Docker build "Could not resolve 'archive.ubuntu.com'" apt-get fails to install anything

Asked 28/7, 2014 at 8:25 Answered 28/4, 2023 at 18:15

140

I've been trying to run Docker build on various files which previously worked before, which are now no longer working.

As soon as the Docker file included any line that was to install software it would fail with a message saying that the package was not found.

RUN apt-get -y install supervisor nodejs npm

The common message which showed up in the logs was

Could not resolve 'archive.ubuntu.com'

Any idea why any software will not install?

Alegar answered 28/7, 2014 at 8:25 Comment(3)

this will happen when machine gets disconnected from the net ... I have seen that happen on linux laptop with a new docker install if I only issue newgrp docker instead of doing a full log off then login after giving myself sudo usermod -aG docker myuserid ... its an edge case for sure however it does happen – Outcry 25/11, 2018 at 18:14

@ScottStensland This saved me! Rebooting my computer. Maybe you could add this as a full answer! – Hurtless 11/1 at 8:24

In my case, the external firewall of my provider was the culprit. Disabling it during docker compose build fixed the problem. I don't know which requests should be allowed. – Wivern 14/3 at 13:18

109

After much headache I found the answer. Could not resolve 'archive.ubuntu.com' can be fixed by making the following changes:

Uncomment the following line in /etc/default/docker
DOCKER_OPTS="--dns 8.8.8.8 --dns 8.8.4.4"
Restart the Docker service sudo service docker restart
Delete any images which have cached the invalid DNS settings.
Build again and the problem should be solved.

Credit goes to Andrew SB

Alegar answered 28/7, 2014 at 8:25 Comment(20)

you can also add --no-cache=true if you'd rather not do #3 above – Michigan 23/10, 2014 at 16:58

Thanks @Michigan I didn't know about that command at the time. That's a better idea. – Alegar 23/10, 2014 at 18:54

Does someone know where this etc file is located within OSX ? – Monasticism 10/7, 2015 at 8:43

If you used homebrew I believe it is in /usr/local/share/etc or maybe /usr/share/etc, but not at Mac to check. I always forget myself. – Alegar 10/7, 2015 at 12:51

I just occurred to me you might have to edit they file in the boot2docker vm. Try running "boot2docker ssh" then check to see if the /etc/defaults/docker file is there. – Alegar 10/7, 2015 at 13:10

This isn't working for me and I have no idea why. I've been fighting this on and off for weeks. – Hoxie 21/7, 2015 at 16:23

@CoreyOgburn I looked and don't see a way to edit this config in boot2docker. It's possible the /etc/defaults/docker file needs to be manually created. – Alegar 21/7, 2015 at 16:25

I'm running on linux mint so there is no boot2docker. /etc/default/docker is created and has the DOCKER_OPTS flag above. I've restarted the service, cleared out all images and containers but still nothing. – Hoxie 21/7, 2015 at 16:26

I'm just trying to get the stupid docker-whale tutorial to work. – Hoxie 21/7, 2015 at 16:27

@CoreyOgburn I would also try the --no-cache=true as mentioned above by jschorr. ex: docker build --no-cache=true ... – Alegar 21/7, 2015 at 16:30

I ran docker build --no-cache=true -t docker-whale . but nothing different seems to have happened. – Hoxie 21/7, 2015 at 16:34

This doesn't work for me either, using VMWare and Ubuntu15.04 as host. However, it does work on boot2docker. – Tidbit 30/9, 2015 at 21:45

I ran into this problem after updating docker-compose from 1.4.0 to 1.4.2 (on a Mac and VirtualBox). Restarting my computer solved it for me. – Hydrophone 4/10, 2015 at 16:19

@CoreyOgburn Did you manage to find an alternative solution? I'm becoming mad with the same issue – Houri 11/4, 2016 at 16:42

@Houri Nope, gave up. I'm not running across jobs that are using Docker anyway so I lost interest entirely. – Hoxie 11/4, 2016 at 18:47

