Ubuntu WSL with docker could not be found

Question

The command $ docker could not be found in this WSL 1 distro. We recommend to convert this distro to WSL 2 and activate the WSL integration in Docker Desktop settings.

See https://docs.docker.com/docker-for-windows/wsl/ for details.

Not able to change to WSL2 and not able to install docker:

Did you `apt install` docker within your WSL environment? You're going to need to install full docker for your windows OS, and then install the docker CLI tool within your WSL environment, pointing WSL's docker at your host machine's docker port. This should help: https://nickjanetakis.com/blog/setting-up-docker-for-windows-and-wsl-to-work-flawlessly — Taylor Reece, Aug 20 '20 at 03:53
I get the same error occationally. The problem always solves itself after I go to docker desktop and press the update button. Maybe that helps somone. — java lava, Mar 03 '22 at 10:48
I needed this because everything in my container's bash executed really slowly. So in my case I had open "Ubuntu for Windows" and execute `explorer.exe .` which opened a network folder in which I had to copy all my projects from "c:\dev" ie. from Windows filesystem. After that nothing worked, and Fabrício's [answer](https://stackoverflow.com/a/65904006/9583480) saved the day. Then in Ubuntu for Windows I executed `cd dev/gitlab.mycompany.com/my-project/sub-project` and then `code .` opened WSL version of my project in VS Code. Rebuilt docker containers and everything now works smoothly. — s3c, Mar 24 '22 at 10:05
Often the problem that leads me to this Google Search is very simple: I forget to start Docker Desktop :) — s3c, Apr 12 '23 at 10:04

score 228 · Answer 1 · answered Oct 15 '20 at 14:12

228

You need to go to the docker desktop settings, and enable integration with your distro in "Resources -> WSL Integration".

answered Oct 15 '20 at 14:12

pushStack

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Only worked after installing `wsl_update_x64.msi`. See step 3 here https://docs.docker.com/docker-for-windows/wsl/#prerequisites – Dizzy Feb 14 '21 at 00:08
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I do not have the WSL Integration on my Docker Desktop app, Do I have to upgrade the Docker desktop to get the WSL Integration feature? – Livhu Feb 25 '21 at 08:27
@pushStack I have the same problem. I installed both WSL 2 and Docker desktop the date of this posting and it still refuses to appear. – Woodsman Jun 30 '21 at 03:40
This may be obvious to others, but in addition to the Fedora/Ubuntu/XXX Linux distro you choose, Docker will also install/create WSL distros: – Woodsman Jun 30 '21 at 04:03
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This may be obvious to others, but in addition to the Fedora/Ubuntu/XXX Linux distro you choose, Docker will also install/create WSL distros docker-desktop and docker-desktop-data. You might need to run & 'C:\Program Files\Docker\Docker\DockerCli.exe' -SwitchDaemon in PowerShell. I had to "SwitchDaemon"s twice, the first time to enable me to go to Docker Desktop settings, but it didn't show the WSL integration. So I ran "SwitchDaemon" again, and it was willing to show WSL integration. I had to go through this because of some irritating system update. – Woodsman Jun 30 '21 at 04:10
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Had to do this before mine started working: Open Docker Desktop and click on the 'troubleshoot' icon in the top right corner. Click 'Clean/Purge Data' and select 'WSL 2' only and click 'delete'. Restart docker. docker-desktop-data was Stopped before that. – Superdooperhero Feb 14 '23 at 11:42
man of the day!!!! this problem ChatGPT couldn't answer – Karam Qusai Aug 14 '23 at 20:23

score 115 · Answer 2 · answered Sep 29 '20 at 19:12

115

Assuming you already have wsl 2 in your system, run powershell as admin:

run wsl --list --verbose which will give you a list of your wsl running processes:

> wsl --list --verbose
  NAME                   STATE           VERSION
  Ubuntu-20.04           Running         1

Then to switch it with wsl --set-version <your proc> 2:

