How to Install Docker on Ubuntu (20.04, 22.04 & 24.04) – Step-by-Step Guide

Docker is a platform that allows you to automate the deployment, scaling, and management of applications inside lightweight containers. To install Docker on Ubuntu, follow these steps:

Prerequisites

Before installing Docker, ensure you have a 64-bit version of one of these Ubuntu versions:

• Ubuntu Noble 24.04 (LTS)
• Ubuntu Jammy 22.04 (LTS)
• Ubuntu Focal 20.04 (LTS)

Additionally, uninstall any conflicting packages such as docker.io, docker-compose, docker-compose-v2, docker-doc, podman-docker, containerd, and runc.

for pkg in docker.io docker-doc docker-compose docker-compose-v2 podman-docker containerd runc; do sudo apt-get remove $pkg; done

Installation Methods

There are several ways to install Docker on Ubuntu:

Using the apt Repository

• Set up Docker’s apt repository:

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install ca-certificates curl
sudo install -m 0755 -d /etc/apt/keyrings
sudo curl -fsSL https://download.docker.com/linux/ubuntu/gpg -o /etc/apt/keyrings/docker.asc
sudo chmod a+r /etc/apt/keyrings/docker.asc
echo "deb [arch=$(dpkg --print-architecture) signed-by=/etc/apt/keyrings/docker.asc] https://download.docker.com/linux/ubuntu $(. /etc/os-release && echo "$VERSION_CODENAME") stable" | sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/docker.list > /dev/null
sudo apt-get update

Install Docker packages:

sudo apt-get install docker-ce docker-ce-cli containerd.io docker-buildx-plugin docker-compose-plugin

Verify the installation:

sudo docker run hello-world

Using a Convenience Script

Docker provides a convenience script for quick installation. This method is not recommended for production environments but is useful for development and testing.

• Download and run the script:

curl -fsSL https://get.docker.com -o get-docker.sh
sudo sh get-docker.sh

Manual Installation

If you cannot use Docker’s apt repository, you can download the .deb files and install them manually.

• Download the necessary .deb files from Docker’s website.

• Install the packages:

sudo dpkg -i ./containerd.io_<version>_<arch>.deb ./docker-ce_<version>_<arch>.deb ./docker-ce-cli_<version>_<arch>.deb ./docker-buildx-plugin_<version>_<arch>.deb ./docker-compose-plugin_<version>_<arch>.deb

Start Docker and verify the installation:

sudo service docker start
sudo docker run hello-world

Post-Installation Steps

To allow non-privileged users to run Docker commands, add your user to the docker group:

sudo usermod -aG docker $USER