WSL2, Ubuntu and Docker

Open PowerShell 55,538 as administrator and install the distribution by name; Windows enables WSL2 6 on the way if needed and asks you to restart. When Ubuntu 225 first starts, it asks for a Linux user name and password. Then check what is installed; this is what the book's machine reports:

Installing Ubuntu 26.04 under WSL2 and checking it (PowerShell, as administrator)

wsl --install -d Ubuntu-26.04
wsl --version
wsl --list --verbose

Output

WSL version: 2.7.14.0
Kernel version: 6.18.33.2-2
...
Windows version: 10.0.26200.9457
  NAME            STATE           VERSION
* Ubuntu-24.04    Stopped         2
  Ubuntu-26.04    Running         2

Keep your projects in the Linux file system (~/...), not under /mnt/c: tools that read many small files run much faster there. The distribution sees all the PC's cores and most of its memory; to cap them, add memory= and processors= lines under [wsl2] in %UserProfile%\.wslconfig.

Install Docker Engine 514 inside Ubuntu from Docker 514 's own apt repository, which lists Ubuntu 26.04 ("Resolute") among its supported releases. Follow the "Install using the apt repository" steps in docs.docker.com/engine/install/ubuntu (https://docs.docker.com/engine/install/ubuntu/ 514 ): they add Docker's signing key under /etc/apt/keyrings and a docker.sources file for your release, then install docker-ce, docker-ce-cli, containerd.io, docker-buildx-plugin and docker-compose-plugin. Ubuntu's own docker.io package works too but lags behind. Then let your user run Docker without sudo, open a new shell, and start a test container:

Running Docker without sudo, and the first containerShell

sudo usermod -aG docker "$USER"     # then log out and back in (or: wsl --terminate)
docker run --rm hello-world | grep Hello

Output

Hello from Docker!

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