Install Docker Desktop on Debian

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• Prerequisites
• Install Docker Desktop
• Launch Docker Desktop
• Upgrade Docker Desktop
• Next steps

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Docker Desktop terms

Commercial use of Docker Desktop in larger enterprises (more than 250 employees OR more than $10 million USD in annual revenue) requires a paid subscription.

This page contains information on how to install, launch, and upgrade Docker Desktop on a Debian distribution.

Prerequisites

To install Docker Desktop successfully, you must:

• Meet the general system requirements.

• Have a 64-bit version of Debian 12.

• For a Gnome Desktop environment, you must also install AppIndicator and KStatusNotifierItem Gnome extensions.

• If you're not using GNOME, you must install gnome-terminal to enable terminal access from Docker Desktop:

  $ sudo apt install gnome-terminal
  

Install Docker Desktop

Recommended approach to install Docker Desktop on Debian:

1. Set up Docker's apt repository. See step one of Install using the apt repository.

2. Download the latest DEB package. For checksums, see the Release notes.

3. Install the package using apt:

$ sudo apt-get update
$ sudo apt-get install ./docker-desktop-amd64.deb

[!NOTE]

At the end of the installation process, apt displays an error due to installing a downloaded package. You can ignore this error message.

N: Download is performed unsandboxed as root, as file '/home/user/Downloads/docker-desktop.deb' couldn't be accessed by user '_apt'. - pkgAcquire::Run (13: Permission denied)

By default, Docker Desktop is installed at /opt/docker-desktop.

The DEB package includes a post-install script that completes additional setup steps automatically.

The post-install script:

• Sets the capability on the Docker Desktop binary to map privileged ports and set resource limits.
• Adds a DNS name for Kubernetes to /etc/hosts.
• Creates a symlink from /usr/local/bin/com.docker.cli to /usr/bin/docker. This is because the classic Docker CLI is installed at /usr/bin/docker. The Docker Desktop installer also installs a Docker CLI binary that includes cloud-integration capabilities and is essentially a wrapper for the Compose CLI, at/usr/local/bin/com.docker.cli. The symlink ensures that the wrapper can access the classic Docker CLI.

Launch Docker Desktop

{{% include "desktop-linux-launch.md" %}}

Upgrade Docker Desktop

Once a new version for Docker Desktop is released, the Docker UI shows a notification. You need to download the new package each time you want to upgrade Docker Desktop and run:

$ sudo apt-get install ./docker-desktop-amd64.deb

Next steps

• Explore Docker's subscriptions to see what Docker can offer you.
• Take a look at Get started with Docker to learn how to build an image and run it as a containerized application.
• Explore Docker Desktop and all its features.
• Troubleshooting describes common problems, workarounds, how to run and submit diagnostics, and submit issues.
• FAQs provide answers to frequently asked questions.
• Release notes lists component updates, new features, and improvements associated with Docker Desktop releases.
• Back up and restore data provides instructions on backing up and restoring data related to Docker.