Docker not starting on Windows 11 with WSL 2

user_3847067 0
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I'm trying to setup docker with WSL 2 to run a Dockerfile. I downloaded Docker Desktop, and when I tried to follow the quick start guide, I got the following error:

docker: error during connect: This error may indicate that the docker daemon is not running.: Post "http://%2F%2F.%2Fpipe%d2Fdocker_engine/v1.24/containers/create?name=repo": open //./pipe/docker_enginer: The system cannot find the file specified.

I set com.docker.service to run in the Task Manager, and have run:

“c:\Program Files\Docker\Docker\DockerCli.exe” -SwitchDaemon

I have also quit Docker Desktop and reopened it in admin mode, and I still get the message that Docker Desktop has stopped.

Please let me know if there's any other options, thanks!

windows-11 docker windows-subsystem-for-linux
7 Answers

I managed to solve the problem in this way:

  1. delete config file AppData/Roaming/Docker/settings.json
  2. start Docker Desktop (it will create new default settings.json)

You need to re-configure settings, so it is also good idea to save the old settings.json and compare settings with the new one.

user_91316760

latest version 4.5.0 It won't work for me too, for me downgrade to 4.4.4 it worked. It may be problem with the latest version

for released note and older version Here

Note: You can install an older version and update to latest version 4.5.0

user_181894900

If you are running Docker Desktop for Windows 4.5.0 then you should be aware of an existing issue where the default backend selected after installing is not the correct one.

You can switch to the correct backend manually by editing the file located at: %APPDATA%\Docker\settings.json (sometimes is %APPDATA%\Roaming\Docker\settings.json) and at the bottom of the file change the value for the wslEngineEnabled field to true. After that Docker Desktop should start correctly.

Similar issue and solution is mentioned here by the user mccaa25.

user_64279380

Wow! I spent multiple days trying to get Docker for windows 11 to work. What finally did it was downgrading to version 4.4.4 as @GinglrBell recommended. Here's a link Docker version 4.4.4.

Make sure WSL is installed and virtualization is enabled. If you try to open WSL and you get an error telling you to enable virtualization in BIOS, run this command as Admin in powershell: bcdedit /set hypervisorlaunchtype auto (Docker src). Then restart your PC.

user_165342580

Manged to switch to Windows Containers. (Docker v4.9.0)

What I did was to change the following in the settings.json: "useWindowsContainers": true, "wslEngineEnabled": true,

Also set security on folder:

C:\ProgramData\Docker (I set "Everyone" full control.)

After that I used the "Switch to Windows Containers"-feature from the task-bar icon content menu

user_7290460

I hit this issue today, and the steps below are what worked for me - the gist is that I needed to install WSL 2 beforehand. Most of my steps were derived from here:

  1. open powershell as admin
  2. wsl -l -v # Windows Subsystem for Linux has no installed distributions
  3. install linux kernel update from here # in my case, x64-based
  4. wsl --set-default-version 2
  5. wsl --list --online # shows several linux distributions, I picked a recent one
  6. wsl --install -d Ubuntu-20.04 # then create default linux user name and password
  7. install windows docker desktop from here # now starts successfully
user_45077680

Do not create a desktop icon, skip the desktop icon option while installing docker.

user_50842320
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