@CoreyOgburn and @rosysnake, you might try adding the file /etc/docker/daemon.json as I describe in my answer. It's kinda frustrating to be hit with such a technical roadblock so early on! Corey, hopefully my fix will spark new interest ;) – Richardo 9/11, 2016 at 22:24

Also fixed by resetting to factory installation on mac. Must have been that it was looking for 8.8.8.8 but I didn't have the defaults file listed in this answer, so I just reset it. – Wafture 4/8, 2017 at 19:15

If none of the above works, use the --network=host option with the docker build commands, and --net=host for docker run. – Cumae 22/2, 2020 at 10:15

After few days googling, still cannot fix the issue, I used ubuntu 18 on a Virtual box machine. – Pincenez 29/10, 2021 at 4:28

This was the solution for me (running on Ubuntu 20.02 @ WSL2 using native docker, not Docker Desktop for Windows). I fail at understand why I suddenly needed to do that although it earlier worked without the change. – Prescript 30/3, 2023 at 7:9

278

Uncommenting DOCKER_OPTS="--dns 8.8.8.8 --dns 8.8.4.4" in /etc/default/docker as Matt Carrier suggested did NOT work for me. Nor did putting my corporation's DNS servers in that file. But, there's another way (read on).

First, let's verify the problem:

$ docker run --rm busybox nslookup google.com   # takes a long time
nslookup: can't resolve 'google.com'   # <--- appears after a long time
Server:    8.8.8.8
Address 1: 8.8.8.8

If the command appears to hang, but eventually spits out the error "can't resolve 'google.com'", then you have the same problem as me.

The nslookup command queries the DNS server 8.8.8.8 in order to turn the text address of 'google.com' into an IP address. Ironically, 8.8.8.8 is Google's public DNS server. If nslookup fails, public DNS servers like 8.8.8.8 might be blocked by your company (which I assume is for security reasons).

You'd think that adding your company's DNS servers to DOCKER_OPTS in /etc/default/docker should do the trick, but for whatever reason, it didn't work for me. I describe what worked for me below.

SOLUTION:

On the host (I'm using Ubuntu 16.04), find out the primary and secondary DNS server addresses:

$ nmcli dev show | grep 'IP4.DNS'
IP4.DNS[1]:              10.0.0.2
IP4.DNS[2]:              10.0.0.3

Using these addresses, create a file /etc/docker/daemon.json:

$ sudo su root
# cd /etc/docker
# touch daemon.json

Put this in /etc/docker/daemon.json:

{                                                                          
    "dns": ["10.0.0.2", "10.0.0.3"]                                                                           
}

Exit from root:

# exit

Now restart docker:

$ sudo service docker restart

VERIFICATION:

Now check that adding the /etc/docker/daemon.json file allows you to resolve 'google.com' into an IP address:

$ docker run --rm busybox nslookup google.com
Server:    10.0.0.2
Address 1: 10.0.0.2
Name:      google.com
Address 1: 2a00:1450:4009:811::200e lhr26s02-in-x200e.1e100.net
Address 2: 216.58.198.174 lhr25s10-in-f14.1e100.net

REFERENCES:

I based my solution on an article by Robin Winslow, who deserves all of the credit for the solution. Thanks, Robin!

"Fix Docker's networking DNS config." Robin Winslow. Retrieved 2016-11-09. https://robinwinslow.uk/2016/06/23/fix-docker-networking-dns/

Richardo answered 9/11, 2016 at 22:19 Comment(22)

Nice write-up to say the least – Amoeboid 9/11, 2016 at 22:29

I received an error, that the service can not be started after the changes. This was because I modified the DOCKER_OPTS in /etc/default/docker and /etc/init.d/docker . Reverting the changes resolved the startup problem of the docker service – Flor 3/1, 2017 at 11:20

This worked for me (on a company network) while the accepted solution did not. – Arsis 9/1, 2017 at 4:25

This worked for me as well while the accepted solution did not. I used nslookup to get my DNS server IP though not nmcli. – Pieplant 24/1, 2017 at 1:57

