Installing Docker and Docker Compose on the Raspberry Pi in 5 Simple Steps

Publish Date: Oct 12 '19

You know what Docker is. You know what a Raspberry Pi is. Let me make sure they hit it off together. 😎🤝🏽

This is probably one of the quickest and easiest ways to get Docker and Docker Compose running on the Raspberry Pi.
(Tested with Raspberry Pi B+ Rev 1.2 and Raspberry Pi 4)

After searching the Inter-Webs for hours and having several things not work for me, I decided something needed to be done about it.

Steps

1. Install Docker

curl -sSL https://get.docker.com | sh

2. Add permission to Pi User to run Docker Commands

sudo usermod -aG docker pi

Reboot here or run the next commands with a sudo

3. Test Docker installation

docker run hello-world

4. IMPORTANT! Install proper dependencies

sudo apt-get install -y libffi-dev libssl-dev

sudo apt-get install -y python3 python3-pip

sudo apt-get remove python-configparser

5. Install Docker Compose

sudo pip3 -v install docker-compose

Boom! 🔥 It's done!

Important Notice about Docker on the Raspberry Pi

Raspberry Pis use the ARM architecture, and as a result, won't be compatible with all containers out of the box. Images will need to be built from an ARM base image. But, most of these images can easily be found on Docker Hub

Comments 67 total

Andy RaddatzNov 8, 2019

Thanks for this, but I also had to install libssl-dev before the final sudo pip install docker-compose worked
- Rohan SawantNov 9, 2019
  
  I'll update the post to include this as well! Thanks! 👍🏽
  - Rohan SawantNov 9, 2019
    
    Boom! It's done. Anything more? 😇
Andrés GutiérrezNov 11, 2019

Thanks for the post
aaronNov 15, 2019

Thanks,
also install python-dev / python3-dev
- Rohan SawantNov 15, 2019
  
  Ah, I had this already installed, so missed it. 😅
Brian ChristnerNov 18, 2019
It seems a problem with the docker python client. After running docker-compose for the first time. You get the error ImportError: No module named ssl_match_hostname on init

The fix is cp -r /usr/local/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/backports/ssl_match_hostname/ /usr/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/backports
- Rohan SawantNov 19, 2019
  
  Hmm, this is weird did you try to install it with Python 3?
  
  Python 2 support ends next year.
  
  Update, in the next few weeks, I'll rewrite this and try again on a fresh installation that should help me find the errors.
  - Brian ChristnerNov 19, 2019
    
    I was just using the standard installers as listed in your instructions (which are great BTW). Everything from first glance still uses Python2.
    - Rohan SawantNov 19, 2019
      
      Yeah, you are correct, I just re-read my own post and yep everything seems to be using Python 3 😅
      
      Please disregard my last comment.
      
      I'll update the post and fix the remaining issues soon, that should help with my confusion.
      
      Just out of curiosity how did you manage to fix the problem? By copying the dependency? I haven't seen this solution ever before.
      - Brian ChristnerNov 19, 2019
        
        This is specific to ARM Docker deployments. The Ubuntu deployments in the Cloud don't seem to have this issue.
        
        I found people having the similar issue after installing docker-compose - github.com/docker/docker-py/issues...
- dbrosyNov 21, 2019
  this might be a better option.
  
  sudo apt-get remove python-configparser
  
  After removing configparser docker-compose starts as expected.
  I removed after installing compose via pip but noted an error related to configparser at end of install so this might be better run after dependencies but before compose. This part I haven't tried
Rob van KampenNov 30, 2019

Hi Rohan,

after step 1 i got the message back: status = stable.
When i enter step 2 ... i got back: usermod: group 'docker' doesnt exist

Please can you help me?
- Nazareno DeFrancescoDec 3, 2019
  
  This helped me solving this problem: raspberrypi.org/forums/viewtopic.p...
- Rohan SawantDec 3, 2019
  
  Hey Rob,
  
  That is super weird. I just tried this with a fresh installation and I did not have any issues.
  
  Does rebooting after installing docker help?
Erik NeffNov 30, 2019

Thx for this post, Rohan! One possible thing to add - when I ran the command: sudo pip install docker-compose on my Raspberry Pi 4 running Ubuntu 19.10, I got the error:

ERROR: Cannot uninstall 'PyYAML'. It is a distutils installed project and thus we cannot accurately determine which files belong to it which would lead to only a partial uninstall.

