Compose: docker login fails while docker-compose is installed on Ubuntu 18.04

[jessehallam]

Description of the issue

docker login
error getting credentials - err: exit status 1, out: Cannot autolaunch D-Bus without X11 $DISPLAY

This error appears on a fresh Ubuntu Server 18.04 install. It has virtually nothing installed except docker and docker-compose. This error only occurs when docker-compose is installed.

Typing sudo apt remove docker-compose clears the error. Login now occurs using the normal docker prompt.

Context information (for bug reports)

Output of "docker-compose version"

docker-compose version 1.17.1, build unknown
docker-py version: 2.5.1
CPython version: 2.7.15rc1
OpenSSL version: OpenSSL 1.1.0g 2 Nov 2017

Output of "docker version"

Client:
Version: 17.12.1-ce
API version: 1.35
Go version: go1.10.1
Git commit: 7390fc6
Built: Wed Apr 18 01:23:11 2018
OS/Arch: linux/amd64

Server:
Engine:
Version: 17.12.1-ce
API version: 1.35 (minimum version 1.12)
Go version: go1.10.1
Git commit: 7390fc6
Built: Wed Feb 28 17:46:05 2018
OS/Arch: linux/amd64
Experimental: false

Output of "docker-compose config"

ubuntu@:~$ docker-compose config
ERROR:
Can't find a suitable configuration file in this directory or any
parent. Are you in the right directory?

    Supported filenames: docker-compose.yml, docker-compose.yaml

Steps to reproduce the issue

1. sudo apt install docker
2. sudo apt install docker-compose
3. docker login

Observed result

error getting credentials - err: exit status 1, out: Cannot autolaunch D-Bus without X11 $DISPLAY

Expected result

The normal docker login prompt.

Stacktrace / full error message

(if applicable)

Additional information

OS version / distribution, docker-compose install method, etc.

Welcome to Ubuntu 18.04 LTS (GNU/Linux 4.15.0-1010-aws x86_64)

This machine was built using Amazon AWS's Canonical Ubuntu 18.04 AMI. It has virtually nothing installed on it, except for docker, docker-compose and sshd.

[shin-]

Looks like a bug with the Ubuntu package, which is not owned by us. Additionally, the version the package installs (1.17.1) is no longer supported.

Please follow the official install instructions instead: https://docs.docker.com/compose/install/

[tuddman]

adding that: following the official install instructions does not work when working on ARM platform (RPi)

uname -m
> aarch64

which can't find anything when it's apart of the cURL command to download the latest :/

any word on if/when ARM boards might be supported directly?

[lucafallabrino]

I'm having the same issue woth Ubuntu18.04 server. I have tried with

• docker-compose not present
• docker-compose installed using the link provided by @shin-

but I keep getting
Cannot autolaunch D-Bus without X11 $DISPLAY

Installed packages version:

$ docker --version
Docker version 18.03.1-ce, build 9ee9f40
$ docker-compose --version
docker-compose version 1.21.2, build a133471

[shin-]

@tuddman We don't provide a build for arm architectures, but you can install the latest version using pip.

@lucafallabrino That's a completely unrelated issue. You're trying to use the secretservice credential helper on a server without X11, which isn't going to work. Use docker-credentials-pass on servers instead.

[kiliankoe]

I'm having the same (or a similar) issue, running docker login failing with the error message Cannot autolaunch D-Bus without X11 $DISPLAY. Having stumbled across https://github.com/docker/docker-credential-helpers/issues/60 it seems as if golang-docker-credential-helpers causes the issue here. Temporarily uninstalling docker-compose including the package above allowed me to run docker login to authenticate with my docker registry.

[kinkerl]

hi, why is the issue closed? the workaround from @kiliankoe works but it is still a problem on a new ubuntu 18.04 installation.

[shin-]

Closed because not a Compose issue: https://github.com/docker/compose/issues/6023#issuecomment-398136466

[mullenba]

It's very much an issue. Fresh install of 18.04, installed docker-compose through pip. Exact same issue.

[prg3]

I found that if you remove the golang-docker-credential-helpers package after switching to docker-ce and not the bundled docker package in ubuntu 18.04, this problem is resolved.

[chriswue]

Since this is a bug in the Ubuntu packaging for server it needs to be fixed there but in the meantime a work-around without having to uninstall docker-compose temporarily or having to switch to the docker repos instead you can make it use pass instead. This is what I did:

sudo apt install gnupg2 pass 
gpg2 --full-generate-key

This generates a you a gpg2 key, After that's done you can list it with

gpg2 -k

Copy the key id (from the line labelled [uid]) and do

pass init "whatever key id you have"

After that docker login worked fine since it defaults to use pass and only tries to fallback to secretservice if it can't find it. secretservice seems to have an X11 dependency which isn't present on a basic server install.

Side effect is that you get a somewhat more secure credentials store or on your server instead of a base64 encoded json file.

[tomaszdudek7]

This happened to me on freshly installed Docker version 18.06.1-ce, build e68fc7a on Ubuntu 18.04 provided by Azure VM.

@prg3 solution (which is running apt-get purge docker-credential-pass) solved the issue - I can now az acr login --name <registry> successfully.

[fredbcode]

I added a bug report here, https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/golang-github-docker-docker-credential-helpers/+bug/1794307

[CalvinHartwell]

@jessehallam can you please try this package instead?

sudo apt-get install install docker.io
calvin@calvinh-ws:~$ sudo docker --version
Docker version 17.12.1-ce, build 7390fc6

This is version we ship and support with Canonical Kubernetes and I've never had any issue logging into registries with this agent (From the kubernetes 1.11 release notes):

The validated docker versions are the same as for v1.10: 1.11.2 to 1.13.1 and 17.03.x (ref)

Also, @tuddman we do ship and support Docker on ARM as we actually support Kubernetes on ARM today. There are big differences in ARM architectures, but you might also want to try the package above. If it is missing, I might be able to help with that:

adding that: following the official install instructions does not work when working on ARM platform (RPi)

uname -m

aarch64

which can't find anything when it's apart of the cURL command to download the latest :/

any word on if/when ARM boards might be supported directly?