> wsl --set-version Ubuntu-20.04 2
Conversion in progress, this may take a few minutes...
For information on key differences with WSL 2 please visit https://aka.ms/wsl2
Conversion complete.

answered Sep 29 '20 at 19:12

Joey Baruch

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If you have multiple versions, you may also want to set it as your default distro version: `wsl --set-default Ubuntu-20.04` – Wes Apr 26 '21 at 16:26
This works for me Only after restarting the computer. – Dhia Djobbi Jan 13 '22 at 12:18

Fabrício Pereira · Answer 3 · 2021-01-26T15:56:53.790

96

My problem seems like it's the same, despite the integration WSL is already enabled since installation.

In the windows shell:

> wsl docker --version

The command 'docker' could not be found in this WSL 2 distro.
We recommend to activate the WSL integration in Docker Desktop settings.

See https://docs.docker.com/docker-for-windows/wsl/ for details.

An option to resolve this problem is reinstalling Docker Desktop (https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/virtualization/windowscontainers/manage-docker/configure-docker-daemon#how-to-uninstall-docker), but don't need to do this.

The steps below work for me (I found at https://github.com/docker/for-win/issues/7039).

Open windows shell (maybe as admin), and run:

> wsl -t docker-desktop
> wsl --shutdown
> wsl --unregister docker-desktop

Then go to windows services, stop the Docker Desktop Service, OR to do this running the command in windows shell as admin:

> Stop-Service -Name "com.docker.service"

And finally, restart the Docker Desktop App.

Test in the windows shell:

> wsl docker --version
Docker version 20.10.2, build 2291f61

edited Jan 26 '21 at 15:56

answered Jan 26 '21 at 15:15

Fabrício Pereira

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I had to right-click the docker icon (system taskbar) and select **Restart Docker...** – Fuhrmanator Feb 18 '21 at 04:00
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I keep finding a factory reset on docker desktop is the only thing that works – doctorlove Mar 31 '21 at 08:05
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This works for me too, but I have to do that almost every day. Does anyone else experience that? – MrSnoozles May 26 '21 at 15:02
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There is no restart menu item when I right click on the blue whale. However, there is a restart in the bug (troubleshoot) icon. But restarting doesn't work for me. – kiatng Jun 14 '21 at 14:55
This worked for me. I just needed to ensure the Docker Desktop app actually restarted, since it didn't for some reason. Thanks for the solve. – Dark Swordsman Aug 19 '21 at 21:39
@doctorlove I get that every time I restart Windows or after every Docker Desktop update. Did you find any workaround to keep docker registered to the default Ubuntu WSL? – Christos Lytras May 23 '22 at 09:29
@ChristosLytras I never did, no – doctorlove May 23 '22 at 09:41
if " Stop-Service -Name "com.docker.service" " use: > TASKKILL /IM docker.exe /f – heriberto hernandez torres Jul 28 '22 at 05:01
I also had to run `wsl --unregister docker-desktop-data`. Found from `wsl --list` – Chad Aug 13 '23 at 14:18

score 17 · Answer 4 · answered Jul 27 '21 at 11:00

17

I stuck with this error after remove Ubuntu 18.04 and install the 20.04.

Even with the WSL 2 enabled, I still face this error.

This is what works for me, go the Settings --> resource and toggle the "Ubuntu" then the error disappear :)

answered Jul 27 '21 at 11:00

raynus

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Surprised have to enable an extra Ubuntu flag when in General section already enabled the "Use the WSL 2 based engine". But solved the problem! – Ricardo stands with Ukraine May 06 '22 at 15:03

score 11 · Answer 5 · answered May 25 '21 at 13:22

11

For me, nothing worked excepted : right click on running Docker icon (next to clock) and chose "Switch to Linux containers"

And here we go ! Now i can have the menu Settings > Resources > WSL integration.

answered May 25 '21 at 13:22

Aurel

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score 11 · Answer 6 · edited Aug 06 '23 at 02:46

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For me running the following command in wsl terminal worked:

sudo apt-get update
apt-cache policy docker-ce
sudo apt-get install -y docker-ce
sudo apt-get install docker-compose
sudo apt-get upgrade

Source: https://www.srcmake.com/home/fabric

edited Aug 06 '23 at 02:46

AP.

