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Notes about Docker on WSL (Windows 10 Home / Docker Toolbox) (Virtualbox instead Hyper-V)

Edit (September 2020):

Therefore you may want to skip this guide and rather install WSL 2 and use Docker for Desktop with it!


Old instructions

for using Docker with WSL (without Hypervisor and Hyper-V VM instead): Docker on WSL (Windows 10 Home / Docker Toolbox) (Virtualbox instead Hyper-V)

Docker on WSL communicates with Docker on Windows from Docker Toolbox.

Install VirtualBox and Docker Toolbox on Windows.

Docker on Windows uses VM for Linux based docker containers. Create new docker machine (VM):

> docker-machine.exe create default

Start the default docker machine:

> docker-machine.exe start default

Find out (Docker daemon) IP of default docker-machine and use that IP for Docker client:

> docker-machine.exe ip

In case of error:

open C:\Users\<user>\.docker\machine\machines\default\config.json: The system cannot find the file specified.

Remove folder in C:\Users<user>.docker\machine\machines manually.

Then try again:

> docker-machine.exe rm default
[y]
> docker-machine.exe create default

After setting up environment variables for Docker client:

> docker info

In case of error:

could not read CA certificate "/home/build/.docker/ca.pem": open /home/build/.docker/ca.pem: no such file or directory

Remove folder in C:\Users<user>.docker\machine\machines manually.

Then try again:

> docker-machine.exe rm default
[y]
> docker-machine.exe create default

Extra fix if necessary:

> docker-machine.exe regenerate-certs default
[y]

Note: In Windows, docker client has to run as admin, otherwise this error will occur:

open //./pipe/docker_engine: The system cannot find the file specified. In the default daemon configuration on Windows

If already running as admin, try this fix

> docker-machine env

Copy + paste/run the printed for loop (without commenting out REM) for configuring.

Important: The @FOR loop without the REM!

C:\Users\<user>>docker-machine env
SET DOCKER_TLS_VERIFY=1
SET DOCKER_HOST=tcp://192.168.99.100:2376
SET DOCKER_CERT_PATH=C:\Users\<user>\.docker\machine\machines\default
SET DOCKER_MACHINE_NAME=default
SET COMPOSE_CONVERT_WINDOWS_PATHS=true
REM Run this command to configure your shell:
REM     @FOR /f "tokens=*" %i IN ('docker-machine env') DO @%i

From that output, copy + paste and execute the whole thing in cmd. Then copy the @FOR line without REM and also paste and execute in cmd:

> @FOR /f "tokens=*" %i IN ('docker-machine env') DO @%i
> docker-machine ls
> docker-machine start default

Network/other issues with virtual machine Open VirtualBox GUI and stop + remove the default machine manually, then try again. Extra tip: Update VirtualBox + VirtualBox Extensions to latest version.

Test:

> docker run hello-world

This should download + run the hello-world docker container.

On WSL, install Docker CE(for Ubuntu (=WSL basically)).

docker info will now show an error (can't connect to daemon).

Edit: docker-env wrapper script that translates Windows style ENV to *nix (WSL) style export: https://gist.github.com/mmarchini/bc9df7b82127fea13612edf8bffdf96f

$ mkdir -p ~/.bin/
$ cd ~/.bin/
$ wget -O docker-env https://gist.githubusercontent.com/mmarchini/bc9df7b82127fea13612edf8bffdf96f/raw/33f14362f98fa168c17ad6b04a053c2066e071f0/docker-env
$ chmod +x ./docker-env

Test the script:

$ ./docker-env

.bashrc on WSL:

# Docker (Docker Toolbox on Windows)
source <(~/.bin/docker-env)
alias docker-machine="docker-machine.exe"
#alias docker="docker.exe" # Native docker client is used instead, less issues with environment variables
docker-machine.exe start default && # autostart docker-machine
# docker-compose path compatibility
export COMPOSE_CONVERT_WINDOWS_PATHS=1

Tip: Load the new bash script in existing terminal using source ~/.bashrc to avoid restarting the terminal.

