CODEWITHSUNDEEP
docker
HorusCoding
HorusCoding

Reputation: 745

Can I use docker for installing ubuntu on a Mac?

I'm using a Mac, but I want to learn and use Ubuntu for development and I don't care about the GUI. I used to use Vagrant and ssh to the machine, but it consumes much of my machine resources. Can I use docker for the same purpose while also having the isolation (when I mess things up) of a VM?

Upvotes: 44

Views: 58676

Answers (3)

Carlos Rafael Ramirez
Carlos Rafael Ramirez

Reputation: 6234

  • First install Docker Desktop for Mac.
  • Then in a terminal window run: docker run -it --name ubuntu ubuntu:xenial bash

You are in a terminal with ubuntu and can do whatever you like.

Note: If you are using an ubuntu version bionic (18.04) or newer (ubuntu:bionic or ubuntu:latest), you must run the command unminimize inside the container so the tools for human interaction be installed.

To start again after a reboot:

docker start ubuntu
docker exec -it ubuntu bash

If you want save your changes:

docker commit ubuntu
docker images

See the unnamed image and:

docker tag <imageid> myubuntu

Then you can run another container using your new image.

docker run -it --name myubuntu myubuntu bash

Or replace the former

docker stop ubuntu
docker rm ubuntu
docker run -it --name ubuntu myubuntu bash

Hope it helps

Upvotes: 84

Elton Stoneman
Elton Stoneman

Reputation: 19144

This is one of the few scenarios I wouldn't use Docker for :)

Base images like Ubuntu are heavily stripped down versions of the full OS. The latest Ubuntu image doesn't have basic tools like ping and curl - that's a deliberate strategy from Canonical to minimise the size of the image, and therefore the attack vector. Typically you'd build an image to run a single app process in a container, you wouldn't SSH in and use ordinary dev tools, so they're not needed. That will make it hard for you to learn Ubuntu, because a lot of the core stuff isn't there.

On the Mac, the best VM tool I've used is Parallels - it manages to share CPU without hammering the battery. VirtualBox is good too, and for either of them you can install full Ubuntu Server from the ISO - 5GB disk and 1GB RAM allocation will be plenty if you're just looking around.

With any hypervisor you can pause VMs so they stop using resources, and checkpoint them to save the image so you can restore back to it later.

Upvotes: 17

Felipe Sabino
Felipe Sabino

Reputation: 18215

Yes, you can.

Try searching docker hub for ubuntu containers of your choice (version and who is supporting the image)

Most of them are very well documented on what was used to build it and also how to run and access/expose resources if needed.

Check the official one here: https://hub.docker.com/_/ubuntu/

Upvotes: 7

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