How to Install Docker in WSL (Windows Subsystem For Linux)

We will be installing docker in WSL (Windows Subsystem For Linux) so that we can run it without docker desktop.

Steps to install docker in WSL

Configure WSL in Windows

Vist the Configure WSL in your PC post for more info.

Install Ubuntu

The easiest way to install ubuntu is to download it from the terminal, or you can download it from the Microsoft Store.

You can use this command wsl --list --online in the Terminal to view all of the available distros to install. Then run this command wsl --install -d <DistroName>.

In our case it is wsl --install -d Ubuntu.

Then you need to create a username and password to continue, follow as instructed.

After you created the user account, follow the instructions down below to install docker in Ubuntu WSL.

Setup systemd in WSL.

  • Login to ubuntu
  • Type
sudo nano /etc/wsl.conf
  • Add these lines.
[boot]
systemd=true #Looks like this is set to true by default in newer wsl versions.
[automount]
enabled=true #Optional. This will automatically mount your windows drives to the /mnt/ path.
  • Click ctrl+o then Enter to save and ctrl+x to exit.
  • Done !! ✅

Install using the apt repository

First two instructions are from the official Docker Documentation.

Before you install Docker Engine for the first time on a new host machine, you need to set up the Docker repository. Afterward, you can install and update Docker from the repository.

  1. Set up Docker’s apt repository.
# Add Docker's official GPG key:
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install ca-certificates curl
sudo install -m 0755 -d /etc/apt/keyrings
sudo curl -fsSL https://download.docker.com/linux/ubuntu/gpg -o /etc/apt/keyrings/docker.asc
sudo chmod a+r /etc/apt/keyrings/docker.asc

# Add the repository to Apt sources:
echo \
  "deb [arch=$(dpkg --print-architecture) signed-by=/etc/apt/keyrings/docker.asc] https://download.docker.com/linux/ubuntu \
  $(. /etc/os-release && echo "$VERSION_CODENAME") stable" | \
  sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/docker.list > /dev/null
sudo apt-get update
  1. Install the Docker packages.
sudo apt-get install docker-ce docker-ce-cli containerd.io docker-buildx-plugin docker-compose-plugin

OR Install using the convenience script (Easy)

⚠️ Read the Documentation before installing docker with this script to understand potential problems ⚠️

curl -fsSL https://get.docker.com -o get-docker.sh
sudo sh get-docker.sh
  1. Starting Docker as Daemon on Ubuntu.
sudo service docker start
  1. Verify
service docker status
  1. Check docker version 😮‍💨
docker --version

If running docker without sudo gives you an error run the following.

  1. Add docker to the sudo group.
sudo usermod -aG docker $USER

Optional - Portainer Installation.

We will be installing a docker orchestrator called Portainer.

  • First, create the volume that Portainer Server will use to store its database:
docker volume create portainer_data
  • Then, download and install the Portainer Server container:
docker run -d -p 8000:8000 -p 9443:9443 --name portainer --restart=always -v /var/run/docker.sock:/var/run/docker.sock -v portainer_data:/data portainer/portainer-ce:latest
  • Portainer Server has now been installed. You can check to see whether the Portainer Server container has started by running docker ps:
albert@homelab:~$ docker ps
CONTAINER ID   IMAGE                           COMMAND        CREATED          STATUS         PORTS                                                                                            NAMES
26cf73fbd825   portainer/portainer-ce:latest   "/portainer"   12 minutes ago   Up 7 seconds   0.0.0.0:8000->8000/tcp, :::8000->8000/tcp, 0.0.0.0:9443->9443/tcp, :::9443->9443/tcp, 9000/tcp   portainer
  • Now that the installation is complete, you can log into your Portainer Server instance by opening a web browser and going to:
https://localhost:9443

You will be presented with the initial setup page for Portainer Server.

I have installed docker in WSL in a lot of ways and found this to be the easiest way.

By default the WSL instance will shut down automatically, after all the WSL terminals are closed. This is intended, a workaround for this from happening is by running this command.

wsl --exec dbus-launch true

This will keep wsl running in the background.

You can create a bat file with this command and add it to the shell:startup folder to make WSL start when windows boots up, which should work. 🤞

Command is from this comment on a github issue