I feel like I'm taking crazy pills

I installed a few different distros, landed on Cinnamon Mint. I’m not a tech dummy, but I feel I’m in over my head.

I installed Docker in the terminal (two things I’m not familiar with) but I can’t find it anywhere. Googled some stuff, tried to run stuff, and… I dunno.

I’m TRYING to learn docker so I can set up audiobookshelf and Sonarr with Sabnzbd.

Once it’s installed in the terminal, how the hell do I find docker so I can start playing with it?

Is there a Linux for people who are deeply entrenched in how Windows works? I’m not above googling command lines that I can copy and paste but I’ve spent HOURS trying to figure this out and have gotten no where…

Thanks! Sorry if this is the wrong place for this

EDIT : holy moly. I posted this and went to bed. Didn’t quite realize the hornets nest I was going to kick. THANK YOU to everyone who has and is about to comment. It tells you how much traction I usually get because I usually answer every response on lemmy and the former. For this one I don’t think I’ll be able to do it.

I’ve got a few little ones so time to sit and work on this is tough (thus 5h last night after they were in bed) but I’m going to start picking at all your suggestions (and anyone else who contributes as well)

Thank you so much everyone! I think windows has taught me to be very visually reliant and yelling into the abyss that is the terminal is a whole different beast - but I’m willing to give it a go!

Qantumentangled,

There’s not a fantastic GUI for managing docker. There are a few like dockge (my favorite) or Portainer.

I recommend spending some time learning docker run with exposed ports, bind volumes (map local folders from your drive to folders inside the container so you can access your files, configs, content, etc. Also so you don’t lose it when you delete the container and pull a newer version).

Once you’ve done that, check out the spec page for docker-compose.yaml. This is what you’ll eventually want to use to run your apps. It’s a single file that describes all the configuration and details required for multiple docker containers to run in the same environment. ie: postgres version 4.2 with a volume and 1 exposed port, nginx latest version with 2 volumes, 4 mapped ports, a hostname, restart unless-stopped, and running as user 1000:1000, etc.

I’ve been using docker for home a LIGHT business applications for 8 years now and docker-compose.yaml is really all you need until you start wanting high availability and cloud orchestration.

Some quick tips though.

  • Search some-FOSS-app-name docker-compose read through a dozen or so templates. Check the spec page to see what most of the terms mean. It’s the best way to learn how to structure your own compose files later.
  • Use other people’s compose.yaml files as templates to start from. Expect to change a few things for your own setup.
  • NEVER use restart: always. Never. Change it to restart: unless-stopped. Nothing is more annoying than stopping an app and having it keep doom spiraling. Especially at boot.
  • Take a minute to set the docker daemon or service to run at boot. It takes 1 google and 30 seconds, but it’ll save you when you drunkenly decide to update your host OS right before bed.
  • Use mapped folders for everything. If you map /srv/dumb-app/data:/data then anything that container saves to the /data folder is accessible to you on your host machine (with whatever user:group is running inside the container, so check that). If you use the docker volumes like EVERYONE seems to like doing, it’s a pain to ever get that data back out if you want to use it outside of docker.
themadcodger,
@themadcodger@kbin.social avatar

I would check out tutorials or YouTube videos. Try: https://drfrankenstein.co.uk/sabnzbd-in-container-manager-on-a-synology-nas/

spaghettiwestern,

Docker can be really confusing, but IMO being able to add and remove software without having changes made throughout your system is well worth the effort.

phanto,

I have been in and out of Linux for years and Docker is just… Hard. There’s a thing called portainer, and it makes it so you can muck with Docker from a web browser, and that is literally all I know at this point. Still, might be helpful? I have some Docker stuff, and it works the way I assume my mom thinks Linux works. Someone typed fast and magic happened. Best of luck!

SeaMauFive,

Honestly, for those tools, I’d recommend posting in piracy@lemmy.dbzer0.com.

Echoing some other comments, those are decently complex tools all around. I’d recommend doing a few tutorials on docker before trying out that project (short ones, just to build a mental model).

As others have said, docker is a command line tool. docker -v in your terminal should be enough to “find” it. That’ll show you the version of docker you have installed.

From there, I’d recommend the hello world image to start (this should get you there www.geeksforgeeks.org/docker-hello-world/).

From there, keep messing with it. Get more familiar with docker through their docs. Read a bit on images vs containers, port mapping, and volumes and mounts.

As others have said, look for docker only in the terminal. And then expect to spend a little time familiarizing yourself with what problem docker solves and how it solves it. Once you’ve got docker in your back pocket, you’ll be very well situated to set up all kinds of apps.

And when you run into other problems, there’s communities to answer and work through the issues

grue,

Once it’s installed in the terminal, how the hell do I find docker so I can start playing with it?

It’s not installed “in the terminal.” It’s installed on the computer; the terminal is just one way you might interact with it.

In particular, docker is a type of program called a ‘daemon’ or ‘server’: it runs in the background and doesn’t have an interface, per se. You can run docker commands and get their output, and you can of course interact with the services you’re using docker to run, but there is no “docker app” that runs as a foreground interactive process (either GUI app or ncurses terminal app).

CrabAndBroom,

TBH I’ve been using Linux for over a decade, can install & set up Arch from scratch etc. and I still don’t understand Docker.

nossaquesapao,

Keep in mind that you’re not just learning to use linux, but also learning to use docker,and docker is a complex tool by itself, which makes your journey significantly harder.

I never user Sabnzbd so I wouldn’t be of much help. However, you could post some of the problems you find, so that other people lay help you.

velox_vulnus,

Docker does not have a desktop app. You’re supposed to install either Docker desktop or Podman desktop (which also supports Docker).

agressivelyPassive,

There are distributions like CasaOS and TrueNAS Scale that try to offer at least a bit of graphical guidance for some popular apps.

Otherwise, you’re jumping into the server pool, Windows doesn’t really work that different from Linux in that area (in the sense that you can just click on things).

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