diff --git a/.dockerignore b/.dockerignore
index bd2f2597f..64149513b 100644
--- a/.dockerignore
+++ b/.dockerignore
@@ -39,3 +39,10 @@ packages/RPANDA/lib/
 /packages/bpp-newlik/bppsuite/_build
 /packages/bpp-newlik/eigen3/_build
 /packages/bpp-newlik/_build/
+/packages/enclone
+/projects/gcreplay
+/packages/HILARy
+packages/soNNia
+packages/MobiLLe
+packages/MINING-D
+packages/ncbi-igblast-1.17.1
diff --git a/Dockerfile b/Dockerfile
index c75a3bd30..021657535 100644
--- a/Dockerfile
+++ b/Dockerfile
@@ -26,6 +26,9 @@ RUN micromamba install -y -c conda-forge -c bioconda -cbiocore -c etetoolkit \
     python biopython pandas psutil pysam scons seaborn zlib pyyaml scikit-learn \
     mafft circlify ete3 # ete_toolchain
 RUN pip install colored-traceback dendropy levenshtein
+ENV XDG_RUNTIME_DIR=/tmp/xdgrd  # this xdg runtime dir is for plotting (i think it's required for headless/xvfb-run)
+RUN mkdir /tmp/xdgrd
+RUN chmod 0700 /tmp/xdgrd
 COPY --chown=$MAMBA_USER:$MAMBA_USER_GID . /partis
 WORKDIR /partis
 RUN ./bin/build.sh