How to use docker with Raspberry pi?

Cristian Larios — Wed, 14 Dec 2022 20:35:54 GMT

Do you have a Raspberry Pi? well, that’s amazing! YOU have a powerful tool in your hands. Today i’m going to teach you how to use docker with this popular SoC.

If is your first time using Raspberry Pi, then you have to install an OS. I recommend raspbian. (Check out this tutorial)

After you install the OS, you will need to install the next packages:

sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get install -y \
     apt-transport-https \
     ca-certificates \
     curl \
     gnupg2 \
     software-properties-common \
     vim \
     fail2ban \
     ntfs-3g

Now, the main protagonist is here, let’s begin with Docker.

Let’s install the GPG firms of the official Docker repository:

curl -fsSL https://download.docker.com/linux/debian/gpg | sudo apt-key add -
sudo apt-key fingerprint 0EBFCD88

We must add the Docker repository:

echo "deb [arch=armhf] https://download.docker.com/linux/debian \
     $(lsb_release -cs) stable" | \
    sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/docker.list

NOTE: Docker versions older than 18.06 are presenting problems on raspbian. If you encounter “Segmentation fault” problems or the daemon does not start, you can prevent higher versions from installing by the following way

echo "Package: docker-ce
Pin: version 18.06.1*
Pin-Priority: 1000" > /etc/apt/preferences.d/docker-ce

Now, let’s install Docker:

sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get install -y --no-install-recommends docker-ce docker-compose

The next step is important because Docker needs an user in the Docker group on your linux system.

sudo usermod -a -G docker

After this, you need to restart your Raspberry Pi.

Well, that’s it. You have Docker on your Raspberry Pi. But, now what? Let’s create a docker-compose shall we?

version: "2"

services:

  samba:
    image: dperson/samba:rpi
    restart: always
    command: '-u "pi;password" -s "media;/media;yes;no"'
    stdin_open: true
    tty: true
    ports:
      - 139:130
      - 445:445
    volumes:
      - /usr/share/zoneinfo/America/Bogota:/etc/localtime
      - /home/pi/media:/media

This docker-compose has the samba container for Raspberry Pi, it’s useful for sharing files on your home network.

And, finally let’s initialize the docker-compose that we created.

docker-compose up -d

The ‘-d’ command is special, it’s purpuse is to run the docker-compose file in the background. If you want to see the container logs, just erase the ‘-d’.

That’s it, you have a container running on your Raspberry Pi. You can share files or directories between your Raspberry Pi and your PC/Laptop. Pretty cool, right?

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How to use docker with Raspberry pi?