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answered Sep 06 '22 at 12:15

faisal

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"Package 'docker-ce' has no installation candidate" – Zenahr Feb 21 '23 at 06:46

score 7 · Answer 7 · answered Mar 04 '22 at 17:25

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WSL Integration under Resources was not showing for me.

I had to uncheck "Use the WSL2 based engine" under General settings, Apply, then Check it again, Apply, then WSL Integration showed up under resources and I could click the Ubuntu slider.

answered Mar 04 '22 at 17:25

r590

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score 6 · Answer 8 · answered Jul 14 '21 at 12:10

For those still having issues with this, some of my symlinks magically vanished and no amount of reinstalling helped.

Make sure you have the following symlinks in your WSL2 installation:

$ ls -l /usr/bin/ | grep docker
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root   root          56 Jul 14 13:01 com.docker.cli -> /mnt/wsl/docker-desktop/cli-tools/usr/bin/com.docker.cli
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root   root          48 Jul 14 13:01 docker -> /mnt/wsl/docker-desktop/cli-tools/usr/bin/docker
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root   root          56 Jul 14 13:01 docker-compose -> /mnt/wsl/docker-desktop/cli-tools/usr/bin/docker-compose
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root   root          59 Jul 14 13:01 docker-compose-v1 -> /mnt/wsl/docker-desktop/cli-tools/usr/bin/docker-compose-v1
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root   root          71 Jul 14 13:01 docker-credential-desktop.exe -> /mnt/wsl/docker-desktop/cli-tools/usr/bin/docker-credential-desktop.exe
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root   root          50 Jul 14 13:01 hub-tool -> /mnt/wsl/docker-desktop/cli-tools/usr/bin/hub-tool
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root   root          48 Jun 29 09:27 notary -> /mnt/wsl/docker-desktop/cli-tools/usr/bin/notary

Any idea on why/how this happens? I don't think my setup had symbolic links under `/usr/bin` but its obviously a work-around. I read through the `docker` (not `docker.exe`) file /mnt/c/Program Files/.... and it is a shell script that checks /usr/bin for docker — tijko, Apr 12 '22 at 15:20
No idea. Sorry. I just found the above missing symlinks and it fixed it. — agentgonzo, Apr 13 '22 at 16:09

dav_i · Answer 9 · 2021-10-19T10:36:37.457

I had this issue, for me running

$ ls -l /usr/bin/ | grep docker

showed all the correct symlinks as per this answer however I saw the following:

which docker
/mnt/c/Program Files/Docker/Docker/resources/bin/docker

The fix was to simply to set the PATH variable to have /user/bin as the first entry

PATH="/usr/bin:$PATH"

From the multitude of answers, it seems like there are many things that can cause this error, so your mileage may vary.

Another good thing to check is that Docker Desktop is actually running. If it isn't, which docker will result in the /mnt/c/... directory as above.

Shmuel · Answer 10 · 2020-08-20T05:08:31.940

As Taylor wrote in his comment you need to connect from WSL to docker desktop.
In the image you attached there is a check box expose daemon on ... Check this box.
Now you need docker cli, you can install Linux vm then install docker in that Linux vm you just installed.
Then run which docker and copy this file to your windows computer.
Copy the docker executable into /usr/local/bin on your WSL.
Now run the following in WSL

echo "export DOCKER_HOST=tcp://localhost:2375" >> ~/.bashrc
. ~/.bashrc

This worked for me on WSL 1.

