A modern, plug-and-play Docker image for Krusader on Unraid. Twin-pane file management in your browser, powered by Selkies, with Dark Mode, Kate as external editor, full archive support and 33 UI languages, all configurable from the Unraid template, no SSH or config-file editing required.

A one-knight job: I build it, keep it running, work through the issues and add what people ask for, until nothing is missing. It is free, with no accounts, no telemetry, no ads and no paid tier. No asterisk anywhere. Nothing readable ever leaves your own walls. Forged on evenings and weekends, with heart and stubbornness.

If it has earned a place on your server or computer, toss a coin to your knight: it helps cover the costs and keeps the project alive. It also makes this knight's heart beat a little faster. Three ways below, whichever suits you.

Table of Contents

1. Overview
2. Screenshots
3. Quick Start
4. Configuration
5. Languages
6. Right-Click Actions
7. Customisation & Persistence
8. Building Locally
9. Updating
10. Troubleshooting
11. Architecture
12. Contributing / License
13. License
14. How AI is used here
15. Support this project
    

1. Overview

This image packages Krusader, KDE's twin-pane file manager, into a self-contained Docker container that runs in any modern web browser. It is built on top of linuxserver/baseimage-selkies, so it benefits from LSIO's actively-maintained Selkies desktop-streaming stack (H.264 video to the browser) and weekly security updates, while everything Krusader-specific (theme, archive tools, right-click actions, language packs, default configs) is layered on top in this repo.

What's included beyond bare Krusader:

• Selkies instead of noVNC: H.264 video for a smooth 60fps web desktop, real bidirectional browser clipboard, native file upload and download, high-DPI ready
• Dark Mode pre-applied to Krusader, Kate and the whole KDE stack; switch to light with one variable
• Row-aware panel icons: Krusader is built from source with our icon-tint patch, the file-list icons follow each row's effective text colour (normal, current and marked rows, including custom Konfigurator colours), so icons stay legible on any row highlight
• Kate wired up as Krusader's external editor, also Dark Mode, with spell-check
• krename: KDE's batch-rename dialog bundled; rename hundreds of files at once using regex, counters, case transforms and metadata patterns
• Kompare: a side-by-side diff viewer bundled, so File → Compare by Content… opens two selected files in a real diff instead of the "cannot find any of the supported diff-frontends" error
• Quit and come back: closing Krusader in the browser starts a fresh Krusader instead of leaving a black screen; no container restart needed
• Full archive support: RAR, 7z, ZIP, TAR, GZ, BZ2, XZ, LHA, ARJ, ACE, RPM, CPIO; right-click "Extract RAR here" works out of the box
• 33 UI languages picked from a dropdown in the Unraid template
• The desktop follows your browser window: no screen size to set, and memory only grows with the window you actually use (see Screen size and memory use)
• Update-safe configs: first-run-only seeding, your customisations in /config survive every docker pull
• Multi-arch: amd64 and arm64

2. Screenshots

Twin-pane file manager: Dark Mode, F-key shortcuts, in-browser via Selkies.

Configurator → Colors: full control over panel foreground / background / selection.

3. Quick Start

Step 1: Install the template

On Unraid: Apps → search for Krusader → click Install. The Community Applications template is published from the unraid-apps feed (one feed for all of junkerderprovinz's apps).

To load it by hand, pull it into Unraid's user-template folder via the console / SSH:

mkdir -p /boot/config/plugins/dockerMan/templates-user && \
curl -fsSL -o /boot/config/plugins/dockerMan/templates-user/my-Krusader.xml \
  https://raw.githubusercontent.com/junkerderprovinz/unraid-apps/main/krusader/krusader.xml

Step 2: Add the container

In the Unraid Web UI: Docker tab → Add Container → in the Template dropdown, pick Krusader under User templates. All fields are pre-filled.

Step 3: Adjust paths and start

The defaults work out of the box, but you may want to tweak:

• Storage (/storage): defaults to /mnt, which exposes all shares and disks. Restrict to e.g. /mnt/user if you want.
• UI Language: dropdown, default de.
• Theme: dark or light.
• WebUI Password: leave empty for LAN-only, set anything for exposure beyond the LAN.

Hit Apply. The first start takes 30 to 60 seconds while the container seeds its config and Selkies generates a self-signed certificate.

