`supabase start` Error: Failed to connect to Docker daemon. Is Docker running?

[nvme0]

Bug report

Describe the bug

Recently updated to supabase 0.17.0, and when running supabase start I get the following error message:

Error: Failed to connect to Docker daemon. Is Docker running?

Using the npm package (0.5.0) I have no issues running supabase start.

edit: It starts fine when running as a super user

System information

• OS: Linux
• Version of Node.js: v14.17.1

[t-eckert]

If it starts fine when running as a super user, you almost certainly have the Docker daemon running. Two things you can consider

• Update your Docker engine to a version >19 which is able to run rootless.
• Add your user with root privileges to the Docker group: sudo usermod -aG docker $USER.

Reference

Docker Engine Release Notes

[nvme0]

Hey @t-eckert, thanks for the suggestion.

I have already added my user with root privileges to the Docker group, as you can see I can run docker commands but not supabase commands.

Seems to be an issue with my setup, as it runs fine in the ci

[osaxma]

@nvme0 if you're using Mac (I believe this applies to Windows as well), you need to have Docker Desktop running.

docker -v will run without the Desktop app but if you try to run any container or simply run docker ps, you'll get the following error:

docker: Cannot connect to the Docker daemon at unix:///var/run/docker.sock. Is the docker daemon running?.

[nvme0]

@osaxma Thanks for the suggestion, I am running on Linux

[soedirgo]

What are the permissions for your docker binary? In my Linux box it's -r-xr-xr-x root root, which might explain why it runs w/ the old Node CLI (it just runs the docker binary) but requires superuser for the Go CLI.

This is probably related to the rootless mode mentioned above.

[haydn]

I'm hitting this error trying to run the CLI in a Vercel build step.

This is the "Install Command" I'm running:

amazon-linux-extras install -y docker && systemctl enable docker && yum install -y https://github.com/supabase/cli/releases/download/v0.24.5/supabase_0.24.5_linux_amd64.rpm && yarn install

That command runs fine, but when I try to commit the database migrations:

supabase db remote set $POSTGRES_URL && supabase db remote commit

I get Docker daemon error message:

Cannot connect to the Docker daemon at unix:///var/run/docker.sock. Is the docker daemon running?

I can replicate this on my local (macOS) machine using the same build image Vercel uses:

$ docker run --rm -it amazonlinux:2.0.20191217.0 sh
sh-4.2# amazon-linux-extras install -y docker && systemctl enable docker && yum install -y https://github.com/supabase/cli/releases/download/v0.24.5/supabase_0.24.5_linux_amd64.rpm
sh-4.2# supabase init
sh-4.2# supabase start
Error: Cannot connect to the Docker daemon at unix:///var/run/docker.sock. Is the docker daemon running?
  in github.com/supabase/cli/internal/utils.AssertDockerIsRunning:26
  in github.com/supabase/cli/internal/start.Run:35

Unhelpfully, the AWS documentation mentions you might need to reboot an EC2 instance to fix Docker permission issues after installing:

Is there something really obvious I've missed here or any thoughts on how to work around this? I'm trying to keep the whole setup as simple as possible, but it's looking like I might need to get some other infrastructure involved to run the migrations (maybe GitHub Actions?).

[soedirgo]

@haydn not familiar with Vercel, but are you able to run Docker containers in a Vercel build step? Same thing for the local repro.

[soedirgo]

Just tested the local repro myself, I worked when I did:

docker run --rm -it -v /var/run/docker.sock:/var/run/docker.sock amazonlinux:2.0.20191217.0 sh

[haydn]

@soedirgo Thanks for the quick reply!

are you able to run Docker containers in a Vercel build step?

Nope, Vercel runs the Docker containers. All that is configurable are some commands to run within them:

[soedirgo]

Can you check if you can run e.g. docker run hello-world in the build step?

[haydn]

Sorry, I probably should've included that in my first comment.

Just running docker info yields the same error:

sh-4.2# docker info
Client:
 Context:    default
 Debug Mode: false

Server:
ERROR: Cannot connect to the Docker daemon at unix:///var/run/docker.sock. Is the docker daemon running?

[antonigiske]

I have the same issue. docker ps and all other commands. Docker Desktop is running also. I've tried to restart both computer and docker multiple times to no avail. Any tips are welcome.

System information

OS: Mac 12.6
Version of Node.js: v16.13.0
Supabase CLI: 1.11.0
Docker: 20.10.20, build 9fdeb9c

[antonigiske]

This was using latest Docker Desktop. After reading the release notes I noticed this on 4.13.0:

By default Docker will not create the /var/run/docker.sock symlink on the host and use the docker-desktop CLI context instead.

docker/for-mac#6529

It worked for me after downgrading.

[cravelight]

I just went ahead and created the symbolic link and it worked for me. I'm upgrading to a new machine next week anyway, so this one will be wiped. :)

ln -s /users/me/.docker/run/docker.sock /var/run/docker.sock

I had to sudo it.