Getting Minikube on WSL2 Ubuntu working

preparations.md

Windows Preparation

1. Ensure hypervisor functionality is enabled in BIOS.

   • I know it sounds stupid, but if you already have it enabled, disable it, restart the machine, and enable it again.
   • Otherwise you will hit microsoft/WSL#5363

2. Launch a PowerShell prompt in Administrator mode [Win+X > Windows PowerShell (Admin)]

dism.exe /online /enable-feature /featurename:Microsoft-Windows-Subsystem-Linux /all /norestart
dism.exe /online /enable-feature /featurename:VirtualMachinePlatform /all /norestart
bcdedit /set hypervisorlaunchtype auto

3. Install the Linux kernel update package and install it

   • x86/x64 - https://wslstorestorage.blob.core.windows.net/wslblob/wsl_update_x64.msi
   • arm64 - https://wslstorestorage.blob.core.windows.net/wslblob/wsl_update_arm64.msi

4. Restart machine

5. Launch a PowerShell prompt in Administrator mode [Win+X > Windows PowerShell (Admin)]

wsl --set-default-version 2

5. Install Ubuntu Linux distribution of your choice from the Windows Store (not the one with the version in the names)

6. Verify WSL version is set correctly

wsl --list --verbose

Ubuntu Preparation

1. Run series of commands to get right build of Docker installed
   • Removes the old crap, gets the dependencies right, adds Docker key, adds Docker repo, installs the new hotness

sudo apt-get remove docker docker-engine docker.io containerd runc
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install \
    apt-transport-https \
    ca-certificates \
    curl \
    gnupg-agent \
    software-properties-common
curl -fsSL https://download.docker.com/linux/ubuntu/gpg | sudo apt-key add -
sudo add-apt-repository \
   "deb [arch=amd64] https://download.docker.com/linux/ubuntu \
   $(lsb_release -cs) \
   stable"
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get upgrade -y
sudo apt-get install docker-ce docker-ce-cli containerd.io -y

2. Run series of commands to ensure you can interact with Docker without root
   • Third command here is a trick to reload your profile without actually logging out
   • Closing out Ubuntu shell and starting over instead of third command is an option

sudo groupadd docker
sudo usermod -aG docker ${USER}
su -s ${USER}

3. Test the Docker configuration

sudo service docker start
docker run hello-world

If you have issues with the docker run hello-world command, see the troubleshooting.md on this gist.

Minikube Preparation

1. Install Minikube

curl -LO https://storage.googleapis.com/minikube/releases/latest/minikube_latest_amd64.deb
sudo apt install ./minikube_latest_amd64.deb -y
rm minikube_latest_amd64.deb

2. Start it

minikube start

3. Get the dashboard going
   • The dashboard will continue to run and does not return back to a prompt here
   • You will need to kill the dashboard to continue in the guide

minikube dashboard

4. Open the dashboard in your favorite browser (in Windows)
   • Port is dynamic, so can't document it well - you'll just have to be good at reading directions
   • The port will be in output of step 3 command
   • Should look something like this...

http://127.0.0.1:[PORT GOES HERE]/api/v1/namespaces/kubernetes-dashboard/services/http:kubernetes-dashboard:/proxy/#/workloads?namespace=default

5. This process is going to block you from the finishing this guide, but to keep it running, do the following...
   • Perform "CTRL+Z" on the keyboard to send the process into paused state
   • Execute the following command to resume the paused process in the background

bg

Kubectl Preparation

1. Install Kubectl
   • Adds k8s key, adds k8s repo, installs the new hotness

curl -s https://packages.cloud.google.com/apt/doc/apt-key.gpg | sudo apt-key add -
echo "deb https://apt.kubernetes.io/ kubernetes-xenial main" | sudo tee -a /etc/apt/sources.list.d/kubernetes.list
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install -y kubectl

2. Use it

kubectl get po -A

Helm Preparation

1. Install Helm

curl --output helm-linux-amd64.tar.gz https://get.helm.sh/helm-v3.4.2-linux-amd64.tar.gz
tar -zxvf helm-linux-amd64.tar.gz
sudo mv linux-amd64/helm /usr/local/bin/helm
rm helm-linux-amd64.tar.gz
rm -rf linux-amd64

2. Use it

helm version

troubleshooting.md

Docker Start Failure

When using the preparations.md instructions...

--- If you get an [OK] message when doing sudo service docker start, but the docker run hello-world command fails:

Run the docker daemon on the terminal directly in debug mode

dockerd -D

If you get this message at the end of the output, this means we need the legacy iptables...

DEBU[2023-05-30T11:13:13.522324640-04:00] sd notification                               error="<nil>" notified=false state="STOPPING=1"
failed to start daemon: Error initializing network controller: error obtaining controller instance: unable to add return rule in DOCKER-ISOLATION-STAGE-1 chain:  (iptables failed: iptables --wait -A DOCKER-ISOLATION-STAGE-1 -j RETURN: iptables v1.8.7 (nf_tables):  RULE_APPEND failed (No such file or directory): rule in chain DOCKER-ISOLATION-STAGE-1
 (exit status 4))

This can be fixed by running these commands...

sudo update-alternatives --set iptables /usr/sbin/iptables-legacy
sudo update-alternatives --set ip6tables /usr/sbin/ip6tables-legacy

Once complete, start #3 on the preparations.md instructions over again.

Thank you to coarsehorse for identifying the resolution for this problem.