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docker-docs/content/manuals/engine/install/ubuntu.md
Sebastiaan van Stijn be37c0192d engine/install: remove Ubuntu 25.04 ("plucky"), which is EOL
Ubuntu 25.04 ("plucky") reached EOL on January 15, 2026;
https://documentation.ubuntu.com/project/release-team/list-of-releases/#end-of-life

Signed-off-by: Sebastiaan van Stijn <github@gone.nl>
2026-02-04 12:27:13 +01:00

10 KiB

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description keywords title linkTitle weight toc_max aliases download-url-base
Jumpstart your client-side server applications with Docker Engine on Ubuntu. This guide details prerequisites and multiple methods to install Docker Engine on Ubuntu. docker install script, ubuntu docker server, ubuntu server docker, install docker engine ubuntu, install docker on ubuntu server, ubuntu 22.04 docker-ce, install docker engine on ubuntu, ubuntu install docker ce, ubuntu install docker engine Install Docker Engine on Ubuntu Ubuntu 10 4
/ee/docker-ee/ubuntu/
/engine/installation/linux/docker-ce/ubuntu/
/engine/installation/linux/docker-ee/ubuntu/
/engine/installation/linux/ubuntu/
/engine/installation/linux/ubuntulinux/
/engine/installation/ubuntulinux/
/install/linux/docker-ce/ubuntu/
/install/linux/docker-ee/ubuntu/
/install/linux/ubuntu/
/installation/ubuntulinux/
/linux/step_one/
https://download.docker.com/linux/ubuntu

To get started with Docker Engine on Ubuntu, make sure you meet the prerequisites, and then follow the installation steps.

Prerequisites

Firewall limitations

Warning

Before you install Docker, make sure you consider the following security implications and firewall incompatibilities.

  • If you use ufw or firewalld to manage firewall settings, be aware that when you expose container ports using Docker, these ports bypass your firewall rules. For more information, refer to Docker and ufw.
  • Docker is only compatible with iptables-nft and iptables-legacy. Firewall rules created with nft are not supported on a system with Docker installed. Make sure that any firewall rulesets you use are created with iptables or ip6tables, and that you add them to the DOCKER-USER chain, see Packet filtering and firewalls.

OS requirements

To install Docker Engine, you need the 64-bit version of one of these Ubuntu versions:

  • Ubuntu Questing 25.10
  • Ubuntu Noble 24.04 (LTS)
  • Ubuntu Jammy 22.04 (LTS)

Docker Engine for Ubuntu is compatible with x86_64 (or amd64), armhf, arm64, s390x, and ppc64le (ppc64el) architectures.

Note

Installation on Ubuntu derivative distributions, such as Linux Mint, is not officially supported (though it may work).

Uninstall old versions

Before you can install Docker Engine, you need to uninstall any conflicting packages.

Your Linux distribution may provide unofficial Docker packages, which may conflict with the official packages provided by Docker. You must uninstall these packages before you install the official version of Docker Engine.

The unofficial packages to uninstall are:

  • docker.io
  • docker-compose
  • docker-compose-v2
  • docker-doc
  • podman-docker

Moreover, Docker Engine depends on containerd and runc. Docker Engine bundles these dependencies as one bundle: containerd.io. If you have installed the containerd or runc previously, uninstall them to avoid conflicts with the versions bundled with Docker Engine.

Run the following command to uninstall all conflicting packages:

$ sudo apt remove $(dpkg --get-selections docker.io docker-compose docker-compose-v2 docker-doc podman-docker containerd runc | cut -f1)

apt might report that you have none of these packages installed.

Images, containers, volumes, and networks stored in /var/lib/docker/ aren't automatically removed when you uninstall Docker. If you want to start with a clean installation, and prefer to clean up any existing data, read the uninstall Docker Engine section.

Installation methods

You can install Docker Engine in different ways, depending on your needs:

{{% include "engine-license.md" %}}

Install using the apt repository

Before you install Docker Engine for the first time on a new host machine, you need to set up the Docker apt repository. Afterward, you can install and update Docker from the repository.

