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#1 2025-07-25 10:40:02

ignuthat
Member
Registered: 2022-03-23
Posts: 22

Can't run docker commands because podman.sock isn't running??

I appear to have gotten into a bizarre situation.

At one point, I installed, podman-docker, distrobox, toolbox, etc. But I decided that it was too much trouble, so I uninstalled them and went back to Docker and Docker compose. This was many months ago.

I appear to have been using Docker this entire time via some weird podman.socket... it worked fine. I never noticed there was an issue.

However, today, after performing an upgrade, it is no longer working. Actually I noticed signs it was not working before, but did not know what to do.

When I run a docker command, it tells me it can't connect to podman.sock.

$ docker info
Client:
 Version:    28.3.2
 Context:    default
 Debug Mode: false
 Plugins:
  buildx: Docker Buildx (Docker Inc.)
    Version:  0.26.1
    Path:     /usr/lib/docker/cli-plugins/docker-buildx
  compose: Docker Compose (Docker Inc.)
    Version:  2.39.1
    Path:     /usr/lib/docker/cli-plugins/docker-compose

Server:
Cannot connect to the Docker daemon at unix:///run/user/1000/podman/podman.sock. Is the docker daemon running?
$ docker ps
Cannot connect to the Docker daemon at unix:///run/user/1000/podman/podman.sock. Is the docker daemon running?

I still sort-of have a podman.socket systemd unit:

$ systemctl status --user podman.socket
● podman.socket
     Loaded: not-found (Reason: Unit podman.socket not found.)
     Active: active (listening) since Fri 2025-07-25 20:18:42 AEST; 14min ago
 Invocation: 1ee37768942045d88a1684d0d107f470
     CGroup: /user.slice/user-1000.slice/user@1000.service/app.slice/podman.socket

Jul 25 20:18:42 archalpha systemd[1645]: Listening on Podman API Socket.
Jul 25 20:19:46 archalpha systemd[1645]: podman.socket: Socket unit configuration has changed while unit has been running, no open socket file descriptor left. The socket unit is not functional until restarted.
Jul 25 20:28:18 archalpha systemd[1645]: podman.socket: Socket unit configuration has changed while unit has been running, no open socket file descriptor left. The socket unit is not functional until restarted.
Jul 25 20:28:39 archalpha systemd[1645]: podman.socket: Socket unit configuration has changed while unit has been running, no open socket file descriptor left. The socket unit is not functional until restarted.
Jul 25 20:28:53 archalpha systemd[1645]: podman.socket: Socket unit configuration has changed while unit has been running, no open socket file descriptor left. The socket unit is not functional until restarted.

When I try to run podman, it gives me a slightly strange error:

$ podman
bash: /usr/bin/podman: No such file or directory

This is weird. It gives me the precise file path for the binary despite not having podman installed at all. Normally the output would be like this if the binary didn't exist:

$ dockerr
bash: dockerr: command not found

podman-docker had the behavior of intercepting the docker and docker compose commands and relaying them to the podman socket. Perhaps something has gone wrong when uninstalling it.

I have attempted to completely purge configuration files by running:

# pacman -Rns podman--docker

But this did not work.

I am not sure what else to do. I can't run Docker anymore despite the service working fine:

$ systemctl status docker
● docker.service - Docker Application Container Engine
     Loaded: loaded (/usr/lib/systemd/system/docker.service; enabled; preset: disabled)
     Active: active (running) since Fri 2025-07-25 20:29:25 AEST; 9min ago
 Invocation: 7124432dc81a4b0b90a076131e410af0
TriggeredBy: ● docker.socket
       Docs: https://docs.docker.com
   Main PID: 6480 (dockerd)
      Tasks: 18
     Memory: 26.1M (peak: 33.8M)
        CPU: 307ms
     CGroup: /system.slice/docker.service
             └─6480 /usr/bin/dockerd -H fd:// --containerd=/run/containerd/containerd.sock

Jul 25 20:29:24 archalpha dockerd[6480]: time="2025-07-25T20:29:24.211303579+10:00" level=info msg="Loading containers: start."
Jul 25 20:29:24 archalpha dockerd[6480]: time="2025-07-25T20:29:24.934468693+10:00" level=warning msg="Error (Unable to complete atomic operation, key modified) deleting object [endpoint_count 59432ae78fc88b52473105a13e7e387e879c05be4175c>
Jul 25 20:29:24 archalpha dockerd[6480]: time="2025-07-25T20:29:24.966568252+10:00" level=info msg="Loading containers: done."
Jul 25 20:29:24 archalpha dockerd[6480]: time="2025-07-25T20:29:24.977206248+10:00" level=warning msg="Not using native diff for overlay2, this may cause degraded performance for building images: kernel has CONFIG_OVERLAY_FS_REDIRECT_DIR >
Jul 25 20:29:24 archalpha dockerd[6480]: time="2025-07-25T20:29:24.977263298+10:00" level=info msg="Docker daemon" commit=e77ff99ede containerd-snapshotter=false storage-driver=overlay2 version=28.3.2
Jul 25 20:29:24 archalpha dockerd[6480]: time="2025-07-25T20:29:24.977289268+10:00" level=info msg="Initializing buildkit"
Jul 25 20:29:25 archalpha dockerd[6480]: time="2025-07-25T20:29:25.018653090+10:00" level=info msg="Completed buildkit initialization"
Jul 25 20:29:25 archalpha dockerd[6480]: time="2025-07-25T20:29:25.022844316+10:00" level=info msg="Daemon has completed initialization"
Jul 25 20:29:25 archalpha dockerd[6480]: time="2025-07-25T20:29:25.022888866+10:00" level=info msg="API listen on /run/docker.sock"
Jul 25 20:29:25 archalpha systemd[1]: Started Docker Application Container Engine.

Any suggestions..?

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#2 2025-07-25 12:29:20

ignuthat
Member
Registered: 2022-03-23
Posts: 22

Re: Can't run docker commands because podman.sock isn't running??

It appears that, like most things, this is my own fault.

I exported DOCKER_HOST as suggested here in my ~/.bashrc and forgot to remove it: https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Podman#Docker_Compose

After removing it and rebooting, all my docker commands work. I also stopped the --user podman.socket unit. It still seems like there's some inconsistent state going on as my console log when building containers is no longer paging, but it doesn't appear to be affecting anything aside from this...

I don't consider this thread solved because of this.

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#3 2025-07-25 13:59:33

twelveeighty
Member
Registered: 2011-09-04
Posts: 1,420

Re: Can't run docker commands because podman.sock isn't running??

Since your original problem is fixed by removing DOCKER_HOST, please mark this thread as solved and then start another thread with the paging issue, since that issue and the original one are completely different.

In the new thread, please add actual commands issued and output from a build phase.

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