Running x86 containers on your M1 Mac with Docker and Rosetta

Installation

First you need to install Rosetta:

softwareupdate --install-rosetta

Then install Docker Desktop (Podman does not support this feature).

After installing Docker you need to change a few settings:

• General -> Use Virtualization Framework
• General -> VirtioFS
• Features in Development -> Use Rosetta for x86/amd64 emulation on Apple Silicon

Creating a container

Now you can create an Ubuntu container:

docker pull --platform linux/amd64 ubuntu:22.04
docker create --platform linux/amd64 --interactive ubuntu:22.04 bash

Now open the Containers section of the Docker Desktop Dashboard and start the newly-created container (it will have a random name). After it started you can click ... -> Open in Terminal to get a shell.

Running a temporary container

To run a container that will be deleted on exit, use the following command:

docker run --platform linux/amd64 --interactive --rm ubuntu:22.04 bash

References

• https://stackoverflow.com/a/76784548/1806760
• https://stackoverflow.com/q/69861107/1806760