Step 4: Open the WebUI

https://<unraid-ip>:3001/ (HTTPS, self-signed, accept the certificate once). Use HTTPS: the Selkies web client requires a secure context, so direct browser access must go through the HTTPS port. Port 3000 (HTTP) is not a usable direct fallback; opening http://<unraid-ip>:3000/ shows a "requires a secure connection (HTTPS)" error and won't load. It exists for a reverse proxy that terminates TLS in front of the container (the proxy serves HTTPS to the browser and forwards HTTP to 3000).

Once Community Applications has accepted this image it will also be installable via Apps → search Krusader.

docker run -d \
  --name krusader \
  --restart unless-stopped \
  --shm-size=1gb \
  -p 3000:3000 -p 3001:3001 \
  -e PUID=99 -e PGID=100 \
  -e TZ=Europe/Vienna \
  -e KRUSADER_LANG=de \
  -e KRUSADER_THEME=dark \
  -v /mnt/user/appdata/krusader:/config \
  -v /mnt:/storage \
  junkerderprovinz/krusader:latest

4. Configuration

Screen size and memory use

The desktop follows your browser window: Selkies resizes the screen to the size the browser reports, so there is no screen size to set and memory only grows with the window you actually use. A 1600x1000 window on a laptop set to 200 % counts as 1600x1000. With HiDPI switched on in the Selkies sidebar the same window counts in physical pixels, 3200x2000.

Display scaling follows the browser without any setting. Every browser is streamed at the size it reports, with the desktop at 96 DPI, so Krusader looks the same on a 100 % desktop and on a laptop set to 200 %. On the laptop the picture is a little softer, because the browser stretches it. The HiDPI switch in the Selkies sidebar is remembered per browser and wins over this default. With it on, a high-resolution display gets its physical pixels and Krusader is drawn at half size, so if Krusader looks tiny on a laptop, switch HiDPI off there.

Web file transfers: the Selkies sidebar's upload/download panel and the WebUI's /files browser both use the base image's FILE_MANAGER_PATH, which defaults to /config/Desktop, so a file dragged into the browser lands there, not in /storage. It is inside the persisted /config volume, and Krusader can navigate to it like any other folder. Point FILE_MANAGER_PATH somewhere under /storage if you would rather upload straight into your data, but choose with care: without PASSWORD set, /files serves that directory to anyone who can reach the WebUI, and /storage defaults to all of /mnt.

5. Languages

The Unraid template ships a dropdown with 33 UI languages (German default, plus system fallback). Each language has its language-pack-<code> and language-pack-kde-<code> baked in, switching is instant after a restart.

Default: de (Deutsch). Set via KRUSADER_LANG or the Unraid dropdown.

How it works: Unraid renders any <Default>a|b|c</Default> value with at least one | as a native <select> dropdown. The cont-init hook re-applies the language on every start.

6. Right-Click Actions

Krusader's UserActions are pre-loaded with extras:

For generic archive extraction (7z, ZIP, TAR, …) use Ark's built-in right-click menu; it is already installed and avoids a duplicate "Extract" entry in the context menu.

Edit them via Krusader → Settings → Configure UserActions, or directly at /config/.local/share/krusader/useractions.xml.

7. Customisation & Persistence

On the first start only, the container seeds defaults from /defaults/ into /config/:

/config/
├── .config/
│   ├── kdeglobals          # KDE color scheme + Dark Mode
│   ├── krusaderrc          # Editor=kate, theme, panel layout
│   └── katerc              # Kate Dark Mode
└── .local/share/krusader/
    └── useractions.xml     # right-click actions

A marker file /config/.krusader-firstrun.done is written so subsequent container starts never overwrite your customisations. To re-seed defaults, delete the marker and restart.

The two env-driven knobs (KRUSADER_LANG, KRUSADER_THEME) are re-applied on every start via a cont-init.d hook, so you can flip them freely.

The base image also supports /config/custom-cont-init.d/ for your own init scripts, see the LinuxServer docs.

8. Building Locally

git clone https://github.com/junkerderprovinz/krusader.git
cd krusader

# amd64 only (your local arch)
docker build -t krusader:dev .

# Multi-arch (amd64 + arm64) – needs buildx
docker buildx build --platform linux/amd64,linux/arm64 -t krusader:dev --load .