I can also verify this method worked for me, from within my corporate network. – Loring 27/2, 2017 at 17:38

If you add the DNS servers in the file /etc/default/docker file as DOCKER_OPTS="--dns 10.0.0.2 --dns 10.0.0.2 --dns 8.8.8.8 --dns 8.8.4.4" This will also work. – Saiff 24/3, 2017 at 6:31

perfect solution for ubuntu 16.04 – Nocturn 13/4, 2017 at 13:25

As others have noted the accepted answer did not work for me, but this did. – Corabella 28/4, 2017 at 6:59

I had the same issue it worked for me . thanks. can you just explain whats the reason for daemon.json? what is it ? a good link would be appreciated. – Kotick 14/5, 2017 at 4:53

daemon.json works for me as well! And you can check if your company has blocked 8.8.8.8 by this command nslookup google.com 8.8.8.8 In my case it is so I got this error connection timed out; no servers could be reached – Bryce 3/7, 2017 at 15:46

Works for Ubuntu 17.04. After a fresh new docker installation, I wasn't being able to reach the internet from inside the containers. – Georgiana 13/9, 2017 at 7:32

did not work for me, I was missing the docker-machine docs.docker.com/machine – Abc 9/2, 2018 at 14:44

Awesome! Thank you for saving me from two days struggle! I use Ubuntu 16.04.4 and install the docker DEB from here download.docker.com/linux/ubuntu/dists/xenial/pool/stable/amd64/…. When I build an image the docker is stuck at "apt-get update". I try to modify the DNS in /etc/default/docker and comment dns=dnsmasq in /etc/NetworkManager/NetworkManager.conf. However,neither of them works. This answer is exactly the solution to my problem! Thank you,dude! – Grounder 14/3, 2018 at 3:9

this is the only working solution! I wonder why docker has this peculiarity, why it cannot work like every other application that does work without having to specify dns to it – Orangutan 2/5, 2018 at 16:53

so this is a less-hacky solution that will not have to be changed if those DNS ips change by net admins – Orangutan 2/5, 2018 at 17:1

I think the reason /etc/default/docker didn't work for some people is (quoting a comment from the file) # THIS FILE DOES NOT APPLY TO SYSTEMD – Deledda 8/8, 2018 at 11:8

worked for me - added daemon.json file and restarted the docker , worked like charm – Phospholipide 16/1, 2019 at 9:48

The university I work at blocks all DNS requests off the university's network for security reasons. I had to use this technique to set the DNS hosts for Docker to the local ones. – Cobweb 16/7, 2019 at 18:5

This did not solve my issue, I still have the problem ;; connection timed out; no servers could be reached I am receiving this error once I connect through the VPN of my university. When I disconnect the VPN is still not working. It starts working again only if I restart my computer, which I think restarts the overall network architecture. I don't know why. – Underpass 5/8, 2020 at 10:0

Just a note that this answer led me to fix the problem, but for me the fix turned out to be the opposite of what is suggested: My problem was that /etc/docker/daemon.json had a stale "dns" entry that was left over from an old install and was no longer valid. My fix was to remove the incorrect "dns" entry in daemon.json and let docker default to importing the host's DNS configuration. – Crippling 24/2, 2021 at 9:26

I faced this error: ** server can't find google.com: NXDOMAIN *** Can't find google.com: No answer – Pincenez 29/10, 2021 at 7:21

For more robust help, i.e. for MacOS/X, add the { "dns": ["ip1", "ip2", ..."ipn"] } to your $HOME/.docker/daemon.json file – Josephjosepha 23/1, 2023 at 1:5

109

After much headache I found the answer. Could not resolve 'archive.ubuntu.com' can be fixed by making the following changes:

Uncomment the following line in /etc/default/docker
DOCKER_OPTS="--dns 8.8.8.8 --dns 8.8.4.4"
Restart the Docker service sudo service docker restart
Delete any images which have cached the invalid DNS settings.
Build again and the problem should be solved.