[caiges]

@CalvinHartwell We've run into this with both the official Ubuntu docker.io package as well as the upstream Docker repo. In one case we installed docker-ce, ran into this issue, uninstalled it, installed docker.io and are still encountering this particular problem. It should be noted we do not have compose installed at all.

[fredbcode]

Seems related with user profile :
sudo docker login ko
sudo su and docker login ko
But sudo su - and docker login ok

[fredbcode]

Hi, @CalvinHartwell same issue with docker.io

[afalko]

I confirm that I'm hitting the same freshly provisioned systems where in installed docker.io and docker-compose in one shot:
Linux 4.15.0-1021-aws #21-Ubuntu SMP

Does anyone have a workaround? I didn't have the package installed for the apt-get purge docker-credential-pass workaround.

[fredbcode]

@afalko you can use sudo su - and docker login right after

[fredbcode]

Of course this is just a workaround, use a full root access is not a good idea
But for now ...

[afalko]

Thanks @fredbcode !

I wound up automating this with the following workaround:

cat >gpg2.tmp <<EOF
     %echo Generating a basic OpenPGP key
     Key-Type: default
     Subkey-Type: default
     Name-Real: asdf asdf
     Name-Comment: asdf
     Name-Email: [email protected]
     Expire-Date: 0
     Passphrase: asdfasdf
     # Do a commit here, so that we can later print "done" :-)
     %commit
     %echo done
EOF
gpg2 --batch --generate-key gpg2.tmp
HOME=/home/docker-user pass init `gpg2 --list-secret-keys | grep uid -B 1 | head -n 1`

[trebonius0]

I have the issue as well
Even with full root access, the workaround does not work for me

[artempronevskiy]

Deleting docker-compose (apt-get autoremove) is the workaround

[fredbcode]

@trebonius0 you made exactly sudo su - ,not just sudo su ?
Weird, works well here

[trebonius0]

yes

[nyetwurk]

https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/docker-compose/+bug/1796119

[fatdrag0n]

removing golang will remove bunch of python stuff and docker-compose.
I do use docker-compose. Do i have to do the gpg workaround?

[dadwin]

Follow @shin-'s advice:

Please follow the official install instructions instead: https://docs.docker.com/compose/install/

don't do apt install docker-compose and if you did, remove it and its dependencies: apt remove docker-compose -y && apt autoremove.
With the official installation the problem's gone.

[fatdrag0n]

I think I followed chriswue's advice and did gpg2 generating the key and then used the pass to set the credentials and was able to docker login

[claudeleveille]

If all else fails (@shin-'s advice didn't help me), you can always generate a ~/.docker/config.json with the creds baked in.

[claudeleveille]

Another tip for those who use Ansible in their CI, the docker_login module helped me out too.

[FabienPaitry]

This https://github.com/docker/docker-credential-helpers/issues/105#issuecomment-420480401 worked for me

[PabTorre]

At the very least, a better error message from docker login would be useful... just wasted half an hour on a goose chase around X11 Display... where a better message could've pointed straight towards using gnupg2 pass

[fredbcode]

I disagree, not a better message, when x11 is not installed we should use docker login without any error.

[nyetwurk]

Exactly this. This behavior makes zero sense.

[nyetwurk]

https://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=910822
https://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=910823
@shin- Please work with the debian/ubuntu maintainers, or consider building your own debian packager or providing debian control files.

[wedi]

golang-docker-credential-helpers does also get installed alongside python-docker. 😑
I decided to go with this solution.

[nyetwurk]

Again, this is a very poor solution. It is a workaround at best, and not a good one. I wish there was more involvement by maintainers.

[nyetwurk]

Please, for those of you participating in this thread, go vote for https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/docker-compose/+bug/1796119 and mark it as affecting you, or it will never get fixed.

[richstokes]

I'm seeing this issue even when following the official instructions to install docker-compose (https://docs.docker.com/compose/install/#install-compose)

cat /etc/lsb-release
DISTRIB_ID=Ubuntu
DISTRIB_RELEASE=18.04
DISTRIB_CODENAME=bionic
DISTRIB_DESCRIPTION="Ubuntu 18.04.1 LTS"

docker-compose --version
docker-compose version 1.23.0-rc3, build ea3d406e

docker --version
Docker version 17.12.1-ce, build 7390fc6

docker login -u abc -p 123
WARNING! Using --password via the CLI is insecure. Use --password-stdin.
error getting credentials - err: exit status 1, out: `Cannot autolaunch D-Bus without X11 $DISPLAY

Same problem is I move to:

docker --version
Docker version 18.06.1-ce, build e68fc7a

As a side note, this issue is compounded by the fact the Ubuntu packages and the "official" docker packages are disjointed. You have the docker.io packages on Ubuntu vs. the docker-ce packages from the official download. Seems to make things that more confusing as it's not obvious which combination of packages one needs, especially when running into issues such as the above.

[nyetwurk]

Honestly, I have no idea what docker devs are thinking. I think at this point closing this bug was a huge mistake; docker, docker-compose, and the various distro devs need to actually work together and not just point fingers at each other.

[shin-]

Bug reports have been filed on the Ubuntu and Debian trackers. As explained throughout the thread, this issue is unrelated to Compose. You can uninstall the problematic package (golang-docker-credential-helpers) manually, or avoid installing Compose through apt in the first place and use the official instructions instead.