After reading this thread - stackoverflow.com/questions/499115... - I was able to install docker-compose by adding the ignore-installed flag like this:

sudo pip install docker-compose --ignore-installed PyYAML

Note that during the install, I did see these 2 errors:
ERROR: launchpadlib 1.10.7 requires testresources, which is not installed.
ERROR: docker-compose 1.25.0 has requirement PyYAML<5,>=3.10, but you'll have pyyaml 5.1.2 which is incompatible.

but that didn't stop docker-compose from installing successfully, and now I have:

ubuntu@ubuntu:~$ docker-compose --version
docker-compose version 1.25.0, build b42d419

and I just manually ran sudo pip install testresources after. Hope this helps!
- Rohan SawantDec 3, 2019
  
  Oh, on Ubuntu 19?
  
  I had not thought it would work with that. Cool that you manage to get it working!
Rohan SawantDec 3, 2019

I just tested everything on a fresh Raspbian Buster build on a Raspberry Pi 3 B+ and it indeed needed a few changes.

sudo apt-get remove python-configparser

Thanks to @dbrosy and @vegasbrianc for pointing it out.
Andreas HeilDec 27, 2019

Thanks for this hint! I literally tried each and every approach I found. Installing the dependencies fixed my issue with docker-compose 1.25 on Raspberry Pi 4 and Ubuntu Server on it!
Meir GabayJan 3, 2020

Tested on

Model: Raspberry Pi 4 Model B 4GBRAM
MicroSD: Sandisk 32GB
OS: Raspbian Buster with desktop
Flashed OS App: Balena Etcher

Thank you Rohan
Alkin TezuysalJan 6, 2020

My docker-compose step fails as follows;
Exception: Version mismatch: this is the 'cffi' package version 1.13.2, located in '/tmp/pip-build-mJ6FCD/pynacl/cffi-1.13.2-py2.7-linux-armv7l.egg/cffi/api.pyc'. When we import the top-level '_cffi_backend' extension module, we get version 1.9.1, located in '/usr/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/_cffi_backend.arm-linux-gnueabihf.so'. The two versions should be equal; check your installation.

Any help appreciated.
- Alkin TezuysalJan 6, 2020
  
  sudo pip3 install cffi==1.13.2 solved but there are other dependencies.
fred-c1Jan 16, 2020

Thanks.
Tested today.
Raspberry pi 3B+ with Raspbian Buster Lite

I had to switch to python3/pip3 to install docker compose.
The message just before the error was:
setuptools requires Python '>=3.5' but the running Python is 2.7.16

Solution:
1 = make python3 the default python => search google
2 = sudo apt-get install -y python3-pip "3" !!!
3 = sudo pip3 install docker-compose "3" !!!
- Marcel Zuidwijk Jan 19, 2020
  
  Yep, got this error too and that indeed was the solution. The strange part is that it did worked, till about one or two weeks ago. Now I use this:
  
  $ curl -sSL get.docker.com | sh
  $ sudo usermod -aG docker pi
  $ sudo apt-get install libffi-dev libssl-dev
  $ sudo apt-get install -y python3 python3-pip
  $ sudo apt-get remove python-configparser (apparently this isn't installed by using my commands on a clean install)
  $ sudo pip3 install docker-compose
  - Rohan SawantMar 13, 2020
    
    Updated the post to reflect this. Thanks!
svanzonJan 18, 2020
Hi, thanks for you post.

I'm starting to work with Docker and Docker-compose but can't install the docker-compose.

My configuration is:
- RaspberryPi 3+
- Raspbian Full Stretch and Buster (tried both with a clean install)
The hello-world docker runs without errors. So docker is installed.

But with the last command "sudo pip install docker-compose" There is an error end I don't know how too solve it. Looked around at the internet and trying Stretch and Buster version of Raspbian. Can you help me.
setuptools requires Python '>=3.5' but the running Python is 2.7.16 Command "/usr/bin/python -m pip install --ignore-installed --no-user --prefix /tmp/pip-build-env-1XaNDC --no-warn-script-location --no-binary :none: --only-binary :none: -i https://pypi.org/simple --extra-index-url https://www.piwheels.org/simple -- setuptools>=40.8.0 wheel "cffi>=1.1; python_implementation != 'PyPy'"" failed with error code 1 in None
Thordur ThordarsonFeb 1, 2020

Finally a solution that works for me after looking everywhere. Thank you, sir!
Rick BrobergFeb 25, 2020

If you amend step 2 to include

newgrp docker

then you don't need to reboot or use 'sudo docker' while you're in that shell.

Also, if you amend step 4 to include '-y' in your 'apt-get install' lines it is more friendly to copy/paste. Everybody is going to answer 'y to the installation question anyway.
Ben MitchinsonMar 2, 2020

Worked on first try as of March 2020 Rasp Buster Lite, thank you!

