"Default" docker machine does not exist on Linux when Docker daemon is running

Question

I'm running Docker on Linux Manjaro. No problem with running and using the service:

[luqo33@ltarasiewicz-pc containers]$ systemctl status docker
● docker.service - Docker Application Container Engine
   Loaded: loaded (/usr/lib/systemd/system/docker.service; disabled; vendor preset: disabled)
   Active: active (running) since Fri 2016-12-23 20:46:31 CET; 26s ago

However, docker-machine ls will always show this:

[luqo33@ltarasiewicz-pc containers]$ docker-machine ls
NAME   ACTIVE   DRIVER   STATE   URL   SWARM   DOCKER   ERRORS

and

[luqo33@ltarasiewicz-pc containers]$ docker-machine env default
Host does not exist: "default"

Why isn't there the 'default' machine available?

Answer 1

Since you have installed docker on Linux, you can access it directly on the host with docker ps or any other docker commands. You will need to either run these commands as root (sudo) or add your user to the docker group for access to the docker socket.

Docker machine is used to quickly spin up cloud and virtual machine instances of docker, so it's not needed when you have installed it directly on the Linux host.

Answer 2

You have to create it, like this:

$ docker-machine create --driver virtualbox default
Running pre-create checks...
Creating machine...
...
...
...
To see how to connect Docker to this machine, run: docker-machine env default


$: docker-machine ls
NAME      ACTIVE   DRIVER       STATE     URL                         SWARM   DOCKER    ERRORS
default   -        virtualbox   Running   tcp://192.168.99.100:2376           v1.12.1


$: docker-machine env default
export DOCKER_TLS_VERIFY="1"
export DOCKER_HOST="tcp://192.168.99.100:2376"
export DOCKER_CERT_PATH="/Users/blahblah/.docker/machine/machines/default"
export DOCKER_MACHINE_NAME="default"

EDIT: You can also use other virtualization providers like Fusion, Hyper-V etc.