Docker Pitfalls on Windows

Space Problems on Drive C:

It seems that Docker Desktotp needs at least 8 Gbyte free space to start successfully on Windows . Without that space docker desktop doesn’t start until you delete/purge all your VMs.

Fix 1: Relocate vm-data directory

By default, Docker Desktop stores your images and containers at:

• C:/ProgramData/DockerDesktop/vm-data on Windows
• For Details see_ https://www.kindacode.com/article/docker-desktop-change-images-containers-directory/

To change this Location goto Settings -> Resources and change Disk Image Location

Fix 2: Delete hiberfil.sys

Please check whether you can delete c:\hiberfil.sys . For details read:

• https://www.howtogeek.com/howto/15140/what-is-hiberfil.sys-and-how-do-i-delete-it/

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Create volume fails – No volume created at all

Simple docker command does not create a volume

$ docker run --rm -v /d/t:/myvol ubuntu /bin/bash -c "ls -lha > /myvol/myfile.txt"

Fix

• Disable Use the WSL2 based engine
• Press Apply & Restart Button

Testing volume creation after above fix

Let’s share some files from our host to our docker container. This is done with the “-v” flag and then “host-directory:container-directory” and is directly mapped into the container.

• For Details read: https://ethereum-blockchain-developer.com/250-docker-and-compose/04-docker-shared-host-filesystem/
• Shared Windows directory is d:\t
• Type: bind
• docker volume doesn’t show any volumes data
• To show the mounts run: docker inspect CONTAINER_ID | jq –raw-output .[].Mounts

$ docker run --rm -v /d/t:/myvol ubuntu /bin/bash -c "ls -lha > /myvol/myfile.txt"

$ ls -l  d:/t/my*
-rw-r--r-- 1 Helmut None 1279 Aug 12 14:06 d:/t/myfile.txt

$ cat  d:/t/myfile.txt
total 60K
drwxr-xr-x   1 root root 4.0K Aug 12 12:06 .
drwxr-xr-x   1 root root 4.0K Aug 12 12:06 ..
-rwxr-xr-x   1 root root    0 Aug 12 12:06 .dockerenv
lrwxrwxrwx   1 root root    7 Aug  1 13:22 bin -> usr/bin
drwxr-xr-x   2 root root 4.0K Apr 18 10:28 boot
drwxr-xr-x   5 root root  340 Aug 12 12:06 dev

$ docker ps -a
CONTAINER ID   IMAGE                              COMMAND                  CREATED          STATUS                      PORTS                                            NAMES
37ee7d537f85   ubuntu                             "/bin/bash -c 'ls -l…"   23 minutes ago   Exited (0) 23 minutes ago                                                    laughing_herschel

$  docker inspect 37ee7d537f85  | jq --raw-output .[].Mounts
[
  {
    "Type": "bind",
    "Source": "/d/t",
    "Destination": "/myvol",
    "Mode": "",
    "RW": true,
    "Propagation": "rprivate"
  }
]

• This command runs “ls -lha” and pipes the output to /myvol/myfile.txt
• /myvol is “mounted” to the current working directory on the host
• On the host you can observe a new file called “myfile.txt” with the output of “ls -lha”
• The container is then ended and removed because of “–rm”

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Links

• https://superuser.com/questions/1697576/docker-desktop-for-windows-gui-is-not-starting
• https://stackoverflow.com/questions/70069941/docker-volume-bind-mount-access-is-denied
• https://www.kindacode.com/article/docker-desktop-change-images-containers-directory/
• https://deploy-preview-12877–docsdocker.netlify.app/docker-for-windows/mounts-on-windows/