docker: Cannot connect to the Docker daemon at unix:///var/run/docker.sock. Is the docker daemon running? Linux Bash Shell on windows 10

Question

I am new to Docker. I'm trying to work with it on windows. I have Windows 10 Family so I installed Linux Bash Shell. When I run this command:

$ docker run hello-world

I get : docker: Cannot connect to the Docker daemon at unix:///var/run/docker.sock. Is the docker daemon running?. And when I run

$ systemctl status docker

I get

System has not been booted with systemd as init system (PID 1). Can't operate

Answer 1

Just run the Docker Daemon with.

sudo dockerd &

The sudo make it run as super user.

Dockerd is DOCKERDaemon

The single & at the end just make it run in the background.

Answer 2

For anyone using WSL2 and seeing an identical error message, look at https://github.com/MicrosoftDocs/WSL/issues/457#issuecomment-511495846

Powershell

wsl -l -v

  NAME            STATE           VERSION
* Ubuntu-20.04    Running         2

Ubuntu

$ docker run hello-world

docker: Cannot connect to the Docker daemon at unix:///var/run/docker.sock. Is the docker daemon running?.

$ systemctl status docker

System has not been booted with systemd as init system (PID 1). Can't operate.

$ sudo /etc/init.d/docker start

 * Starting Docker: docker                                                                                                                         [ OK ]

 $ sudo docker run hello-world

 Unable to find image 'hello-world:latest' locally
 latest: Pulling from library/hello-world
 b8dfde127a29: Pull complete
 Digest: sha256:308866a43596e83578c7dfa15e27a73011bdd402185a84c5cd7f32a88b501a24
 Status: Downloaded newer image for hello-world:latest

 Hello from Docker!
 This message shows that your installation appears to be working correctly.

Answer 3

The issue here is that from the error message, it states that you are using WSL (Windows Sub-system for Linux Version 1), this version did not have Docker support as it is not a full Linux kernel, but an translation layer between a Linux user-space and then translated to Windows Kernel commands.

Running the wsl --list -v command will show you the version you are using:

You can install WSL version 2, which has a Microsoft provided full Linux Kernel running using Hyper-V infrastructure (but not full Hyper-V). This way it runs on Windows Home, Education, and Professional. And here you can run a Linux Instance and the install Docker.

Windows Subsystem for Linux Installation Guide

Answer 4

It seems like you wont be able to use docker in Windows 10 family, since docker Desktop requires specific Windows version, as said in official documentation.

System Requirements

Windows 10 64-bit: Pro, Enterprise, or Education (Build 15063 or later).

What you can try is to run linux-based virtual machine on you Windows host, and run docker inside of it. But even if you succeeded, you will lose all advantages of the docker in resources consumption.