Unable to install Docker on Ubuntu after unscheduled shutdown

Question

This is my first question, so I hope I'm asking the right way. I am running docker inside a VirtualBox VM (guest OS is Ubuntu 18.04)

bink@bink-VirtualBox:~$ lsb_release -a
No LSB modules are available.
Distributor ID: Ubuntu
Description:    Ubuntu 18.04.4 LTS
Release:    18.04
Codename:   bionic

The other day I had an "unscheduled reboot" (i.e. power failure) which must have corrupted some files, since the docker service will no longer start. I tried repairing and fixing docker, and ultimately ended up uninstalling docker according to the instructions at How to completely uninstall docker.

After that, I reinstalled docker from scratch, using the standard instructions at https://docs.docker.com/engine/install/ubuntu/.

On the final step of the installation, I receive a few errors, see here:

bink@bink-VirtualBox:/var/lib$ sudo apt-get install docker-ce docker-ce-cli containerd.io
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree       
Reading state information... Done
containerd.io is already the newest version (1.2.13-2).
The following additional packages will be installed:
  aufs-tools cgroupfs-mount pigz
The following NEW packages will be installed:
  aufs-tools cgroupfs-mount docker-ce docker-ce-cli pigz
0 upgraded, 5 newly installed, 0 to remove and 27 not upgraded.
Need to get 63.8 kB/63.9 MB of archives.
After this operation, 282 MB of additional disk space will be used.
Do you want to continue? [Y/n] y
Get:1 http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu bionic/universe amd64 pigz amd64 2.4-1 [57.4 kB]
Get:2 http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu bionic/universe amd64 cgroupfs-mount all 1.4 [6,320 B]
Fetched 63.8 kB in 0s (268 kB/s)          
Selecting previously unselected package pigz.
(Reading database ... 186105 files and directories currently installed.)
Preparing to unpack .../archives/pigz_2.4-1_amd64.deb ...
Unpacking pigz (2.4-1) ...
Selecting previously unselected package aufs-tools.
Preparing to unpack .../aufs-tools_1%3a4.9+20170918-1ubuntu1_amd64.deb ...
Unpacking aufs-tools (1:4.9+20170918-1ubuntu1) ...
Selecting previously unselected package cgroupfs-mount.
Preparing to unpack .../cgroupfs-mount_1.4_all.deb ...
Unpacking cgroupfs-mount (1.4) ...
Selecting previously unselected package docker-ce-cli.
Preparing to unpack .../docker-ce-cli_5%3a19.03.12~3-0~ubuntu-bionic_amd64.deb ...
Unpacking docker-ce-cli (5:19.03.12~3-0~ubuntu-bionic) ...
Selecting previously unselected package docker-ce.
Preparing to unpack .../docker-ce_5%3a19.03.12~3-0~ubuntu-bionic_amd64.deb ...
Unpacking docker-ce (5:19.03.12~3-0~ubuntu-bionic) ...
Setting up aufs-tools (1:4.9+20170918-1ubuntu1) ...
Setting up cgroupfs-mount (1.4) ...
Setting up docker-ce-cli (5:19.03.12~3-0~ubuntu-bionic) ...
Setting up pigz (2.4-1) ...
Setting up docker-ce (5:19.03.12~3-0~ubuntu-bionic) ...
Created symlink /etc/systemd/system/multi-user.target.wants/docker.service → /lib/systemd/system/docker.service.
Created symlink /etc/systemd/system/sockets.target.wants/docker.socket → /lib/systemd/system/docker.socket.
Job for docker.service canceled.
invoke-rc.d: initscript docker, action "start" failed.
● docker.service - Docker Application Container Engine
   Loaded: loaded (/lib/systemd/system/docker.service; enabled; vendor preset: enabled)
   Active: deactivating (stop-sigterm)
     Docs: https://docs.docker.com
 Main PID: 23326 (dockerd)
    Tasks: 1
   CGroup: /system.slice/docker.service
           └─23326 [dockerd]
Aug 09 13:10:56 bink-VirtualBox systemd[1]: Starting Docker Application Container Engine...
dpkg: error processing package docker-ce (--configure):
 installed docker-ce package post-installation script subprocess returned error exit status 1
Processing triggers for libc-bin (2.27-3ubuntu1.2) ...
Processing triggers for systemd (237-3ubuntu10.41) ...
Processing triggers for man-db (2.8.3-2ubuntu0.1) ...
Processing triggers for ureadahead (0.100.0-21) ...
Errors were encountered while processing:
 docker-ce
E: Sub-process /usr/bin/dpkg returned an error code (1)

I suspect that on the unscheduled reboot, something happened to containerd.io, but when I run the docker install, it says that containerd.io is already the newest version, so it doesn't reinstall it.

If I try systemctl start docker, it simply returns Job for docker.service canceled.. But I am actually able to run sudo dockerd and docker will start. I just can't get it to start as a service.

Does anyone have any suggestions? I've searched for these errors, and have found some slightly similar results, but not exactly the same situation as me. Do I just need to reinstall containerd.io? And if so, how do I do that, since the system thinks it is already installed correctly?

Answer 1

To find out what is wrong with the Docker service, the output of systemctl status docker.service or journalctl -e might help. Try those commands directly after a systemctl start docker.service.

To reinstall a package, you use sudo apt --reinstall install containerd.io or similar. This is explained here.

But I would try to find the root cause on why the service is not starting. It might fix other things as well, and you learn more from it .