Here is guide I found on the all process

score 4 · Answer 11 · answered Nov 29 '21 at 10:15

In my case, the integration was correctly set in the docker-app, WSL2 was correctly the default wsl, and I wasn't able to solve unregistering the wsl docker instance and restarting the docker service like mentioned in other answers.

After some time, I noticed that the command docker-compose successfully worked. The issue was limited to the docker command.

I looked for all docker commands in the directory usr/bin, that is the path where docker-compose is located (which docker-compose), so runnining ls -l /usr/bin | grep docker, I found

drwxrwxrwx  1 root   root          48 Nov 29 10:59 docker
lrwxrwxrwx  1 root   root          56 Nov 29 10:59 docker-compose -> /mnt/wsl/docker-desktop/cli-tools/usr/bin/docker-compose*
lrwxrwxrwx  1 root   root          59 Nov 29 10:59 docker-compose-v1 -> /mnt/wsl/docker-desktop/cli-tools/usr/bin/docker-compose-v1*
lrwxrwxrwx  1 root   root          71 Nov 29 10:59 docker-credential-desktop.exe -> /mnt/wsl/docker-desktop/cli-tools/usr/bin/docker-credential-desktop.exe*
lrwxrwxrwx  1 root   root          50 Nov 29 10:59 hub-tool -> /mnt/wsl/docker-desktop/cli-tools/usr/bin/hub-tool*

For some weird reason, docker wasn't a symbolic link but a directory.

I solved removing the directory and re-creating manually the symbolic link:

rm -rf /usr/bin/docker
sudo ln -s /mnt/wsl/docker-desktop/cli-tools/usr/bin/docker /usr/bin/docker

Great it help, also met next problem with exec `com.docker.cli executable file not found in $path` which could be solve with alternative command addresing to cli **com.docker.cli** `sudo ln -s /mnt/wsl/docker-desktop/cli-tools/usr/bin/com.docker.cli /usr/bin/docker` — Andrzej Krawczuk, Feb 10 '22 at 12:44

score 3 · Answer 12 · answered Jun 14 '21 at 10:48

3

Fabrício Pereiras answer was working for me, but I had to do it pretty often, which was still annoying. Turns out the order of starting the systems is important too.

Start Docker first, then WSL2 after.

I don't start Docker Desktop with Windows and usually had opened a terminal in WSL already. Then Docker could not be found. Fabricios answer was working for me because I shutdown WSL2, then started it again when Docker was already running.

answered Jun 14 '21 at 10:48

MrSnoozles

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This is exactly what I do however came here to find another solution if I am running wsl and can not restart for docker? is there any? – Sayyed Dawood Dec 22 '21 at 04:19

score 2 · Answer 13 · answered Sep 26 '20 at 02:56

2

I followed theses steps: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/wsl/install-win10

Also, for docker into ubuntu, I enabled it in docker resources as a final step. Settings > Resources > WSL Integration. from: https://docs.docker.com/docker-for-windows/wsl/

answered Sep 26 '20 at 02:56

BBeau

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While this link may answer the question, it is better to include the essential parts of the answer here and provide the link for reference – Prathamesh More Sep 26 '20 at 03:33

score 2 · Answer 14 · answered Aug 09 '21 at 11:25

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Make sure that you have a distro that is compatible with wsl2:

https://ubuntu.com/wsl

answered Aug 09 '21 at 11:25

Leon Africa

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Ubaid Ashraf · Answer 15 · 2022-09-28T07:58:28.123

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I was experiencing the same issue with Ubuntu-20.04 (WSL2) and Docker Desktop (v4.11.1). For me, WSL integration and other flags are all set but still I was getting:

The command 'docker' could not be found in this WSL 2 distro.

