# Error starting daemon: error initializing graphdriver: overlay

**URL:** <https://forums.docker.com/t/error-starting-daemon-error-initializing-graphdriver-overlay/66621>\
**Category:** General\
**Tags:** docker\
**Created:** [January 9, 2019, 6:37am UTC](https://forums.docker.com/t/error-starting-daemon-error-initializing-graphdriver-overlay/66621 "2019-01-09T06:37:05Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![sandockr](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/58956e/32.png) [@sandockr](https://forums.docker.com/u/sandockr)\
**Post date:** [January 9, 2019, 6:37am UTC](https://forums.docker.com/t/error-starting-daemon-error-initializing-graphdriver-overlay/66621/1 "2019-01-09T06:37:05Z")

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Hi,

I was upgrading docker from 1.12 to docker-ce (18.06.1). I followed the documentaion [https://docs.docker.com/install/linux/docker-ce/centos/](https://docs.docker.com/install/linux/docker-ce/centos/)

1. When i start the docker, it’s starting with ‘devicemapper’ storage driver rather than ‘overlay2’. (In previous  
docker (1.12) i was using ‘overlay’ as a storage driver). I have checked daemon.json, docker.service, docker- storage files, but nowhere it is specified to use ‘devicemapper’. Where else it could be configured?

2. I tried to explicitly specify ‘overlay’ as a storage driver, but when i did that, docker isn’t starting with following  
error:

`Jan 08 23:23:53 xxx dockerd[2306]: Error starting daemon: error initializing graphdriver: overlay2: the backing xfs filesystem is formatted without d_type support, which leads to incorrect behavior. Reformat the filesystem with ftype=1 to enable d_type support. Backing filesystems without d_type support are not supported.`  
`Jan 08 23:23:53 xxx systemd[1]: docker.service: main process exited, code=exited, status=1/FAILU`RE  
`Jan 08 23:23:53 xxx systemd[1]: Failed to start Docker Application Container Engine.`  
`-- Subject: Unit docker.service has failed`

I guess this should have been just a warning rather than an error.

Any help would be much appreciated!

Thanks,

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![meyay](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/docker/user_avatar/forums.docker.com/meyay/32/34000_2.png) [@meyay](https://forums.docker.com/u/meyay)\
**Post date:** [January 9, 2019, 5:30pm UTC](https://forums.docker.com/t/error-starting-daemon-error-initializing-graphdriver-overlay/66621/2 "2019-01-09T17:30:55Z")

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quite easy: since your filesystem does not provide the required support for the d\_type flag, the overlay2 driver can not be used. As a fallback the devicemapper is used.

This even happens on systems, where the devicemapper is officialy not supported 😉

Follow this guide to move the content of the data dir to the new location:

> [@How do I change the Docker image installation directory?](https://forums.docker.com/t/how-do-i-change-the-docker-image-installation-directory/1169):
>
> You can change Docker’s storage base directory (where container and images go) using the -g option when starting the Docker daemon. Ubuntu/Debian: edit your /etc/default/docker file with the -g option: DOCKER\_OPTS="-dns 8.8.8.8 -dns 8.8.4.4 -g /mnt" Fedora/Centos: edit /etc/sysconfig/docker, and add the -g option in the other\_args variable: ex. other\_args="-g /var/lib/testdir". If there’s more than one option, make sure you enclose them in " ". After a restart, (service docker restart) Doc…