How to use Dev Containers in VSCode without Docker Desktop?

[ISkomorokh]

Hi all,
Could someone help me set up VSCode Dev Containers with Dockerd running on WSL Ubuntu?

I have the following configuration:
Host OS - Windows 11
WSL2 - Ubuntu 22.04.3 LTS

To start the Docker Engine, I followed the instructions from this good post https://medium.com/@ferarias/docker-in-windows-11-using-wsl2-8e30faddc32c

With these settings, I manage to successfully run docker containers from my host, but VSCode Dev Containers does not work 😔.

Here's where the whole process breaks down:

If I install Docker Desktop, everything works. But I can't install it because of policies.

[eljog]

Thank you for the question and sharing the details.
@chrmarti do you have any suggestions here?

[chrmarti]

Try enabling Dev Containers: Execute in WSL in the VS Code user settings:

[ISkomorokh]

That setting only works for me when I Connect to WSL first and do everything inside, but my question is about working with Dev Containers from the Host OS without connecting to the WSL first.

[chrmarti]

This should also work with Windows folders. If you want to use a WSL folder (e.g., for performance) without connecting to WSL first, you could open \\wsl.localhost\<wsl distro>\<wsl path> (e.g., \\wsl.localhost\Ubuntu\home\chrmarti\development\myproject) and reopen that in a dev container.

[ISkomorokh]

@chrmarti, thanks for your help! This way, it worked fine. And even more - now it looks to be working fine as I initially wanted it to.

[ISkomorokh]

Today, I discovered that it doesn't really work as intended :( I forgot that I didn't update hosts in the docked configuration; thus, docker isn't accessible from the host OS directly. It is only accessible via wsl docker. This puts limitations on the Visual Studio 2022 and VS Code docker tools as they can't see the docker.

Anyway, at least I can use Dev Containers.