Docker fails with "failed to start containerd: timeout waiting for containerd to start"

Question

I have docker installed on Ubuntu 18.04.2 with snap.

When I try to start docker it fails with the following error log.

2020-07-16T23:49:14Z docker.dockerd[932]: failed to start containerd: timeout waiting for containerd to start
2020-07-16T23:49:14Z systemd[1]: snap.docker.dockerd.service: Main process exited, code=exited, status=1/FAILURE
2020-07-16T23:49:14Z systemd[1]: snap.docker.dockerd.service: Failed with result 'exit-code'.
2020-07-16T23:49:14Z systemd[1]: snap.docker.dockerd.service: Service hold-off time over, scheduling restart.
2020-07-16T23:49:14Z systemd[1]: snap.docker.dockerd.service: Scheduled restart job, restart counter is at 68.
2020-07-16T23:49:14Z systemd[1]: Stopped Service for snap application docker.dockerd.
2020-07-16T23:49:14Z systemd[1]: Started Service for snap application docker.dockerd.

It goes over and over into a restart loop. What should I do to get docker working again?

Answer 1

In this case, docker was waiting for containerd to start. The containerd pid is located at

/var/snap/docker/471/run/docker/containerd/containerd.pid. 

This pid didn't exist. But the file was not deleted when the server was unceremoniously shutdown. Deleting this file allows the containerd process to start again, and problem is solved. I believe similar problems exist out there where docker.pid file also points to a non-existent pid.

Answer 2

Ive also faced error while dialing: dial unix:///var/run/docker/containerd/containerd.sock: timeout on fresh docker install on Arch linux today.

Ive installed docker and tried to start it:

sudo systemctl enable docker
sudo systemctl start docker

It dont start: sudo systemctl status docker says:

× docker.service - Docker Application Container Engine
 Loaded: loaded (/usr/lib/systemd/system/docker.service; enabled; vendor preset: disabled)
 Active: failed (Result: exit-code) since Sun 2022-02-20 20:29:53 +03; 8s ago
TriggeredBy: × docker.socket
   Docs: https://docs.docker.com
Process: 8368 ExecStart=/usr/bin/dockerd -H fd:// (code=exited, status=1/FAILURE)
Main PID: 8368 (code=exited, status=1/FAILURE)
    CPU: 414ms

Feb 20 20:29:53 V-LINUX-087 systemd[1]: docker.service: Scheduled restart job, restart counter is at 3.
Feb 20 20:29:53 V-LINUX-087 systemd[1]: Stopped Docker Application Container Engine.
Feb 20 20:29:53 V-LINUX-087 systemd[1]: docker.service: Start request repeated too quickly.
Feb 20 20:29:53 V-LINUX-087 systemd[1]: docker.service: Failed with result 'exit-code'.
Feb 20 20:29:53 V-LINUX-087 systemd[1]: Failed to start Docker Application Container Engine.

I managed to get more info after executing sudo dockerd:

$ sudo dockerd
INFO[2022-02-20T20:32:05.923357711+03:00] Starting up                                  
INFO[2022-02-20T20:32:05.924015767+03:00] libcontainerd: started new containerd process  pid=8618
INFO[2022-02-20T20:32:05.924036777+03:00] parsed scheme: "unix"                         module=grpc
INFO[2022-02-20T20:32:05.924043494+03:00] scheme "unix" not registered, fallback to default scheme  module=grpc
INFO[2022-02-20T20:32:05.924058420+03:00] ccResolverWrapper: sending update to cc: {[{unix:///var/run/docker/containerd/containerd.sock  <nil> 0 <nil>}] <nil> <nil>}  module=grpc
INFO[2022-02-20T20:32:05.924068315+03:00] ClientConn switching balancer to "pick_first"  module=grpc
containerd: /usr/lib/libc.so.6: version `GLIBC_2.34' not found (required by containerd)
ERRO[2022-02-20T20:32:05.924198775+03:00] containerd did not exit successfully          error="exit status 1" module=libcontainerd
WARN[2022-02-20T20:32:06.925000686+03:00] grpc: addrConn.createTransport failed to connect to {unix:///var/run/docker/containerd/containerd.sock  <nil> 0 <nil>}. Err :connection error: desc = "transport: error while dialing: dial unix:///var/run/docker/containerd/containerd.sock: timeout". Reconnecting...  module=grpc
WARN[2022-02-20T20:32:09.397384787+03:00] grpc: addrConn.createTransport failed to connect to {unix:///var/run/docker/containerd/containerd.sock  <nil> 0 <nil>}. Err :connection error: desc = "transport: error while dialing: dial unix:///var/run/docker/containerd/containerd.sock: timeout". Reconnecting...  module=grpc
WARN[2022-02-20T20:32:13.645272915+03:00] grpc: addrConn.createTransport failed to connect to {unix:///var/run/docker/containerd/containerd.sock  <nil> 0 <nil>}. Err :connection error: desc = "transport: error while dialing: dial unix:///var/run/docker/containerd/containerd.sock: timeout". Reconnecting...  module=grpc
WARN[2022-02-20T20:32:19.417671818+03:00] grpc: addrConn.createTransport failed to connect to {unix:///var/run/docker/containerd/containerd.sock  <nil> 0 <nil>}. Err :connection error: desc = "transport: error while dialing: dial unix:///var/run/docker/containerd/containerd.sock: timeout". Reconnecting...  module=grpc
failed to start containerd: timeout waiting for containerd to start

So it seems like containerd could not start in my case.

I tried sudo containerd and voila:

$ sudo containerd
containerd: /usr/lib/libc.so.6: version `GLIBC_2.34' not found (required by containerd)

On my OS (Arch linux) the solution was to update the package:

sudo pacman -S lib32-glibc

If may be just sudo pacman -S glibc for someone on arch linux as weel