Can't upgrade to any docker-ce version post v20

Open Source Projects DockerEngine
1

My docker service dies when I try to update to v23 or v24
Forcing apt to come back to elder docker-ce packages correct the issue
(namely 5:20.10.23~3-0~debian-bullseye)

Help very much appreciated as I tried many things to no avail. Thanks in advance!

I get these error messages
mai 18 16:17:58 hydre systemd[1]: Starting Docker Application Container Engine…
mai 18 16:17:58 hydre dockerd[432429]: unable to configure the Docker daemon with file /etc/docker/daemon.json: invalid character ‘{’ after top-level value
mai 18 16:17:58 hydre systemd[1]: docker.service: Main process exited, code=exited, status=1/FAILURE
mai 18 16:17:58 hydre systemd[1]: docker.service: Failed with result ‘exit-code’.
mai 18 16:17:58 hydre systemd[1]: Failed to start Docker Application Container Engine.
mai 18 16:18:01 hydre systemd[1]: docker.service: Scheduled restart job, restart counter is at 1.
mai 18 16:18:01 hydre systemd[1]: Stopped Docker Application Container Engine.
mai 18 16:18:01 hydre systemd[1]: Starting Docker Application Container Engine…
mai 18 16:18:01 hydre dockerd[433165]: unable to configure the Docker daemon with file /etc/docker/daemon.json: invalid character ‘{’ after top-level value
mai 18 16:18:01 hydre systemd[1]: docker.service: Main process exited, code=exited, status=1/FAILURE
mai 18 16:18:01 hydre systemd[1]: docker.service: Failed with result ‘exit-code’.
mai 18 16:18:01 hydre systemd[1]: Failed to start Docker Application Container Engine.
mai 18 16:18:03 hydre systemd[1]: docker.service: Scheduled restart job, restart counter is at 2.
mai 18 16:18:03 hydre systemd[1]: Stopped Docker Application Container Engine.
mai 18 16:18:03 hydre systemd[1]: Starting Docker Application Container Engine…
mai 18 16:18:03 hydre dockerd[436561]: unable to configure the Docker daemon with file /etc/docker/daemon.json: invalid character ‘{’ after top-level value
mai 18 16:18:03 hydre systemd[1]: docker.service: Main process exited, code=exited, status=1/FAILURE
mai 18 16:18:03 hydre systemd[1]: docker.service: Failed with result ‘exit-code’.
mai 18 16:18:03 hydre systemd[1]: Failed to start Docker Application Container Engine.
mai 18 16:18:05 hydre systemd[1]: docker.service: Scheduled restart job, restart counter is at 3.
mai 18 16:18:05 hydre systemd[1]: Stopped Docker Application Container Engine.
mai 18 16:18:05 hydre systemd[1]: docker.service: Start request repeated too quickly.
mai 18 16:18:05 hydre systemd[1]: docker.service: Failed with result ‘exit-code’.
mai 18 16:18:05 hydre systemd[1]: Failed to start Docker Application Container Engine.

systemctl status docker.service
● docker.service - Docker Application Container Engine
Loaded: loaded (/lib/systemd/system/docker.service; enabled; vendor preset: enabled)
Drop-In: /etc/systemd/system/docker.service.d
└─override.conf
Active: failed (Result: exit-code) since Thu 2023-05-18 16:18:05 CEST; 41s ago
TriggeredBy: ● docker.socket
Docs: https://docs.docker.com
Process: 436561 ExecStart=/usr/bin/dockerd -H fd:// -H tcp://127.0.0.1:2375 (code=exited, status=1/FAILURE)
Main PID: 436561 (code=exited, status=1/FAILURE)
CPU: 71ms

mai 18 16:17:58 hydre systemd[422388]: srv-Docker-overlay2-7801e859482c4d3f4c8a8e8e5ec27fd196914ecdac2cf9dad11ff525847fbda2-merged.mount: Succeeded.
░░ Subject: Unit succeeded
░░ Defined-By: systemd
░░ Support: Debian -- User Support
░░
░░ The unit UNIT has successfully entered the ‘dead’ state.

XXXXXXXXX
/etc/docker/daemon.json contains the following:
{
“data-root”: “/srv/Docker”
}
{
“storage-driver”: “overlay2”
}
{
“metrics-addr”: “127.0.0.1:9323”,
“experimental”: true
}

2

I am surprised your docker demon even starts with this daemon.json file, as it is not a valid json.

Assumed your configuration items are correct, the daemon.json should look like this:

{
    "data-root": "/srv/Docker",
    "storage-driver": "overlay2",
    "metrics-addr": "127.0.0.1:9323",
    "experimental": true
}

Once the daemon.json is correct, try to upgrade again.

Also, please format your existing and future posts according these instructions:

3

Thanks
I will try like that and report (but I think I did already, but couldn’t start docker with that formatting)

4

I just made those changes. You were right. Successfully migrated to v24
I think the thing I forgot were those commas that you rightfully added at the end of all lines beside the last one
Many many thanks for that!

5

It is not just the commas…A valid json document has one top level {} block (which can have nested blocks), and expects the end of file after the top level closing bracket. Your original daemon.json used three top level {} blocks, which makes it an invalid json document.

If your editor doesn’t lint json documents, you can always use online linters like https://jsonlint.com to verify the document is valid.

6

In my case, change true to “true” then the docker.service can startup.

"experimental": "true"