I’ve been trying to get Minikube running on my Ubuntu 20.04 setup in WSL, but I’m hitting a bit of a wall here. Everything seems to be good in theory—I’ve got Docker installed, WSL set up properly, and all the prerequisites lined up. But when I try to start Minikube, it just gets stuck at the “restarting Docker container” stage. It’s so frustrating!
I’ve waited for ages, and it just stays there in limbo. I’ve tried the usual remedies, like restarting my WSL instance and even rebooting my machine entirely, but the problem persists. I looked through a bunch of forums and GitHub issues, and some folks seemed to encounter similar hiccups, but I couldn’t find a concrete solution that worked for me.
Has anyone else gone through this? I feel like I’m missing something obvious, but I’m pretty new to this whole Minikube experience, and all these error messages and logs are a bit overwhelming. I tried switching the Docker driver to none and back to Docker, but that didn’t help much either.
I also read about using the `–vm-driver` flag to specify different drivers, like virtual box or Hyper-V, but I’m not even sure how to install them in WSL. Is it necessary, or is there something straightforward I can tweak?
If you’ve faced this issue, can you share how you managed to get past it? Are there any specific commands or settings you adjusted? I’m also curious if there are workarounds that might not involve diving into complex setups or configurations.
At this point, I just want a working Minikube environment so I can start experimenting with Kubernetes. Any tips or advice would be greatly appreciated! Thanks in advance for your help!
It sounds like you’ve done a lot to troubleshoot your Minikube setup on WSL, but there are a few additional steps you can take to potentially resolve the issue with it getting stuck at “restarting Docker container.” First, ensure that your WSL version is set to version 2, as Minikube performs better in WSL 2 due to its improvements with system calls and support for Docker. You can check this by running
wsl --list --verbose
and ensuring that your default distro is set to version 2. If you haven’t already, try deleting the existing Minikube cluster usingminikube delete
and then runminikube start --driver=docker
to initiate it again. Sometimes stale cluster states can cause problems.If switching drivers doesn’t help, you can consider running Minikube using the
--timeout
flag to allow more time for the Docker container to start. Additionally, ensure Docker Desktop is running correctly and that WSL integration is enabled for your distributions within Docker settings. If you also want to experiment with alternative drivers like VirtualBox, you’ll need to install it within your WSL environment and might have to configure your system to use it properly — this could be more involved due to graphical interface requirements under WSL. In case you still run into issues, examining Docker logs withdocker logs
can provide more insight into what’s failing. Lastly, consider usingminikube start --vm-driver=none
when running on WSL, which can often simplify interactions by avoiding Docker containers altogether. Good luck!Stuck at “Restarting Docker Container” in Minikube?
Sounds super frustrating! You’re definitely not alone in this. There are folks who have hit the same wall while trying to get Minikube up and running on WSL. Here are a few tips that might help you out:
docker --version
to check.minikube delete
and then start it fresh withminikube start
.minikube start --memory=4096 --cpus=2
. Sometimes it just needs a little more room to breathe!minikube start --driver=kvm2
.minikube start --vm-driver=docker
for Docker, but it may need a little kick to get going.minikube logs
. It can help you pinpoint the issue.Keep in mind that WSL can be a little finicky. If it still doesn’t work, consider running Minikube directly in a full Ubuntu setup instead of WSL, if that’s an option for you.
Hopefully, something in here helps you get your Minikube up and running! Good luck!