Also, the build step for bdist_wheel to run setup.py takes a pi 3 b+ like 12 minutes, so know that it's not broken if that's taking a while. CPU gets pretty hot, recommend rebooting and letting it cool for a while.
Hans BakkerMar 19, 2020

Out of curiosity, why did you choose to install from scratch, rather than using a Raspberry Pi image from Hypriot?
What are the pros / cons?
What is more reliable / maintainable?

You can read something about Hyrpiot OS on blog.hypriot.com/getting-started-w...
- Rohan SawantMar 20, 2020
  
  Huh? Honestly. I instinctively googled "how to install docker on the Raspberry Pi" and most of the other guides mentioned some iteration of the steps in this article but many of them didn't work.
  So, when I thought of creating a simple guide that actually worked, those were the steps that I chose to follow.
  
  But, if you know you want to run Docker right from the beginning, maybe Hyrpiot is a better option. :) I already had other projects running on the Pi and I was too lazy to reflash.
tanakornpApr 6, 2020

Thx for your article.
I wasted a full day try to get docker-compose up and running on my Pi4 while it took me only few minutes to get it works on Ubuntu VM.
In Ubuntu VM, "apt-get install docker-compose" did the job but some how for Pi it did not :\
BobbyApr 6, 2020

Great tutorial!

I actually have a short video on how to do that as well:

youtube.com/watch?v=zvs-7GRKN38
muyangren1880Apr 7, 2020

Hi , I'm shepherd ,
I used the "2019-09-26-raspbian-buster-full.img" raspberry pie image(3B+).When I used this image last year, I could install docker normally.Today, I reinstalled the system and encountered a problem while installing docker.
First:
1.sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get upgrade
No problem
2.curl -fsSL get.docker.com -o get-docker.sh
No problem
3.sudo sh get-docker.sh
error:Essential packages were removed and -y was used without --allow-remove-essential.
I've updated Python to 3.6;
The problem has always been. I don't know what happened
I hope you can help me.
- Rohan SawantApr 7, 2020
  
  Hmm, so this is what I can do. This weekend, I'll try the Docker installation on a fresh newest version of Raspbian and see if it's still working out of the box.
  
  That should help you 🤔
Saumyadip BiswasMay 7, 2020
curl -sSL get.docker.com | sh , This curl will not work with ubuntu 20.04 server running on pi
$ sudo apt update && sudo apt upgrade -y
$ curl -sSL get.docker.com | sh
$ sudo usermod -aG docker pi
$ sudo apt install libffi-dev libssl-dev python3 python3-pip
- Rohan SawantMay 7, 2020
  Oh, I had tested everything with Raspbian.
  
  Btw, How is the Ubuntu support on the RPi? Is it worth moving to Ubuntu from Raspbian? 🤔
  - Saumyadip BiswasMay 7, 2020
    ubuntu.com/download/raspberry-pi
    this is ubuntu server version for RPi, yea definitely worth it more stable more support and I have attached some images also attached my pi server image with some text blurred.
Pavel BurgrMay 14, 2020
Hi, thanks for nice post. In case you want to get Raspi image with preinstalled docker in one step, check this out: device.farm. Beside the Linux image, you can also simply manage your docker over internet or access your container's services from internet.
- Rohan SawantMay 14, 2020
  Oh! Wow this is sooo good!!
klo2kMay 24, 2020
On Ubuntu 20.04 raspberrypi, this also works:
apt install --yes python3-paramiko pip3 install docker-compose
- Rohan SawantMay 25, 2020
  Ah, thanks! 👍🏽 🙂
TheDynomikeJun 23, 2020
This works on

PRETTY_NAME="Raspbian GNU/Linux 10 (buster)"
CameronJul 4, 2020
Thanks so much! Worked on Raspberry Pi 4
sudo apt-get -y install libffi-dev libssl-dev python3-dev python3 python3-pip sudo pip3 -v install docker-compose
After a fresh install, firmware and distro upgrade, docker-compose seemed to take quite a while to finish. Added the -v verbose flag to make sure the install wasn't stuck.
- Rohan SawantJul 5, 2020
  Ah, thanks, man! I am glad it worked!
Anup RamachandranJul 23, 2020
Getting this error after installing on Rpi. Any idea.

