rootless still requires sudo

Contributing guidelines

I've read the contributing guidelines and wholeheartedly agree

I've found a bug, and:

The documentation does not mention anything about my problem
There are no open or closed issues that are related to my problem

Description

Hi,
I'm trying to run this action in a runner that uses a distroless image without sudo available.

Expected behaviour

setup-docker-action installs Docker without needing sudo.

Actual behaviour

I'm trying to run this action using rootless:

with:
  rootless: true

but I'm getting an error when it tries to start the Docker daemon.

Start Docker daemon
Error: Unable to locate executable file: sudo. Please verify either the file path exists or the file can be found within a directory specified by the PATH environment variable. Also check the file mode to verify the file is executable.

Repository URL

No response

Workflow run URL

No response

YAML workflow

- name: Setup Docker
  uses: docker/setup-docker-action@v4
  with:
    rootless: true

Workflow logs

No response

Docker daemon logs

Additional info

No response

Found the same error while running the action inside a container

jobs:
  test-e2e:
    name: 🚥 E2E test
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    container:
      image: mcr.microsoft.com/playwright:v1.51.1-noble
      options: --user 1001
    steps:
      - name: 🐳 Set up Docker
        uses: docker/setup-docker-action@v4
        with:
          rootless: true

@crazy-max

I have the same issue, i've noticed that the logs provided by the actions are slightly different when the rootless: true parameter is provided, so the problem is not on this end but in this actions-toolkit line of code. @crazy-max

Log with rootless: true:

2025-04-17T15:30:38.0333455Z ##[group]Start Docker daemon
2025-04-17T15:30:38.0369595Z ##[endgroup]
2025-04-17T15:30:38.0398613Z ##[error]Unable to locate executable file: sudo. Please verify either the file path exists or the file can be found within a directory specified by the PATH environment variable. Also check the file mode to verify the file is executable.
2025-04-17T15:30:38.0618205Z Post job cleanup.

Log with rootless: false:

> 2025-04-17T15:09:52.2825064Z ##[group]Start Docker daemon
2025-04-17T15:09:52.2837524Z [command] /__t/docker-archive-stable/28.0.4/x64/dockerd --host="unix:///github/home/setup-docker-action-10b1b8c4/docker.sock" --config-file="/github/home/setup-docker-action-10b1b8c4/daemon.json" --exec-root="/github/home/setup-docker-action-10b1b8c4/execroot" --data-root="/github/home/setup-docker-action-10b1b8c4/data" --pidfile="/github/home/setup-docker-action-10b1b8c4/docker.pid"
2025-04-17T15:09:52.2873385Z /bin/sh: 1: sudo: not found
2025-04-17T15:09:55.3050851Z ##[endgroup]
2025-04-17T15:09:55.3080792Z ##[error]The process '/__t/docker-archive-stable/28.0.4/x64/docker' failed with exit code 1
2025-04-17T15:09:55.3301118Z Post job cleanup.

I have the same issue, with rootless: true it does not have an option to accept user as input param:

2025-06-11T15:08:15.3074031Z ##[group]Run docker/setup-docker-action@b60f85385d03ac8acfca6d9996982511d8620a19
2025-06-11T15:08:15.3074819Z with:
2025-06-11T15:08:15.3075003Z   rootless: true
2025-06-11T15:08:15.3075380Z   daemon-config: {
  "debug": true,
  "features": {
    "containerd-snapshotter": true
  }
}

2025-06-11T15:08:15.3075751Z   version: latest
2025-06-11T15:08:15.3075939Z   set-host: false
2025-06-11T15:08:15.3076292Z ##[endgroup]
2025-06-11T15:08:15.6124218Z ##[group]Download docker
2025-06-11T15:08:15.6124931Z Downloading Docker latest from stable at download.docker.com
2025-06-11T15:08:15.8002738Z Downloading https://download.docker.com/linux/static/stable/x86_64/docker-28.2.2.tgz
2025-06-11T15:08:16.4646616Z [command]/usr/bin/tar xz --warning=no-unknown-keyword --overwrite -C /tmp/_temp/562f9c50-0c0f-44db-ace1-f8c17e6673b1 -f /tmp/_temp/088802bb-c489-454c-bef0-5fe453b62a11
2025-06-11T15:08:17.8837793Z Downloading Docker rootless extras latest from stable at download.docker.com
2025-06-11T15:08:17.9171413Z Downloading https://download.docker.com/linux/static/stable/x86_64/docker-rootless-extras-28.2.2.tgz
2025-06-11T15:08:19.0816210Z [command]/usr/bin/tar xz --warning=no-unknown-keyword --overwrite -C /tmp/_temp/0a90f6a6-a5b0-408d-a9d1-f1185893bbd1 -f /tmp/_temp/5784ffe6-6d0a-44b7-afc0-d413fc6ac07d
2025-06-11T15:08:19.4183114Z Fixing perms
2025-06-11T15:08:20.8892929Z Added Docker to PATH
2025-06-11T15:08:20.8894673Z ##[endgroup]
2025-06-11T15:08:20.8911687Z ##[group]Writing Docker daemon config
2025-06-11T15:08:20.8912611Z {
2025-06-11T15:08:20.8913067Z   "debug": true,
2025-06-11T15:08:20.8913790Z   "features": {
2025-06-11T15:08:20.8914367Z     "containerd-snapshotter": true
2025-06-11T15:08:20.8915043Z   }
2025-06-11T15:08:20.8915460Z }
2025-06-11T15:08:20.8916452Z ##[endgroup]
2025-06-11T15:08:20.8918839Z ##[group]Start Docker daemon
2025-06-11T15:08:20.8936507Z [command] /tmp/_tool/docker-archive-stable/28.2.2/x64/dockerd-rootless.sh --host="unix:///home/runner/setup-docker-action-380d21bc/docker.sock" --config-file="/home/runner/setup-docker-action-380d21bc/daemon.json" --exec-root="/home/runner/setup-docker-action-380d21bc/execroot" --data-root="/home/runner/setup-docker-action-380d21bc/data" --pidfile="/home/runner/setup-docker-action-380d21bc/docker.pid"
2025-06-11T15:08:20.9008240Z sudo: unknown user: #1001
2025-06-11T15:08:23.9181334Z ##[endgroup]
2025-06-11T15:08:23.9203025Z ##[error]The process '/tmp/_tool/docker-archive-stable/28.2.2/x64/docker' failed with exit code 1

Related issue: sudo is still required even if you're running the build container with --privileged option.

Fix apps/server test-isolation env leak and CI Chrome auto-detection …

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rootless still requires sudo #152

Contributing guidelines

I've found a bug, and:

Description

Expected behaviour

Actual behaviour

Repository URL

Workflow run URL

YAML workflow

Workflow logs

Docker daemon logs

Additional info

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rootless still requires sudo #152

Description

Contributing guidelines

I've found a bug, and:

Description

Expected behaviour

Actual behaviour

Repository URL

Workflow run URL

YAML workflow

Workflow logs

Docker daemon logs

Additional info

Activity

wladpaiva commented on Apr 3, 2025

GabrieleMessina commented on Apr 17, 2025

itsankit-google commented on Jun 11, 2025

v1993 commented on Jul 24, 2025

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