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windowsdockervirtualizationwindows-subsystem-for-linuxdocker-desktop

Why docker desktop is unable to start docker-backend?

Problem:

I started my system as usual but my docker-desktop doesn't work, WSL doesn't respond to commands and there is a process called "Vmmem" using 25% of my memory. I have tried a bunch of thing but nothing seems to work.

System Attributes:

  • Windows 10 Pro (10.0.19045.2486)
  • docker: 4.15
  • WSL: 1.0.3.0

More context:

Recently I was having trouble with my docker set up. I have one particular container that was "crashing" the docker. It was not throwing any exception but after some event (that I couldn't find out) all the other container where unreachable any attempt to stop/start another container would result on "Error: 500 failed to respond...". When this happens I usually just restart the system and everything works fine, but today it wasn't the case. I restarted and I noticed that I had the "Vmmem" process already running at 25% (it usually just reaches this point at the end of the day), the docker desktop could not start the docker backend and when I tried running wsl -l -v I got no response. I can use some docker commands like docker -v but the docker compose up doesn't work at all.

What I've tried:

  • restart the system again (nothing changed, still starting with 25% mem usage)
  • deactivating Hyper-V (nothing happened)
  • stop/start docker service using net start/stop <service> (it gives a response but didn't solve the problem)
  • Uninstall docker-desktop (it crashes before even starting the uninstall process)
  • Terminate WSL wsl -t Ubuntu (got no response from wsl)
  • Overwrite installation with Docker 4.16 (it gets stuck on "Preparing for update... / Stopping VM and preparing for update")
  • Forcefully kill the "Vmmem" (I've got Access denied error)

Edit 1:

I managed to finally install the Docker desktop 4.16 but the problem continues, system starts with 25% Vmmem memory usage and docker desktop is not able to initiate backend. enter image description here

Solution

  • Steps that I did to be able to stop "Vmmem" process and install docker desktop again:

    • disable Hyper-V
    • disable virtualization (BIOS)
    • restart system

    to this point the "Vmmem" problem was gone

    • uninstall docker desktop
    • rm all wsl instances
    • enable Hyper-V
    • enable hypervisorlaunchtype
    • restart system
    • enable virtualization (BIOS)
    • install wsl Ubuntu instance
    • install Docker Desktop

    Maybe some steps listed here are redundant but that is what I did. hope it helps if other people is passing through the same problem