How to Install Docker Engine on Ubuntu 24.04 LTS

This guide installs Docker Engine from Docker’s official APT repository on Ubuntu 24.04 LTS. It includes the Compose and Buildx plugins, non-root CLI access, service validation, upgrade checks, firewall cautions, and a clean uninstall path.

1. Verify Ubuntu and remove conflicting packages

cat /etc/os-release
dpkg --print-architecture
sudo apt update
for pkg in docker.io docker-doc docker-compose docker-compose-v2 podman-docker containerd runc; do
  sudo apt remove -y "$pkg"
done

An APT message saying a package is not installed is harmless. Removing packages does not automatically erase an existing /var/lib/docker, but back up important data before changing runtimes.

2. Add Docker’s signed APT repository

sudo apt install -y ca-certificates curl
sudo install -m 0755 -d /etc/apt/keyrings
sudo curl -fsSL https://download.docker.com/linux/ubuntu/gpg 
  -o /etc/apt/keyrings/docker.asc
sudo chmod a+r /etc/apt/keyrings/docker.asc

sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/docker.sources > /dev/null <<EOF
Types: deb
URIs: https://download.docker.com/linux/ubuntu
Suites: $(. /etc/os-release && echo "${UBUNTU_CODENAME:-$VERSION_CODENAME}")
Components: stable
Architectures: $(dpkg --print-architecture)
Signed-By: /etc/apt/keyrings/docker.asc
EOF

sudo apt update
apt-cache policy docker-ce

3. Install Engine, Buildx, and Compose

sudo apt install -y docker-ce docker-ce-cli containerd.io 
  docker-buildx-plugin docker-compose-plugin
sudo systemctl enable --now docker

sudo systemctl status docker --no-pager
sudo docker version
sudo docker info
sudo docker compose version
sudo docker run --rm hello-world

The last command pulls a small test image, creates a container, prints a success message, and removes the container.

4. Optional non-root CLI access

sudo usermod -aG docker "$USER"
newgrp docker
docker run --rm hello-world

If you previously used sudo docker, repair ownership only when the CLI reports a permission problem in your local Docker config:

sudo chown -R "$USER":"$USER" "$HOME/.docker"
sudo chmod -R g+rwx "$HOME/.docker"

5. Service logs, upgrades, and rollback

sudo journalctl -u docker -n 100 --no-pager
apt list --upgradable 2>/dev/null | grep -E 'docker|containerd' || true
sudo apt update && sudo apt upgrade

To remove the packages while retaining images and volumes:

sudo apt purge -y docker-ce docker-ce-cli containerd.io 
  docker-buildx-plugin docker-compose-plugin
sudo rm -f /etc/apt/sources.list.d/docker.sources
sudo rm -f /etc/apt/keyrings/docker.asc

Do not delete /var/lib/docker unless you intentionally want to destroy every local image, container, network, and volume.

Verification checklist

• Docker and containerd are active.
• docker run --rm hello-world succeeds.
• docker compose version reports Compose v2.
• Only trusted users belong to the docker group.
• Exposed ports have been reviewed at the host and upstream firewall.

References: Docker documentation and the Server World topic index.