diff --git a/Dockerfile b/Dockerfile
index fbecb86..ab19eec 100644
--- a/Dockerfile
+++ b/Dockerfile
@@ -6,12 +6,31 @@ LABEL org.d4science.image.licenses="EUPL-1.2" \
       org.d4science.image.authors="Andrea Dell'Amico <andrea.dellamico@isti.cnr.it>, Roberto Cirillo <roberto.cirillo@isti.cnr.it>" \
       org.d4science.image.r_version="2022.02.1+461"
 
+ARG NB_USER="jovyan"
+ARG NB_UID="1000"
+ARG NB_GID="100"
 ENV S6_VERSION=v2.1.0.2
 ENV RSTUDIO_VERSION=2022.02.1+461
-ENV DEFAULT_USER=rstudio
+ENV DEFAULT_USER="jovyan"
+ENV USERID="1000"
+ENV GROUPID="100"
 ENV PANDOC_VERSION=default
 ENV PATH=/usr/lib/rstudio-server/bin:$PATH
+ENV DEBIAN_FRONTEND=noninteractive
+# Configure environment
+ENV SHELL=/bin/bash \
+    NB_USER="${NB_USER}" \
+    NB_UID=${NB_UID} \
+    NB_GID=${NB_GID} \
+    LC_ALL=en_US.UTF-8 \
+    LANG=en_US.UTF-8 \
+    LANGUAGE=en_US.UTF-8
+ENV HOME="/home/${NB_USER}"
 
+RUN apt-get update --yes && \
+    apt-get upgrade --yes && \
+    apt-get install --yes --no-install-recommends \
+    python3 python3-pip
 RUN /rocker_scripts/install_rstudio.sh
 
 # This part comes from https://github.com/openanalytics/shinyproxy-rstudio-ide-demo/blob/master/Dockerfile
@@ -24,15 +43,38 @@ ADD 03_setup_root_path.sh /etc/cont-init.d/03_setup_root_path
 
 # By default RStudio does not give access to all enviornment variables defined in the container (e.g. using ShinyProxy).
 # Uncomment the next line, to change this behavior.
-#ADD 04_copy_env.sh /etc/cont-init.d/04_copy_env
+ADD 04_copy_env.sh /etc/cont-init.d/04_copy_env
 ADD 05_setup_rsession_parameters.sh /etc/cont-init.d/05_setup_rsession_parameters
 
+# Install the jupiterhub proxy
+RUN pip3 install jupyter-rsession-proxy
+RUN apt-get clean && rm -rf /var/lib/apt/lists/* && \
+    echo "en_US.UTF-8 UTF-8" > /etc/locale.gen && \
+    locale-gen
+
+# Copy a script that we will use to correct permissions after running certain commands
+COPY fix-permissions /usr/local/bin/fix-permissions
+RUN chmod a+rx /usr/local/bin/fix-permissions
+
+# Enable prompt color in the skeleton .bashrc before creating the default NB_USER
+# hadolint ignore=SC2016
+RUN sed -i 's/^#force_color_prompt=yes/force_color_prompt=yes/' /etc/skel/.bashrc
+
+# Create NB_USER with name jovyan user with UID=1000 and in the 'users' group
+# and make sure these dirs are writable by the `users` group.
+RUN echo "auth requisite pam_deny.so" >> /etc/pam.d/su && \
+    sed -i.bak -e 's/^%admin/#%admin/' /etc/sudoers && \
+    sed -i.bak -e 's/^%sudo/#%sudo/' /etc/sudoers && \
+    useradd -l -m -s /bin/bash -N -u "${NB_UID}" "${NB_USER}" && \
+    chmod g+w /etc/passwd && \
+    fix-permissions "${HOME}"
+
 # Prepare the workspace environment
-RUN mkdir -p /opt/workspace-lib
-RUN mkdir /var/log/workspace-lib
-ADD https://maven.d4science.org/nexus/content/repositories/gcube-snapshots/org/gcube/data-access/sh-fuse-integration/2.0.0-SNAPSHOT/sh-fuse-integration-2.0.0-20211005.090627-1-jar-with-dependencies.jar /opt/workspace-lib/fuse-workspace.jar
-ADD 06_workspace_mount.sh /etc/cont-init.d/06_workspace_mount
-ADD 06-fuse-logback.xml /opt/workspace-lib/logback.xml
+# RUN mkdir -p /opt/workspace-lib
+# RUN mkdir /var/log/workspace-lib
+# ADD https://maven.d4science.org/nexus/content/repositories/gcube-snapshots/org/gcube/data-access/sh-fuse-integration/2.0.0-SNAPSHOT/sh-fuse-integration-2.0.0-20211005.090627-1-jar-with-dependencies.jar /opt/workspace-lib/fuse-workspace.jar
+# ADD 06_workspace_mount.sh /etc/cont-init.d/06_workspace_mount
+# ADD 06-fuse-logback.xml /opt/workspace-lib/logback.xml
 
 EXPOSE 8787
 
diff --git a/fix-permissions b/fix-permissions
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..08436da
--- /dev/null
+++ b/fix-permissions
@@ -0,0 +1,36 @@
+#!/bin/bash
+# From https://github.com/jupyter/docker-stacks/blob/main/docker-stacks-foundation/fix-permissions
+# set permissions on a directory
+# after any installation, if a directory needs to be (human) user-writable,
+# run this script on it.
+# It will make everything in the directory owned by the group ${NB_GID}
+# and writable by that group.
+# Deployments that want to set a specific user id can preserve permissions
+# by adding the `--group-add users` line to `docker run`.
+
+# uses find to avoid touching files that already have the right permissions,
+# which would cause massive image explosion
+
+# right permissions are:
+# group=${NB_GID}
+# AND permissions include group rwX (directory-execute)
+# AND directories have setuid,setgid bits set
+
+set -e
+
+for d in "$@"; do
+    find "${d}" \
+        ! \( \
+            -group "${NB_GID}" \
+            -a -perm -g+rwX \
+        \) \
+        -exec chgrp "${NB_GID}" -- {} \+ \
+        -exec chmod g+rwX -- {} \+
+    # setuid, setgid *on directories only*
+    find "${d}" \
+        \( \
+            -type d \
+            -a ! -perm -6000 \
+        \) \
+        -exec chmod +6000 -- {} \+
+done