  1. Set up Docker's apt repository.

    # Add Docker's official GPG key:
    sudo apt update
    sudo apt install ca-certificates curl
    sudo install -m 0755 -d /etc/apt/keyrings
    sudo curl -fsSL {{% param "download-url-base" %}}/gpg -o /etc/apt/keyrings/docker.asc
    sudo chmod a+r /etc/apt/keyrings/docker.asc
    
    # Add the repository to Apt sources:
    sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/docker.sources <<EOF
    Types: deb
    URIs: {{% param "download-url-base" %}}
    Suites: $(. /etc/os-release && echo "${UBUNTU_CODENAME:-$VERSION_CODENAME}")
    Components: stable
    Signed-By: /etc/apt/keyrings/docker.asc
    EOF
    
    sudo apt update
    
  2. Install the Docker packages.

    {{< tabs >}} {{< tab name="Latest" >}}

    To install the latest version, run:

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

    {{< /tab >}} {{< tab name="Specific version" >}}

    To install a specific version of Docker Engine, start by listing the available versions in the repository:

    $ apt list --all-versions docker-ce
    
    docker-ce/noble 5:{{% param "docker_ce_version" %}}-1~ubuntu.24.04~noble <arch>
    docker-ce/noble 5:{{% param "docker_ce_version_prev" %}}-1~ubuntu.24.04~noble <arch>
    ...
    

    Select the desired version and install:

    $ VERSION_STRING=5:{{% param "docker_ce_version" %}}-1~ubuntu.24.04~noble
    $ sudo apt install docker-ce=$VERSION_STRING docker-ce-cli=$VERSION_STRING containerd.io docker-buildx-plugin docker-compose-plugin
    

    {{< /tab >}} {{< /tabs >}}

    Note

    The Docker service starts automatically after installation. To verify that Docker is running, use:

    $ sudo systemctl status docker
    

    Some systems may have this behavior disabled and will require a manual start:

    $ sudo systemctl start docker
    
  3. Verify that the installation is successful by running the hello-world image:

    $ sudo docker run hello-world
    

    This command downloads a test image and runs it in a container. When the container runs, it prints a confirmation message and exits.

You have now successfully installed and started Docker Engine.

{{% include "root-errors.md" %}}

Upgrade Docker Engine

To upgrade Docker Engine, follow step 2 of the installation instructions, choosing the new version you want to install.

Install from a package

If you can't use Docker's apt repository to install Docker Engine, you can download the deb file for your release and install it manually. You need to download a new file each time you want to upgrade Docker Engine.

  1. Go to [{{% param "download-url-base" %}}/dists/]({{% param "download-url-base" %}}/dists/).

  2. Select your Ubuntu version in the list.

  3. Go to pool/stable/ and select the applicable architecture (amd64, armhf, arm64, or s390x).

  4. Download the following deb files for the Docker Engine, CLI, containerd, and Docker Compose packages:

    • containerd.io_<version>_<arch>.deb
    • docker-ce_<version>_<arch>.deb
    • docker-ce-cli_<version>_<arch>.deb
    • docker-buildx-plugin_<version>_<arch>.deb
    • docker-compose-plugin_<version>_<arch>.deb
  5. Install the .deb packages. Update the paths in the following example to where you downloaded the Docker packages.

    $ sudo dpkg -i ./containerd.io_<version>_<arch>.deb \
      ./docker-ce_<version>_<arch>.deb \
      ./docker-ce-cli_<version>_<arch>.deb \
      ./docker-buildx-plugin_<version>_<arch>.deb \
      ./docker-compose-plugin_<version>_<arch>.deb
    

    Note

    The Docker service starts automatically after installation. To verify that Docker is running, use:

    $ sudo systemctl status docker
    

    Some systems may have this behavior disabled and will require a manual start:

    $ sudo systemctl start docker
    
  6. Verify that the installation is successful by running the hello-world image:

    $ sudo docker run hello-world
    

    This command downloads a test image and runs it in a container. When the container runs, it prints a confirmation message and exits.

You have now successfully installed and started Docker Engine.

{{% include "root-errors.md" %}}

Upgrade Docker Engine

To upgrade Docker Engine, download the newer package files and repeat the installation procedure, pointing to the new files.

{{% include "install-script.md" %}}

Uninstall Docker Engine

  1. Uninstall the Docker Engine, CLI, containerd, and Docker Compose packages:

    $ sudo apt purge docker-ce docker-ce-cli containerd.io docker-buildx-plugin docker-compose-plugin docker-ce-rootless-extras
    
  2. Images, containers, volumes, or custom configuration files on your host aren't automatically removed. To delete all images, containers, and volumes:

    $ sudo rm -rf /var/lib/docker
    $ sudo rm -rf /var/lib/containerd
    
  3. Remove source list and keyrings

    $ sudo rm /etc/apt/sources.list.d/docker.sources
    $ sudo rm /etc/apt/keyrings/docker.asc
    

You have to delete any edited configuration files manually.

Next steps