I followed @r590 's method. I turned-off and then turned-on WSL Integration under:

Resources > WSL Integration

and then it worked for me.

edited Sep 28 '22 at 07:58

answered Sep 28 '22 at 07:58

Ubaid Ashraf

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score 1 · Answer 16 · answered Jun 27 '22 at 12:54

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Sometimes the simplest solution is the most effective solution, if you are installing docker desktop for the first time make sure you restart windows for the effects to take change. This is not guaranteed to work but it is always worth a shot.

answered Jun 27 '22 at 12:54

A Merii

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score 1 · Answer 17 · edited May 04 '23 at 21:07

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I rebooted my machine and docker stopped working. I reinstalled docker-desktop and did all the suggestions and nothing worked.

I found that I had a directory here /usr/bin/docker. I deleted it and then reinstalled docker which fixed the issue.

edited May 04 '23 at 21:07

Community

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answered Jan 06 '23 at 14:22

Lewis

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score 1 · Answer 18 · answered Apr 30 '23 at 13:06

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I had the same problem The error:

The command 'docker' could not be found in this WSL 2 distro. We recommend to activate the WSL integration in Docker Desktop settings.

The solution: Upgrading the desktop-docker version

If updates are available, When you navigate to the Docker Dashboard, you will be able to click on Download Updates as shown below.

enter image description here

answered Apr 30 '23 at 13:06

tzur

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Hi, please add supporting informations. Also,, please read [Why should I not upload images of code/data/errors?](https://meta.stackoverflow.com/a/285557/7353417). Thank you – pierpy May 07 '23 at 10:35

score 0 · Answer 19 · answered Oct 07 '22 at 09:04

I was having the same issue, however, for me, I installed docker using a different Windows account (admin) because my default account (under a domain) is a standard user and has no admin access.

After installing docker, I started docker and got an error that I'm not part of the docker-users group so I started docker using the admin account that I have. Docker started but it's not able to see the WSL integration. Similar to the screenshot below.

What fixed it for me is to add the domain account to the docker-users and restart my machine. After that WSL is visible in the configuration.

# For local account
net localgroup docker-users "your-user-id" /ADD

# For domain account
net localgroup docker-users "DOMAIN\your-user-id" /ADD

The commands can only be executed using Admin rights. And typically, after installation the user is already part of the localgroup... This doesn't work for me. I only get the error after the PC is woken after standby. — jaques-sam, Mar 01 '23 at 07:35

score 0 · Answer 20 · answered Mar 14 '23 at 18:59

The error shows that you're using WSL version 1.

To change it to 2, open PowerShell and run

wsl -l -v

You should see a number 1 near Ubuntu (or something similar).

To change that to version to 2, simply run

wsl --set-version Ubuntu 2

and you'll see something like

score 0 · Answer 21 · answered Jun 26 '23 at 21:13

In WSL2 I've installed the docker service, using these instructions: https://docs.docker.com/engine/install/ubuntu/#install-using-the-repository.

So in my WSL2 Ubuntu environment I have the docker service running. I have no need for the desktop interface, the docker instances are containers for services.

It works generally, but often I forget to 'sudo start service docker' (I need to upgrade my linux sysadmin skills to get the service to start properly with the instantiation of WSL2 environment)

(FWIW: This really should simply be a comment, but I lack the requisite qualifications at the moment...)

score -1 · Answer 22 · answered Jun 21 '22 at 15:37

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Switch to linux containers in docker desktop then it will work.

answered Jun 21 '22 at 15:37

sadiq rashid

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score -2 · Answer 23 · answered Feb 26 '21 at 10:22

-2

You need to run the WSL console as Admin. If not, the docker command may be not recognized.

answered Feb 26 '21 at 10:22

Jöcker

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There is no case that I can think of where running WSL as Admin is the correct solution. Running WSL as Admin has security implications, and should typically be avoided unless you absolutely need to access some resource in Windows with elevated permissions. But in doing so, you give any code *running as your WSL user* full access to your Windows host, including modification and removal of system-level files. `sudo`/`root` aren't even needed to modify (or corrupt) your Windows installation when running WSL elevated. – NotTheDr01ds Oct 07 '22 at 12:09

Ubuntu WSL with docker could not be found

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