How to Install Docker Desktop on Ubuntu

Two weeks ag before I went on vacation, I spent some time on a Docker tutorial. It described some interesting scenarios where Dockers can be used for software development and hosting services. I was intrigued. So I did some research and installed Docker Desktop on my Ubuntu desktop. This is the first step for me to try Docker. This is the first post of a series posts on Docker.

The very first thing I did is research how to install Docker Desktop on my Ubuntu/Linux Mint desktop. The installation steps are easy. However, the technical document from the official Docker website is not straight forward. It took a little bit of time for me to get the steps correct. First, I need to run the following command to install all the basic command for Docker:

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install ca-certificates curl
sudo install -m 0755 -d /etc/apt/keyrings
sudo curl -fsSL https://download.docker.com/linux/ubuntu/gpg -o /etc/apt/keyrings/docker.asc
sudo chmod a+r /etc/apt/keyrings/docker.asc

These steps are for adding the security certificate from Docker and added to my Linux security key ring. The next command will add the official Docker software repo to my Linux repo list:

echo \
  "deb [arch=$(dpkg --print-architecture) signed-by=/etc/apt/keyrings/docker.asc] https://download.docker.com/linux/ubuntu \
  $(. /etc/os-release && echo "$VERSION_CODENAME") stable" | \
  sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/docker.list > /dev/null

After all these are done successfully, I can use the following commands and install all the Docker components, every except Docker Desktop:

sudo apt-get install docker-ce docker-ce-cli containerd.io docker-buildx-plugin docker-compose-plugin

After this, I can install the Docker Desktop application. It is not straight forward. The Docker Desktop is not in the software repo. So I cannot use the command apt install to install it. At first, I have to install something called gnome-terminal with the following command:

sudo apt install gnome-terminal

After this, I need to find the deb file for Docker Desktop. And this is the URL to the page:

https://docs.docker.com/desktop/release-notes/

One of the links is to the latest version for Linux: docker-desktop-4.31.0-amd64.deb. Click it and I can download the whole file to my PC. After downloading it, I use the Terminal application and CD into the folder where I stored this deb file, and run the following commands:

sudo apt-get update

sudo apt-get install ./docker-desktop-4.31.0-amd64.deb

The first command will pull the latest updates from all the software repository. The second one will install Docker Desktop and all the dependencies it required.

Once the installation completes, Docker Desktop is ready for use.