# Test run — http://localhost:3000 is fine here: browsers treat localhost as a
# secure context, so the HTTP port works for local testing but not over the LAN
docker run --rm -it \
  -p 3000:3000 \
  -v "$PWD/.dev-config:/config" \
  -v "$PWD:/storage" \
  krusader:dev

9. Updating

docker pull junkerderprovinz/krusader:latest
docker stop krusader && docker rm krusader
# re-create with the same template / docker run args

On Unraid: Docker tab → click the container → Force Update. Your /config is untouched.

The image is rebuilt weekly via GitHub Actions for upstream Selkies, Ubuntu and KDE patches.

10. Troubleshooting

11. Architecture

┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│  ghcr.io/linuxserver/baseimage-selkies:dev                      │
│  ┌───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐  │
│  │  s6-overlay v3 init                                       │  │
│  │   ↓                                                       │  │
│  │  s6-rc.d/init-krusader/run                                │  │
│  │   ↓ seeds /config from /defaults  (first run only)        │  │
│  │   ↓ sets theme, locale → s6 container environment         │  │
│  │   ↓                                                       │  │
│  │  Selkies (Xvfb+openbox) ← /defaults/autostart             │  │
│  │              → dbus-launch krusader-session               │  │
│  │                 → ksmserver (KDE session manager)         │  │
│  │                 → krusader                                │  │
│  └───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘  │
└─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘

12. Contributing / License

Pull requests welcome. Issues: https://github.com/junkerderprovinz/krusader/issues.

Licensing, dual:

• This wrapper repository (Dockerfile, rootfs/, scripts, Unraid templates, README and banner/icon artwork) is licensed under the GNU Affero General Public License v3.0 (AGPL-3.0).
• Krusader itself and the bundled KDE / Qt / Selkies / unrar / LSIO base-image components retain their upstream licenses (mostly GPL-2.0+ / GPL-3.0+ / LGPL-2.1+, plus unrar's non-free terms). When you run, redistribute or rebuild the resulting container image, you must comply with all of those licenses, not only with this wrapper's AGPL-3.0 license. See the LICENSE file for the full notice.

# Run lints locally (CI runs them too)
docker run --rm -i hadolint/hadolint < Dockerfile
docker run --rm -v "$PWD:/mnt" -w /mnt koalaman/shellcheck:stable \
  $(find rootfs -type f \( -name '*.sh' -o -name 'run' -o -name 'autostart' -o -name 'krusader-session' \))
find . -name '*.xml' -not -path './.git/*' -exec xmllint --noout {} +

Credits

• Krusader, KDE community, the actual file manager
• LinuxServer.io, for baseimage-selkies
• Selkies, for an actively developed browser desktop stack
• Kate, a lightweight editor on Linux
• Inspiration: binhex, jlesage and ich777 Krusader containers, they paved the way

13. License

Copyright (C) 2026 Junker der Provinz.

This repository packages Krusader as a container for Unraid. The packaging in this repository (Dockerfile, scripts, theme, web assets and everything else original here) is free software under the GNU Affero General Public License v3.0 (AGPL-3.0); see LICENSE. If you distribute it, or run a modified version as a network service, you must release your source under the same AGPL-3.0 terms and keep the existing copyright and attribution notices intact.

Scope. The AGPL applies to this repository's own code and assets. Krusader itself is a separate project under its own license and name; this repository does not claim it. The banner, logo, theme and other branding original to this repository remain reserved: a fork must use its own branding and may not present itself as this project.

14. How AI is used here

One knight builds this, and AI is one of the tools I work with, the same way I work with an editor or a compiler. It helps me write code and documentation and it checks my work, and that saves me a good many evenings. It does not make the decisions, though. I read and understand everything before it ships, and if something here breaks, that is on me and not on the tool.

You do not have to take my word for it. The code is open and every release note is written by hand. The issue tracker shows how problems actually get handled, including the ones I got wrong the first time. If you find something that is not right, open an issue and I will look at it.

15. Support this project

Questions? Check the support thread. Bugs, ideas or feature requests? Please open a GitHub issue.

A one-knight job: I build it, keep it running, work through the issues and add what people ask for, until nothing is missing. It is free, with no accounts, no telemetry, no ads and no paid tier. No asterisk anywhere. Nothing readable ever leaves your own walls. Forged on evenings and weekends, with heart and stubbornness.

If it has earned a place on your server or computer, toss a coin to your knight: it helps cover the costs and keeps the project alive. It also makes this knight's heart beat a little faster. Three ways below, whichever suits you.