dockerd not running on nixos

Question

I installed docker on nixos, using:

nix-env -i docker

after that, dockerd was not running, so I started the daemon manually with:

dockerd

and in the logs, I see:

WARN[2019-06-26T01:02:31.784701442Z] could not change group /var/run/docker.sock to docker: group docker not found

should I care about this warning?

score 16 · Accepted Answer · edited Feb 15 '23 at 12:08

16

When installing docker on NixOS, it's best to enable it in the NixOS configuration. Doing so will install docker as a system service.

Snippet for /etc/nixos/configuration.nix:

virtualisation.docker.enable = true;

# ...

users.users.YOU = { # merge this with your unix user definition, "YOU" is for illustration
  isNormalUser = true;
  # ...
  extraGroups = [
    # ...
    "docker"
  ];
};

edited Feb 15 '23 at 12:08

arthur simas

132
5

answered Jun 26 '19 at 09:27

Robert Hensing

6,708
18
23

I am pretty sure (but less than 100%) you will need to create the docker group as well. – emory Jul 12 '19 at 00:14
2

The docker module creates the group for you: https://github.com/NixOS/nixpkgs/blob/6702acaf561f7a1326d5745031549bb7147f1882/nixos/modules/virtualisation/docker.nix#L154 – Robert Hensing Jul 13 '19 at 10:53

score 3 · Answer 2 · answered Jun 26 '19 at 07:47

3

created a group docker. Docker needs that user group to start as a service.

answered Jun 26 '19 at 07:47

deosha

972
5
20

score 1 · Answer 3 · answered Aug 27 '23 at 18:43

1

Make sure to restart your computer, and not just logout-login, to actually make sudo-less docker work.

answered Aug 27 '23 at 18:43

Rounak Datta

442
7
10

dockerd not running on nixos

3 Answers3