Cannot connect to the Docker daemon at unix:///var/run/docker.sock. Is the docker daemon running?
bertfwAug 10, 2020
sudo should never be used with pip. Please read the reasoning here:

github.com/pypa/pip/issues/5599
TeeSo di Carlo OldaniOct 27, 2020
tested on raspberry A+ with raspbian os lite aarch64 ... works truly fine ...
- Rohan SawantOct 29, 2020
  A+ too? Could not have expected that! Thanks for reading, mate!
Phil ChenOct 30, 2020
Tested on RetroPi 4, I was originally getting sub-process /usr/bin/dpkg returned an error code (1) right after installing docker using the curl -sSL https://get.docker.com | sh after a whole bunch of the google search, I landed. Just want to share the error I got was simply resolved by
1. continue to follow those 5 simple steps
2. skip docker run hello-world would give you error message about the access deny
3. restart your raspberry pi 4
4. come back and continue with the hello-world steps and the rest!
5. it simply just worked!
Thanks Rohan for this awesome guide!
- Rohan SawantNov 3, 2020
  Ah, thanks man. I'll add a note to restart the device if you see any errors. It's people like you who help keep this guide updated!!
LT "syreal" JonesDec 10, 2020
Very helpful, thank you!
William BellJan 3, 2021
Hi everyone,
I am trying to duplicate this on a set of PI 2B (v1.1) and a Pi 3B. I am completely new to Docker and thought this would be a good way to get started. I am setting up the Pi 3B as the masternode and 8 PI 2Bs as nodes for a docker swarm. I am running all nodes with the latest Raspian OS freshly installed on SD cards. I am running into an issue with the very first step.. it looks like there is an error in the source script, so am looking to see if this can be broken apart.. Any suggestions would be helpful.
- William BellJan 4, 2021
  Hi everyone,
  I managed to get things sort of sorted out:
  1) I ran 'sudo apt-get remove docker*' on all nodes.
  2) I then removed /etc/docker /var/lib/docker /etc/init.d/docker /run/docker on each node.
  3) I ran 'sudo apt-get clean' on all nodes
  4) rebooted all nodes
  
  Starting from scratch I downloaded the get-docker.sh and copied it to each node and ran the following:
  sudo sh get-docker.sh
  sudo usermod -aG docker pi
  sudo systemctl start docker.service
  sudo systemctl enable docker.service
  docker info
  docker run hello-world
  
  The next step was to run 'docker init swarm' on one of the nodes to create the manager node. This looks to have completed properly as I got 'swarm initialized....'
  
  At this point, the responsiveness of the node fell through the floor.. top shows CPU 98% idle but keystrokes etc are delayed by 30-40 seconds. I am thinking maybe memory?? but am not sure what the next step would be after this...
  - Birger LuechtJan 28, 2021
    Thanks for the outline of step by step commands. This worked for me also on RPI3
    - William BellFeb 2, 2021
      As an FYI.. the whole issue of the master node hanging went away when I switched from Raspberry Pi OS to Ubuntu 20 server.. I even managed to get kubernetes installed..
      What made this interesting was that the master is a Pi 3b with an ARM7 V4 while the rest are Pi 2B+ with ARM7 v5..
  - Robert BernsteinFeb 21, 2021
    Thank you, @william bell! That did the trick!
    - Robert BernsteinFeb 21, 2021
      I may have spoken to soon. It finished running sudo sh get-docker.sh, which it hadn't before, but it still fails to start Docker Application Container Engine.
      - William BellFeb 22, 2021
        I switched over to Ubuntu and not only did Docker install, I got Kubernetes installed and working as well.. I had to try a couple of minor things, but mostly missing packages
reedconsJan 5, 2021
Hi,
if you add

su - pi

after

sudo usermod -aG docker pi

you dont need reboot
Brian ScottMar 4, 2021
Make sure you scan any images coming from Docker Hub, Reports find that 49% of the images have critical vulnerabilities. Use something like Clair to scan first.
Laura SeidlerMar 10, 2021
On a Raspberry Pi 4, with Raspbian Lite, just running apt install docker-compose after installing docker worked just fine for me
AsureApr 19, 2021
thnk you
Mariusz KrezelNov 10, 2021
Great article, if anyone would like to automate installation process and get some container installed quickly, check out my script here:
greenfrognest.com/lmdsondocker.php
Mariusz KrezelNov 10, 2021
Great article, if anyone would like to automate installation process and deploy few container quickly, check out this method:
greenfrognest.com/lmdsondocker.php
swinsterDec 3, 2022
FWIW, I was trying to get docker running on a really old Pi v1 B+. The info regarding Docker Compose in this article is now out of date. Docker Compose v2 no longer used python, but the compose plugin installed directly as a package when running the main install script. So, there is no need to update python libraries or install using pip.

It does look like docker runs on this Pi, albeit it looked like it failed to start initially. Rebooting the Pi seems to allow the service to start.
Thomas ScheweFeb 5, 2023
Since April 26, 2022 the recommended way to use Docker Compose is the subcommand docker compose. The subcommand can be added with the plug-in docker-compose-plugin.

docker-compose is deprecated.

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Rohan Sawant @rohansawant