Share certs from Docker Toolbox on Windows with Docker client on WSL:

$ mkdir -p ~/.docker
$ ln -s /mnt/c/Users/<user>/.docker/machine/certs/ca.pem ~/.docker/ca.pem
$ ln -s /mnt/c/Users/<user>/.docker/machine/certs/ca-key.pem ~/.docker/ca-key.pem
$ ln -s /mnt/c/Users/<user>/.docker/machine/certs/cert.pem ~/.docker/cert.pem
$ ln -s /mnt/c/Users/<user>/.docker/machine/certs/key.pem ~/.docker/key.pem

Note: All of these files have to be made available/symlinked!

Install docker-compose(for Linux) natively on WSL.

* There is also docker-compose shipped with Docker Toolbox (alias docker-compose to docker-compose.exe) – but it may be older and not the same style as the natively installed Docker client.

Paths in docker-compose in Bash on Windows/WSL:

ERROR: for <container>  Cannot start service php: oci runtime error: container_linux.go:262: starting container process caused "chdir to cwd (\"<target container path>\") set in config.json failed: no such file or directory"

See microsoft/WSL#1854

Proposed solutions:

.env file with this content:

COMPOSE_CONVERT_WINDOWS_PATHS=1

export as environment variable:

export COMPOSE_CONVERT_WINDOWS_PATHS=1

or in .bashrc:

COMPOSE_CONVERT_WINDOWS_PATHS=1

But this doesn't resolve the issue for me... Edit: Apparently it works now, I installed the latest Windows 10 updates (and got a newer WSL version).

@strarsis
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strarsis commented May 5, 2018

mariadb image has been updated now to use the command line arguments also during database initialization,
see MariaDB/mariadb-docker#38 (comment).

@thaneofcawddor
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Super new to Docker. I got to the end of your instructions and ran docker run hello-world and it worked. Then, when I restarted my terminal, the same "Cannot connect to the Docker daemon..." error happened. I think I lost you at "Note: All of these files have to be made available/symlinked!" Where did I go astray?

@strarsis
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@thaneofcawddor: You have to persist the exports in ~/.bashrc so they are always executed at bash startup.

@RichardBronosky
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RichardBronosky commented Jul 24, 2018

If you are trying to do this in WSL bash, then that export that has C:\... is not going to work. You can convert it to bash like so:

eval $(docker-machine.exe env default --shell bash | sed 's?\\?/?g;s?C:/?/mnt/c/?g')

That uses sed to convert \\ (aka \ in windows) to / and C:/ (because the \ got converted) to /mnt/c/.

Cheers!

Update: I just noticed that I didn't read down to your bit about docker-env. I would still rather put this in my .bashrc

source <(docker-machine.exe env default --shell bash | sed 's?\\?/?g;s?C:/?/mnt/c/?g')

@strarsis
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strarsis commented Oct 12, 2018

For recent Docker on Windows (but using Hyper-V!), these instructions helped me:
https://davidburela.wordpress.com/2018/06/27/running-docker-on-wsl-windows-subsystem-for-linux/

@strarsis
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Now I switched to WSL 2 (shell and Docker for Desktop) and I don't need a Hyper-V VM anymore!
Everything still works great.

@strarsis
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Edit (June 2020):

Therefore you may want to skip this guide and rather install WSL 2 and use Docker for Desktop with it!
Btw., WSL 2 will also support GPU (CUDA and such), too!!

@Dogyunjeong
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Hi, I am new to wsl2.
I like it a lot. But I am looking for docker-machine provisioning.
Can I just follow your instruction?

@strarsis
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strarsis commented Jun 23, 2020

@Dogyunjeong: So I downloaded + installed Docker for Desktop Edge (should also run on Windows 10 Home now), then enabled WSL 2 support in the Docker for Desktop settings for the distribution(s) I have installed in WSL 2 (Ubuntu 20.x in my case), no need to install anything in the WSL 2 distribution by the way. docker and docker-compose are ready after enabling the support.

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