On SysLinuxOS 13 Docker ships in the ISO, but docker.service may fail to start and end up in failed state. The fix that worked was to completely remove the Debian packages and reinstall Docker Engine from Docker’s official repository, following the guide at https://docs.docker.com/engine/install/debian/. Here are the steps, adapted to SysLinuxOS.
1. Check what is installed
See whether the installed packages come from the Debian repositories (docker.io) or from the Docker repository (docker-ce):
dpkg -l | grep -Ei 'docker|containerd|runc'
2. Remove the Debian packages
Remove every package that conflicts with the official Docker Engine:
sudo apt purge docker.io docker-compose docker-doc podman-docker containerd runc
sudo apt autoremove --purge
Existing images, containers and volumes live in /var/lib/docker and /var/lib/containerd and are not touched when packages are removed. If you do not need them and want a clean start, delete them by hand. Warning: this cannot be undone.
sudo rm -rf /var/lib/docker /var/lib/containerd
3. Add Docker’s GPG key
sudo apt update sudo apt install ca-certificates curl sudo install -m 0755 -d /etc/apt/keyrings sudo curl -fsSL https://download.docker.com/linux/debian/gpg -o /etc/apt/keyrings/docker.asc sudo chmod a+r /etc/apt/keyrings/docker.asc
4. Add the repository with the trixie suite
The official guide reads the suite name from /etc/os-release. On SysLinuxOS 13 the VERSION_CODENAME field is tirreno, which does not exist on Docker’s repository, so apt update would fail. SysLinuxOS 13 is based on Debian 13, so the suite to use is trixie, written directly in the file:
sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/docker.sources > /dev/null <<EOF Types: deb URIs: https://download.docker.com/linux/debian Suites: trixie Components: stable Architectures: amd64 Signed-By: /etc/apt/keyrings/docker.asc EOF
If the file already exists and contains tirreno, replace it with trixie:
sudo sed -i 's/tirreno/trixie/' /etc/apt/sources.list.d/docker.sources
5. Install Docker Engine
sudo apt update sudo apt install docker-ce docker-ce-cli containerd.io docker-buildx-plugin docker-compose-plugin
The package installs and starts the service automatically.
6. Verify it works
sudo systemctl status docker sudo docker run hello-world
If you see the message Hello from Docker!, the installation is correct.
7. Run Docker without sudo (optional)
sudo usermod -aG docker $USER
Log out and back in so the group takes effect. Keep in mind that members of the docker group effectively have root privileges on the system.
Conclusion
With the official repository you get up-to-date Docker Engine, containerd, Buildx and Compose, managed by apt like any other package. Source: https://docs.docker.com/engine/install/debian/.
Docker on SysLinuxOS 13 from the official repository