Notes on Starting an x86_64 Docker Daemon on Apple Silicon Using QEMU with Lima

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Docker OrbStack lima

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I usually use OrbStack as my Docker Daemon, but since compatibility issues with x86_64 are likely to occur on Apple Silicon Macs, I will start an x86_64 Docker Daemon in a VM (QEMU) as an alternative when compatibility issues arise.

Install Lima.

brew install lima

Start the VM using the Docker template with Lima.

limactl start --name=build --arch=x86_64 --tty=false --mount-writable template://docker

Set the Docker context on the Mac.

docker context create lima-build --docker "host=unix:///Users/tmaki/.lima/build/sock/docker.sock"
docker context use lima-build

Check the Docker context on the Mac.

$ docker context ls
NAME           DESCRIPTION                               DOCKER ENDPOINT                                    ERROR
default        Current DOCKER_HOST based configuration   unix:///var/run/docker.sock                        
lima-build *                                             unix:///Users/tmaki/.lima/build/sock/docker.sock   
orbstack       OrbStack                                  unix:///Users/tmaki/.orbstack/run/docker.sock

Run docker run on the Mac.

docker run --rm hello-world

Log into the VM.

limactl shell build

Check the Docker context on the VM.

$ docker context list
NAME         DESCRIPTION                               DOCKER ENDPOINT                    ERROR
default      Current DOCKER_HOST based configuration   unix:///var/run/docker.sock        
rootless *   Rootless mode                             unix:///run/user/503/docker.sock

Bonus 1. Installation notes for kubectl.

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install -y apt-transport-https ca-certificates curl
curl -fsSL https://pkgs.k8s.io/core:/stable:/v1.30/deb/Release.key | sudo gpg --dearmor -o /etc/apt/keyrings/kubernetes-apt-keyring.gpg
sudo chmod 644 /etc/apt/keyrings/kubernetes-apt-keyring.gpg
echo 'deb [signed-by=/etc/apt/keyrings/kubernetes-apt-keyring.gpg] https://pkgs.k8s.io/core:/stable:/v1.30/deb/ /' | sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/kubernetes.list
sudo chmod 644 /etc/apt/sources.list.d/kubernetes.list
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install -y kubectl

Bonus 2. Installation notes for tanzu.

curl -fsSL https://packages.vmware.com/tools/keys/VMWARE-PACKAGING-GPG-RSA-KEY.pub | sudo gpg --dearmor -o /etc/apt/keyrings/tanzu-archive-keyring.gpg
echo "deb [signed-by=/etc/apt/keyrings/tanzu-archive-keyring.gpg] https://storage.googleapis.com/tanzu-cli-os-packages/apt tanzu-cli-jessie main" | sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/tanzu.list
sudo apt update
sudo apt install -y tanzu-cli