Category Archives: VirtualBox

Using Docker in Windows 10 without Windows Desktop with Docker Engine and without WSL

I added this article to my Docker Combat Guide book.

The change of license of Docker Desktop for Windows has been a low punch, a dirty one.

Many big companies use Windows as for the laptops and workstations, we like it or not.

You can setup a Linux development computer or Virtual Machine, you may argue, but things are not as easier.

Big companies have Software licenses assigned to corporation machines, so you may not use your Pycharm license in a Linux VM.

You may no use Docker Desktop either, if your company did not license it.

And finally you may need to have access to internal resources, like Artifactory, or Servers where access is granted via ACL, so only you, from your Development machine can access it. So you have to be able to run Docker locally.

After Docker introduced this changed of license I was using VirtualBox with NAT attached to the VPN Virtual Ethernet, and I port forwarded to be able to SSH, deploy, test, etc… from outside to my Linux VM, and it was working for a while, until with the last VirtualBox update and some Windows updates where pushed to my Windows box and my VirtualBox VMs stopped booting most of the times and having random problems.

I configured a new Linux VM in a Development Server, and I opened Docker API so my Pycharm’s workstation was able to deploy there and I was able to test. But the Dev Ip’s do not have access to the same Test Servers I need my Python Automation projects to reach (and quickly I used 50 GB of space), so I tried WSL. I like Pycharm I didn’t want to switch to VStudio Code because of their good Docker extensions, in any case I could not run my code locally with venv cause some of the packages where not available for Windows, so I needed Linux to run the Unit Testing and see the Code Coverage, run the code, etc…

I tried Hyper-V, tried with NAT External, but it was incompatible with my VPN.

Note: WSL can be used, but I wanted to use Docker Engine, not docker in WSL.

Installing Docker Command line binaries

The first thing I checked was the Docker downloads page.

I found the stand alone binary.

https://docs.docker.com/engine/install/binaries/#install-server-and-client-binaries-on-windows

In order to install it:

  1. Download the zip file from the page, in my case docker-20.10.12.zip
  2. Open PowerShell as Administrator
  3. Run: Expand-Archive C:\Users\carlesmateo\Downloads\docker-20.10.12.zip  -DestinationPath $Env:ProgramFiles\DockerCLI
  4. Run: cd $Env:ProgramFiles\DockerCLI\docker
  5. Run: .\dockerd.exe –register-service
  6. Run: Start-Service docker
  7. Check that Docker lists the running Containers (no errors) with: docker ps
  8. Check that the Service is running with: Get-Service docker
    You should expect something like:
Status Name DisplayName
------ ---- -----------
Running docker Docker Engine

Attempt to pull an Image with: docker pull ubuntu or docker pull php

If it works, you’re done, but most probably you will get it starting and get this error:

Error response from daemon: unsupported os linux

or this other error:

no matching manifest for windows/amd64 10.0.19042 in the manifest list entries

Depending on your system you may need to do certain things:

Turn Windows features on or off

I would make sure that are enabled:

  • Containers
  • Hyper-V
  • Virtual Machine Platform
  • Windows Hypervisor Platform
As you see WSL is not enabled

Press OK, and restart your computer.

Try Again to docker pull ubuntu

Enable Experimental Mode

Edit this file to enable experimental, you can run from the PowerShell:

notepad C:\ProgramData\Docker\config\daemon.json
Change experimental from false to: true

Save the file and restart the Service:

Restart-Service docker

Check if it works

Get-Service docker
Status   Name               DisplayName
------   ----               -----------
Running  docker             Docker Engine

Try if now it works.

Switch Daemon

If it is not working, try running:

cd "C:\Program Files\Docker\Docker\"
.\DockerCli.exe -SwitchDaemon

Give it two minutes and try to pull an image.

If it is still not working reboot, and try again:

cd "C:\Program Files\Docker\Docker\"
.\DockerCli.exe -SwitchDaemon

After it is working

I recommend you to add the new stand alone docker to the path, so you can call it from the terminal at any moment.

Edit the variable PATH of your user profile (not System wide)

I recommend you to have it on top after Python.

Solving problems when updating to GNS3 last version, running with VirtualBox

Last Updated: 2022-01-19 12:05 Irish Time

So here I explain how to solve a problem that was happening to a friend.

He uses GNS3 for the university, and after installing the latest version, which in this case is 2.2.29, it stopped working.

He had it configured to use the local Server and VirtualBox in Windows 10.

The first thing to check and to fix is the Ip address for Host Only.

If you use Linux or Mac, only certain Ip ranges can be used, or you’ll have to edit a config file inside /etc/vbox

So the first thing is to set an Ip Address in VirtualBox VM that will make you worry free.

So start VirtualBox VM directly, and when the VM boots, use the text menu application to Configure to a valid Ip from the range defined for Host Only.

You can check this in VirtualBox in File > Host Network Manager

In my initial test I picket this Ip for the VM:

192.168.56.100

But using 192.168.56.100 can bring problems as the default DHCP Server is defined with this Ip, so I switched to:

192.168.56.10

Press CTRL + X to save and exit.

The VM will reboot automatically. Wait until it has booted and ping 192.168.56.10 from the Command Prompt.

Now, open a Windows Command Prompt or a Linux/Mac Terminal in you computer and ping the Ip:

You should also be able to see the web interface going to:

http://192.168.56.10

If it works then power off the VM, as we will start it automatically when running GNS3 main program (not from VirtualBox).

Now launch GNS3 program. Wait 30 seconds until it initializes and go to Edit > Preferences

Make sure you have the configuration like this:

Pay special attention to the Port for the GNS3 VM.

It seems like the main problem of my friend was that he was using a previous version, and he updated, and the settings from the previous version were kept. In his previous version he had configured the port 3080, but the new GNS 3 Server version 2.2.29 in the VM was using port 80, as you saw in my previous screenshots. So GNS3 was unable to connect to the VM.

After fixing this, restart GNS3, stop the VM if was not automatically stopped, and start GNS3 again.

After one minute approx connecting, you’ll see it working fine.

Cloning a Windows Application running in Wine

I’ve some very old Windows Applications running in Wine in my Linux workstations.

It’s Software I bought years ago and that is not available anymore.

Keeping and migrating or cloning to another Linux Workstation or Virtual machine is really easy.

I share the steps with you.

You just have to copy the contents from your /home/username/.wine folder.

Then, in the new workstation install wine. For Ubuntu this is:

sudo apt update && sudo apt install wine

Run winecfg so basic links and structures are created.

Then simply copy the .wine folder backup to your new machine /home/username/

Your programs will be in /home/username/.wine/drive_c_/Program Files/ or /home/username/.wine/drive_c_/Program Files (x86)/

If you want you can just copy your programs folder.

Remember that to cd to a directory with spaces you have to use “

For example:

$ pwd
/home/carles/.wine/drive_c
$ cd "Program Files"
$ pwd
/home/carles/.wine/drive_c/Program Files

You can also use \ (slash space) to escape space.

Then start your favorite program with:

wine yourprogram.exe

If that fails is very probably that creating a new configuration, for a new user, will make things right.

Update 2022-01-05: Take in count that you will be copying the Windows registry when doing this. I use this trick to clone applications that are no longer downloadable from the Internet. I clone wine to dedicated Virtual Machines. You may need different Virtual Machines for different programs if windows registry is different for them.