Docker is running. Docker Desktop says "Docker Desktop stopped..."

Question

I've installed Docker and Docker Desktop on my Ubuntu 20.04 VM using this guide:

https://linuxiac.com/how-to-install-docker-desktop-on-ubuntu/

Everything is running, but my Docker Desktop app can't seem to connect to Docker itself.

service docker status returns:

● docker.service - Docker Application Container Engine
     Loaded: loaded (/lib/systemd/system/docker.service; enabled; vendor preset: enabled)
     Active: active (running) since Fri 2022-05-13 14:49:12 PDT; 4 days ago
TriggeredBy: ● docker.socket
       Docs: https://docs.docker.com
   Main PID: 1086 (dockerd)
      Tasks: 18
     Memory: 73.0M
     CGroup: /system.slice/docker.service
             └─1086 /usr/bin/dockerd -H fd:// --containerd=/run/containerd/containerd.sock

Warning: some journal files were not opened due to insufficient permissions.

However, this is what I get when I try to configure things in Docker Desktop. When I click on settings, I get a perpetual loading spinner.

What I've tried

1. I've restarted docker with sudo service docker stop / start

2. I've clicked restart with the Docker Desktop dropdown menu on the top right of my Ubuntu Desktop.

3. I've added my user to the docker group.

What steps can I take to debug this? Is there anything obvious I'm missing?

Thanks!

Answer 1

I had the same problem on Debian 11 and Docker Desktop 4.8.1

1. If you are using Linux inside a VM, verify virtualization support. Docker Desktop runs a VM that requires KVM support.

https://docs.docker.com/desktop/linux/install/#kvm-virtualization-support

2. If you're using VMWare, you need to enable CPU counters.

https://github.com/canonical/multipass/issues/1085

3. Verify qty with

   egrep -c '(svm|vmx)' /proc/cpuinfo

4. You need to stop and disable Docker.

   $ sudo service docker stop
   $ sudo systemctl disable docker.service
   $ sudo systemctl disable docker.socket
   

   Then, restart your linux and your Docker desktop.

   Even more, if you run docker ps as root user , you don't use docker desktop. You have another list of containers.

5. Be careful if you change "Setting-> Resources-> Advanced: Disk Image location" , you must not delete the default file 1.8G => home/YOUR_USER/.docker/desktop/vms/0/data/Docker.raw

   You can change the path, but you need to keep that file in that location.

Reset factory

Docker desktop restart

Docker service status after reboot my computer

Full history:

sudo apt-get install docker-ce docker-ce-cli containerd.io docker-compose-plugin
sudo usermod -aG docker YOUR_USER
sudo apt install gnome-terminal
sudo apt install qemu-kvm libvirt-clients libvirt-daemon-system bridge-utils virtinst libvirt-daemon virt-manager -y
sudo usermod -aG kvm YOUR_USER
sudo apt autoremove
sudo apt install ./docker-desktop-4.8.1-amd64.deb
sudo systemctl disable docker.service
sudo systemctl disable docker.socket

Test VirtualBox VM - Ubuntu 20.04