Cannot get Docker or Docker Desktop to run on MacOS since "Malware" incident

Docker Desktop
1

Several months ago I experienced the bogus Malware issue and was basically forced to delete the docker application by macOS – as many people have experienced. I’m sure I did not uninstall docker correctly at the time as, like I said, macOS forced me to delete the application and thus the official uninstaller capability.

Since then, I have tried everything I can find to get docker up and running with a new install using the latest download to no avail. I have followed the tutorial to completely uninstall docker by rimelek. I have tried also to install docker using brew and also colima with no success.

Always the same error:

Cannot connect to the Docker daemon at unix:///var/run/docker.sock. Is the docker daemon running?

there is no socket at /var/run/docker.sock; there is however /var/run/com.docker.vmnetd.sock

currently installed Docker version 28.1.1, build 4eba377327
OS: Sonoma 14.6
Machine: MacBook Pro (M3 pro)

2

When you run

docker context ls

on your mac, do you see desktop-linux?

Even if /var/run/docker.sock doesn’t exist, the other one should and you can try to use that. This command can check the existence of the context and the file:

ls -lahs $(docker context inspect desktop-linux --format '{{ .Endpoints.docker.Host }}' | cut -d: -f2)

If it is there, you can switch to that context. As far as I remember, the other one is optional.

You can also check if the processes are running:

ps aux | grep -i docker

You didn’t mention the GUI, so I assume you don’t see the GUI, right?

Have you tried to restart your Mac?

Also, if you still have files left, you can check this documentation to remove everything manually:

Which you possibly did already. So one more thing I can suggest is finding files that left on the machine: https://youtu.be/maQJSnRdy10