Docker installed with snap in Ubuntu 19.04 won't stay started

Question

I installed docker via snap in Ubuntu. It worked fine until I rebooted. Since reboot, it won't stay started.

So we start the daemon manually:

$ sudo snap start docker
Started.

Cool. Looks started to me.

$ docker run hello-world
docker: Cannot connect to the Docker daemon at unix:///var/run/docker.sock. Is the docker daemon running?.
See 'docker run --help'.

Nope. Nope it was not.

What's going on and how do I fix it?

I would like to be able to start it manually, and also for it to start automatically at login.

Is that valid in snap installed docker? I get this ```sudo systemctl start docker Failed to start docker.service. Unit docker.service not found.``` — Mittenchops, Aug 04 '19 at 16:33
I don't think that command applies to docker installed via snap, per https://askubuntu.com/questions/977961/unit-docker-service-could-not-be-found/978012 — Mittenchops, Aug 04 '19 at 16:36
the service is running but only available to root. add yourself to the docker group. — Efrat Levitan, Aug 04 '19 at 17:05
That was already done. As I mentioned, the service worked correctly before I rebooted: ```$ id -nG username ... docker``` — Mittenchops, Aug 04 '19 at 17:53
just to make sure. you are not using a proxy or something like that? — relief.melone, Aug 05 '19 at 07:31

score 5 · Answer 1 · answered Aug 05 '19 at 10:23

After installing using snap, the service is called snap.docker.dockerd.service.

sudo systemctl list-units| grep docker
sys-devices-virtual-net-docker0.device           loaded active plugged   /sys/devices/virtual/net/docker0                                             
sys-subsystem-net-devices-docker0.device         loaded active plugged   /sys/subsystem/net/devices/docker0                                           
run-snapd-ns-docker.mnt.mount                    loaded active mounted   /run/snapd/ns/docker.mnt                                                     
snap-docker-384.mount                            loaded active mounted   Mount unit for docker, revision 384                                          
snap.docker.dockerd.service                      loaded active running   Service for snap application docker.dockerd


sudo systemctl status snap.docker.dockerd.service
● snap.docker.dockerd.service - Service for snap application docker.dockerd
   Loaded: loaded (/etc/systemd/system/snap.docker.dockerd.service; enabled; vendor preset: enabled)
   Active: active (running) since Mon 2019-08-05 10:16:56 UTC; 31s ago
 Main PID: 655 (dockerd)
    Tasks: 20 (limit: 1175)
   Memory: 197.8M
   CGroup: /system.slice/snap.docker.dockerd.service
           ├─ 655 dockerd -G docker --exec-root=/var/snap/docker/384/run/docker --data-root=/var/snap/docker/common/var-lib-docker --pidfile=/var/snap/docker/384/r
un/docker.pid --config-file=/var/snap/docker/384/config/daemon.json --debug
           └─1101 docker-containerd --config /var/snap/docker/384/run/docker/containerd/containerd.toml

Use

sudo systemctl stop snap.docker.dockerd.service
sudo systemctl start snap.docker.dockerd.service

or

sudo snap services docker
sudo snap stop docker
sudo snap start docker

score 5 · Answer 2 · answered May 13 '20 at 03:00

I got the same issue, though might help someone else

you can see the logs with snap logs docker

Mine was like this:

docker.dockerd[6853]: Error starting daemon: pid file found, ensure docker is not running or delete /var/snap/docker/423/run/docker.pid

I deleted the pid

rm -rf /var/snap/docker/423/run/docker.pid

restart docker

snap start docker

Docker installed with snap in Ubuntu 19.04 won't stay started

2 Answers2