Question

How to fix docker: Got permission denied while trying to connect to the Docker daemon socket

Posted on August 12, 2019
Docker Linux Basics Ubuntu
Asked by bitmap

I’ve just installed docker but I have to run it with sudo every time. If I don’t add sudo I get the following error:

Got permission denied while trying to connect to the Docker daemon socket at unix:///var/run/docker.sock: Get http://%2Fvar%2Frun%2Fdocker.sock/v1.40/containers/json: dial unix /var/run/docker.sock: connect: permission denied

Is there a way around that? I want to be able to run docker without having to type my password each time…

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Bobby Iliev

Site Moderator

• August 12, 2019

Accepted Answer

Hello,

According to the official Docker docs here:

https://docs.docker.com/install/linux/linux-postinstall/#manage-docker-as-a-non-root-user

You need to do the following:

To create the docker group and add your user:

Create the docker group.

sudo groupadd docker

Add your user to the docker group.

sudo usermod -aG docker ${USER}

You would need to loog out and log back in so that your group membership is re-evaluated or type the following command:

su -s ${USER}

Verify that you can run docker commands without sudo.

docker run hello-world

This command downloads a test image and runs it in a container. When the container runs, it prints an informational message and exits.
If you initially ran Docker CLI commands using sudo before adding your user to the docker group, you may see the following error, which indicates that your ~/.docker/ directory was created with incorrect permissions due to the sudo commands.

WARNING: Error loading config file: /home/user/.docker/config.json -
stat /home/user/.docker/config.json: permission denied

To fix this problem, either remove the ~/.docker/ directory (it is recreated automatically, but any custom settings are lost), or change its ownership and permissions using the following commands:

sudo chown "$USER":"$USER" /home/"$USER"/.docker -R
sudo chmod g+rwx "$HOME/.docker" -R

Here’s also a quick video demo on how to do this:

Hope that this helps! Regards, Bobby

Brianlmerritt • November 19, 2019

The above is almost right, but opens up a security gap that let’s everyone get access to docker.sock

Instead of sudo chmod 666 /var/run/docker.sock which opens it to everyone, enter

sudo chown root:docker /var/run/docker.sock

That way root still has it’s connection with docker but anyone in the docker group gets access too.

Clay Herendeen • March 15, 2020

If you run into this:

ubuntu@ip-x-x-x-x:~$ docker login -u username -p password

WARNING! Using --password via the CLI is insecure. Use --password-stdin.
Error saving credentials: error storing credentials - err: exit status 1, out: `Cannot autolaunch D-Bus without X11 $DISPLAY`

Try this: sudo apt install gnupg2 pass

See this github answer for details: https://github.com/docker/cli/issues/1136#issuecomment-459649905