Where I work we are still on Windows 7 development machines which means we can’t use Docker for Windows - Windows 10 is required. Luckily there is Docker Toolbox, the “Legacy desktop solution” for systems that don’t meet the minimum requirements. Here a small Linux VM is spun up which will host Docker. I spent a couple days getting it set up and configuring it to work in my company. This post details the steps and workarounds I took.

Installing Docker Toolbox

The Docker Toolbox on Windows page provides the download link and installation instructions. The pre-requisites are:

• Your machine must have a 64-bit operating system running Windows 7 or higher
• Virtualization must be enabled on your machine (BIOS setting; I had to get my helpdesk to do this since my PC is not located anywhere near my desk)

Once installed, you fire up the Docker Quickstart Terminal.

Boom!

Running pre-create checks...
(default) No default Boot2Docker ISO found locally, downloading the latest release...
Error with pre-create check: "Get https://api.github.com/repos/boot2docker/boot2docker/releases/latest: dial tcp: lookup api.github.com: no such host"
Looks like something went wrong in step ´Checking if machine default exists´...

Getting the Boot2Docker ISO image

I think the issue is that the quickstart terminal doesn’t have access through the corporate firewall so is unable to locate the ISO. A forum post gives a workaround:

• Download the latest boot2docker image from https://github.com/boot2docker/boot2docker/releases (v18.01.0-ce for me)
• Save it to the Docker local cache in c:\user\USERNAME.docker\machine\cache

Success!

VM proxy settings

Next up, run the hello world sample:

$ docker run hello-world
Unable to find image 'hello-world:latest' locally
C:\Program Files\Docker Toolbox\docker.exe: Error response from daemon: Get https://registry-1.docker.io/v2/: dial tcp: lookup registry-1.docker.io on 10.0.2.3:53: no such host.
See 'C:\Program Files\Docker Toolbox\docker.exe run --help'.

Oh dear! It’s the proxy server again. But this time its the new boot2docker VM that can’t get through. Google to the rescue!

• https://stackoverflow.com/questions/24489265/docker-boot2docker-set-http-https-proxies-for-docker-on-os-x
• https://docs.docker.com/toolbox/faqs/troubleshoot/#configure-http-proxy-settings-on-docker-machines

I chose the option of editing the config within the VM, rather than supplying parameters. YMMV. What I did:

• docker-machine ssh to get a terminal session in the VM
• sudo vi /var/lib/boot2docker/profile to edit the profile settings with write access
• Add settings for HTTP_PROXY and HTTPS_PROXY: export HTTP_PROXY=user:password@your.proxy.name:8080
• sudo /etc/init.d/docker restart to restart the VM docker service and pick up the new settings
• exit to leave the VM terminal session

Try again:

$ docker run hello-world
Unable to find image 'hello-world:latest' locally
latest: Pulling from library/hello-world
C:\Program Files\Docker Toolbox\docker.exe: Get https://registry-1.docker.io/v2/library/hello-world/manifests/sha256:8072a54ebb3bc136150e2f2860f00a7bf45f13eeb917cca2430fcd0054c8e51b: net/http: TLS handshake timeout.
See 'C:\Program Files\Docker Toolbox\docker.exe run --help'.

Docker quickstart terminal environment variables

After much googling I came across the solution: the docker terminal didn’t have the correct environment variables set. See the Docker toolbox troubleshooting page for details. Reset them with $ eval $("C:\Program Files\Docker Toolbox\docker-machine.exe" env), then try again.

$ docker run hello-world
Unable to find image 'hello-world:latest' locally
latest: Pulling from library/hello-world
ca4f61b1923c: Pull complete
Digest: sha256:66ef312bbac49c39a89aa9bcc3cb4f3c9e7de3788c944158df3ee0176d32b751
Status: Downloaded newer image for hello-world:latest

Hello from Docker!
This message shows that your installation appears to be working correctly.

Bingo! We now have a working Docker toolbox!