ScottGeek Tech

Ok as I previously talked about getting Docker up and going on a PC that really does not support the level of Hyper-V that is needed by Docker Desktop… there is a another solution. Windows 2004 update…

Now I’ve been putting off the move to version 2004 because it was known to have had problems… But I finally made the move… no real problems yet. So why do this… with Windows 10 2004 one get’s WSL (the Windows Subsystem Linux). This is key to getting Docker Desktop to work without using Hyper-V!

So lets do some stepping through this:

First move one’s Windows to version 2004 (hours and hours and hours later) – make sure you enable – Windows Subsystem for Linux- it may or may not be turned on.
Second install Docker Desktop – if WSL is installed and ready the opening installer for Docker will have a WSL 2 enable selection. Make sure you select that.
 **One might also have to update a default distro to WSL 2 if you have linux distros already on your PC. One will get a warning and where to go to do that.

Now when Docker Desktop finally gets loaded or running… go into Powershell and do a wsl -l -v:

PS C:\ps_Home> wsl -l -v
  NAME                   STATE           VERSION
* Ubuntu                 Stopped         2
  SLES-15                Stopped         2
  Ubuntu-20.04           Stopped         2
  Debian                 Stopped         2
  kali-linux             Stopped         1
  docker-desktop-data    Running         2
  docker-desktop         Running         2
PS C:\ps_Home>

If, again, everything is ok… you should see a similar list to the one above… these are the Linux Distros. As one can see I have several.
** You can select which Distro is used in Docker, but it must be a WSL 2 version… Now one can convert version 1 (in my list that would be kali-linux) by doing a wsl command-

wsl --set-version kali-linux 2

You can Enable the other Distros for Docker within the Docker Desktop app. Settings => Resources => WSL Integration.

And now you are good to go.

~SG

The  dark world of Containers and Images…oh my.  As I step my feet back into the Container World… and bring back the horror that is Hyper-V… I am reminded that my personally built Mage Dev PC does not really fully support the whole of Hyper-V- as least not how Docker Desktop wants to use it. Ya, it work fine on my ThinkPads (including my mini- Yoga X1)… but alas not the main desktop dev.  Oh woe!

But wait… there is a way…. I ran across this blog entry Docker without Hyper-V … and it really works… The long and short of it…. two methods to the madness…

Option 1 script:

# Install Windows feature containers
$restartNeeded = $false
if (!(Get-WindowsOptionalFeature -FeatureName containers -Online).State -eq 'Enabled') {
    $restartNeeded = (Enable-WindowsOptionalFeature -FeatureName containers -Online).RestartNeeded
}

if (Get-Service docker -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue)
{
    Stop-Service docker
}

# Download the zip file.
$json = Invoke-WebRequest https://download.docker.com/components/engine/windows-server/index.json | ConvertFrom-Json
$stableversion = $json.channels.stable.alias
$version = $json.channels.$stableversion.version
$url = $json.versions.$version.url
$zipfile = Join-Path "$env:USERPROFILE\Downloads\" $json.versions.$version.url.Split('/')[-1]
Invoke-WebRequest -UseBasicparsing -Outfile $zipfile -Uri $url

# Extract the archive.
Expand-Archive $zipfile -DestinationPath $Env:ProgramFiles -Force

# Modify PATH to persist across sessions.
$newPath = [Environment]::GetEnvironmentVariable("PATH",[EnvironmentVariableTarget]::Machine) + ";$env:ProgramFiles\docker"
$splittedPath = $newPath -split ';'
$cleanedPath = $splittedPath | Sort-Object -Unique
$newPath = $cleanedPath -join ';'
[Environment]::SetEnvironmentVariable("PATH", $newPath, [EnvironmentVariableTarget]::Machine)
$env:path = $newPath

# Register the Docker daemon as a service.
if (!(Get-Service docker -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue)) {
  dockerd --exec-opt isolation=process --register-service
}

# Start the Docker service.
if ($restartNeeded) {
    Write-Host 'A restart is needed to finish the installation' -ForegroundColor Green
    If ((Read-Host 'Do you want to restart now? [Y/N]') -eq 'Y') {
      Restart-Computer
    }
} else {
    Start-Service docker
}

This works just fine… and Option 2 (use DockerMsftProvider)

$paths = $env:psmodulePath.Split(';')
$modulePath = Join-Path $paths[0] "DockerMsftProvider"
if (!(Test-Path $modulePath)) {
  New-Item -Path $modulePath -ItemType Directory
}
$outfile = Join-Path $modulePath 'DockerMsftProvider.psm1'
Invoke-WebRequest -UseBasicParsing -OutFile $outfile -Uri https://raw.githubusercontent.com/ajkauffmann/MicrosoftDockerProvider/master/DockerMsftProvider.psm1

$outfile = Join-Path $modulePath 'DockerMsftProvider.psd1'
Invoke-WebRequest -UseBasicParsing -OutFile $outfile https://raw.githubusercontent.com/ajkauffmann/MicrosoftDockerProvider/master/DockerMsftProvider.psd1

Install-Package Docker -ProviderName DockerMsftProvider -Force

Now Option 2 – don’t forget to do a Start-Service docker … or things will complain…

Now I did change up the module path a bit to push docker up to my system module area instead of to my user’s doc path… and I did notice that Option 2 got a newer version of docker… Oh well you choose.

And yes docker commands work… Kitematic works… and Portainer works…

Btw if you want Portainer… 

docker pull portainer/portainer
docker run -d --restart always --name portainer --isolation process -h portainer -p 9000:9000 -v //./pipe/docker_engine://./pipe/docker_engine portainer/portainer

There you go!

~ScottGeek….