|---|---|---| | Desktop | X11 (KWin) desktop session, D-Bus, audio, Selkies (loopback only), nginx (login, `/healthz`), all supervised by s6 | `/config` | 3000 (public HTTPS domain) | **Plan:** Measured on Railway: about 0.55 GB of RAM with one browser session connected and no apps open. It runs within Trial's 1 GB (tested with a 1 GB limit); Free's 0.5 GB is too small. Use Hobby and 2 GB or more for Chromium and larger apps. **First login** 1. Wait for the deploy to turn healthy (the first build pulls a 1.4 GB image, so allow a few minutes). 2. Open the public URL. The browser asks for a login. 3. User `debian` (or your `CUSTOM_USER`; letters, digits and `. _ @ -` only, otherwise it stays `debian`), password = `PASSWORD` from the service Variables tab. 4. The desktop appears and resizes to your browser window. The Selkies side menu has the clipboard box, file upload and download, audio, keyboard and display settings. **Security** - The desktop never runs without a login. Basic auth is on in nginx at build time, and the service refuses to start if `PASSWORD` is empty or shorter than 8 characters (use 12 or more). - Only a hash of the password is stored, and the password is removed from the environment before any desktop app starts. - Requests from other websites are refused (Origin check in nginx and Selkies), so a page you visit cannot use your cached login to drive the desktop or upload files. - The Linux user `abc` has passwordless sudo. Anyone with the password controls the whole container. The image's `HARDEN_DESKTOP=true` option disables sudo, terminals and the open-with tools for a locked-down desktop. - Browsers keep basic-auth logins until they close. Use a private window on shared computers. **What persists** Everything in `/config`: documents, `~/Desktop`, desktop settings, browser profiles and apps installed with `proot-apps install {app}` ([proot-apps](https://github.com/linuxserver/proot-apps) installs into the home directory). Packages installed with `sudo apt install` live in the image and reset on every redeploy. List them in the `APT_PACKAGES` variable or in `~/.config/railway-desktop/packages` (one or more per line) and they are reinstalled in the background after each start (log: `/var/log/railway-desktop/pkg-restore.log`). **No GPU: software rendering** Railway has no GPUs. The desktop is drawn on the CPU (Mesa's software renderer), and Selkies encodes the video stream on the CPU. Office work, browsing and development tools run well; 3D apps, games and video editing will be slow. A busy screen costs CPU: lower the frame rate in the side menu, or set `SELKIES_FRAMERATE`, to save CPU. **Audio and clipboard** - Sound from desktop apps streams to your browser over the same WebSocket. Browsers only play it after you click in the page once. - Text copy and paste works both ways. Chromium-based browsers ask for clipboard permission. In Firefox and Safari, paste through the clipboard box in the side menu. **Scaling and versions** The desktop is a single-user, volume-backed service: run one replica and scale it vertically. To upgrade, change the `FROM` line in `services/desktop/Dockerfile` to a newer release tag with its digest and redeploy. The home directory is kept. **Limits** No Docker inside the desktop (Railway runs no privileged containers), no WebRTC/UDP (the WebSocket stream is used instead), and running apps restart on every redeploy. Railway's app sleeping stops the desktop session as well. Use the desktop for your own work: the Fair Use Policy forbids cryptocurrency mining, torrenting, reselling compute, operating proxies or anonymization services, and abusive bots or scrapers. ### Why Deploy Debian 13 KDE Plasma Desktop on Railway? Railway gives the desktop HTTPS, a persistent volume and usage-based billing without any server to manage. You get a Linux desktop at a URL in a few minutes, pay for the RAM and CPU it actually uses, and can resize or redeploy it from the dashboard. This is a community template, not affiliated with linuxserver.io, the Selkies project, the distribution's publishers or Railway. ## Similar templates - [Rocky Linux](https://railway.com/deploy/rocky-linux) — Hosted Rocky Linux 9 workspace with SSH and persistent storage. 🚀 - [Foundry Virtual Tabletop](https://railway.com/deploy/X5tR6G) — A Self-Hosted & Modern Roleplaying Platform - [Letta Code Remote](https://railway.com/deploy/letta-code-remote) — Run a Letta Code agent 24/7. No inbound ports, just deploy. Open this page in a browser: https://railway.com/deploy/debian-13-kde-plasma-desktop-in-your-bro