docker-in-docker does not work

[eluinstra]

hello,

I'm experiencing a problem with the latest docker-in-docker feature (2.12.4). When I'm running the following docker compose file:

services:
  neo4j:
    image: neo4j:5.3.0-community
    ports:
      - 7474:7474
      - 7687:7687
    environment:
      NEO4J_AUTH: username/password
      DUMPPREFIX: Neo4j-dmp-dev
    healthcheck:
      test: wget http://localhost:7474 || exit 1
      interval: 1m30s
      timeout: 10s
      retries: 3
      start_period: 40s

the container seems to be starting, but it never gets a healthy status.

When I try to connect to the container using the following command:

docker exec -it neo4j-1 sh

I get the following error in WSL:

OCI runtime exec failed: exec failed: unable to start container process: procReady not received: unknown

and the following error on Mac:

OCI runtime exec failed: exec failed: unable to start container process: error writing config to pipe: write init-p: broken pipe: unknown

This is the devcontainer.json I used:

{
	"name": "Simca",
	"image": "mcr.microsoft.com/devcontainers/base:noble",
	"mounts": [
		"type=bind,source=${localEnv:HOME}${localEnv:USERPROFILE}/.ssh/,target=/home/vscode/.ssh,readonly"
	],
	"features": {
		"ghcr.io/devcontainers/features/docker-in-docker:2": {},
		"ghcr.io/devcontainers/features/node:1": {
			"version": "22.16.0"
		},
		"ghcr.io/devcontainers/features/java:1": {
			"installMaven": true,
			"mavenVersion": "3.9.8",
			"installGradle": true,
			"version": "17",
			"additionalVersions": "21.0.7-ms"
		},
		"ghcr.io/devcontainers-extra/features/apt-packages:1": {
			"packages": "libfreetype6,fontconfig,graphviz"
		},
		"ghcr.io/nordcominc/devcontainer-features/android-sdk:1": {}
	},
	"forwardPorts": [
		5672,
		7474,
		7687,
		8080,
		8081,
		8082,
		8088,
		9000,
		9092,
		15672,
		15674
	],
	"customizations": {
		"vscode": {
			"settings": {
				"plantuml.exportOutDir": ".",
				"plantuml.exportSubFolder": false,
				"sonarlint.ls.javaHome": "/usr/local/sdkman/candidates/java/21.0.7-ms",
				"sonarlint.pathToNodeExecutable": "/usr/local/share/nvm/versions/node/v22.16.0/bin/node"
			},
			"extensions": [
				"donjayamanne.githistory",
				"mhutchie.git-graph",
				"humao.rest-client",
				"jebbs.plantuml",
				"sonarsource.sonarlint-vscode",
				"redhat.fabric8-analytics"
			]
		}
	}
}

I tried to configure the docker-in-docker feature, with docker version 28.0.4 and 26.1 without success.

For now I provided a Dockerfile based on the ms noble image, that installs docker and use that in de devcontainer. That works on amd based machines, but not on arm.

This may be the same issue as #1491, although I experience problems on both noble and jammy.

kind regards,
Edwin

[strangeundersun]

Running into the same error. Can I ask when this would be fixed? or is there a workaround besides install dind via Dockerfile?

[lerenn]

Running into the same error here. Replacing all docker exec occurences into docker run is working but is kinda ugly. It compromises healtchecks as well but this is bypassable by creating a container that will do the check and add the condition to wait for it to complete succesfully.

[Mathiyarasy]

As a temporary workaround, please try setting moby to false when configuring your docker-in-docker feature, as this appears to resolve the issue. We are continuing to investigate the root cause.

[eluinstra]

Thanks for the workaround. I had to remove the existing images first.

[stroebitzer]

another (uglier) workaround, doing

kill $(pgrep dockerd)
dockerd &

[syncsyncsynchalt]

I also encountered an issue where the dind features stopped working in the official Ruby on Rails devcontainer: ghcr.io/rails/devcontainer/images/ruby

The cause was that the image switched from Debian 12 to Debian 13, which made moby unavailable.
The workaround is described here: #1494 (comment)

This is outside the scope of the current issue, but I believe features need a common mechanism to check dependencies and compatibility with the target image. Right now, each feature handles this manually within its own shell scripts…