Install docker on WSL2 without docker desktop

Docker is an opensource platform that is used to develop, manage and run containerized applications. Docker can be used in both Windows and Linux. However, running docker in windows is resource intensive (RAM and CPU utilization) as it uses Hyper-V for virtualization. On the other hand, installing docker on WSL is not resource intensive

This write-up will walk through the steps necessary for installing docker and docker compose on WSL2. This write-up assumes reader is familiar with basic Linux Commands and is doing a clean installation

1. Start with enabling WSL on Windows. Don’t know how to enable WSL? Click Here to get assistance
2. Start Linux and log-in as root user using “sudo su”
3. Install pre-required packages

sudo apt update 
sudo apt install --no-install-recommends apt-transport-https ca-certificates curl gnupg2

4. Configure package repository

source /etc/os-release
curl -fsSL https://download.docker.com/linux/${ID}/gpg | sudo apt-key add -
echo "deb [arch=amd64] https://download.docker.com/linux/${ID} ${VERSION_CODENAME} stable" | sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/docker.list
sudo apt update

5. Install Docker

sudo apt install docker-ce docker-ce-cli containerd.io

6. Add user to group

sudo usermod -aG docker $USER

7. Configure dockerd 

DOCKER_DIR=/mnt/wsl/shared-docker
mkdir -pm o=,ug=rwx "$DOCKER_DIR"
sudo chgrp docker "$DOCKER_DIR"
sudo mkdir /etc/docker
sudo vi /etc/docker/daemon.json

{
   "hosts": ["unix:///mnt/wsl/shared-docker/docker.sock"]
}

8. Run Docker

sudo dockerd

If the command ends with “API listen on /mnt/wsl/shared-docker/docker.sock”, things are working. However, if docker fails to start with an error something like “iptables failed”

Run the following commands for Ubuntu 22.0

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

Run docker again.

Perform an additional test by opening a new terminal and running the following command

docker -H unix:///mnt/wsl/shared-docker/docker.sock run --rm hello-world

Run Docker automatically on WSL start

To always run dockerd automatically on WSL start, add the following to .bashrc 

.bashrc file can be found in users home directory. Use following command to edit the file 

sudo vi ~/.bashrc

DOCKER_DISTRO="Ubuntu-22.04"
DOCKER_DIR=/mnt/wsl/shared-docker
DOCKER_SOCK="$DOCKER_DIR/docker.sock"
export DOCKER_HOST="unix://$DOCKER_SOCK"
if [ ! -S "$DOCKER_SOCK" ]; then
   mkdir -pm o=,ug=rwx "$DOCKER_DIR"
   sudo chgrp docker "$DOCKER_DIR"
   /mnt/c/Windows/System32/wsl.exe -d $DOCKER_DISTRO sh -c "nohup sudo -b dockerd < /dev/null > $DOCKER_DIR/dockerd.log 2>&1"
fi

Install docker compose

1. Run below command to install latest version of docker compose

sudo curl -L "https://github.com/docker/compose/releases/download/1.29.2/docker-compose-$(uname -s)-$(uname -m)" -o /usr/local/bin/docker-compose

2. Give executable permissions

sudo chmod +x /usr/local/bin/docker-compose

3. Test Installation

docker-compose --version