Cannot exec to a running container - docker

Question

After running docker container,docker run -d --name nginx nginx, I cannot use "docker exec", docker exec nginx echo 123, on this container.
I'm receiving an error:
ERRO[2018-08-19T11:09:10.909894729+03:00] stream copy error: reading from a closed fifo
ERRO[2018-08-19T11:09:10.909988081+03:00] stream copy error: reading from a closed fifo
ERRO[2018-08-19T11:09:10.931102317+03:00] Error running exec 19c6ae3c5d796180e02577f037f6a1bd1453b70393098643719dea3537933ae2 in container: OCI runtime exec failed: exec failed: container_linux.go:348: starting container process caused "process_linux.go:86: executing setns process caused \"exit status 22\"": unknown`
OS: ubuntu 14.04
Kernel: 3.13.0-153-generic
Docker: Docker version 18.06.0-ce, build 0ffa825
Docker Info:
Containers: 1
Running: 1
Paused: 0
Stopped: 0
Images: 1
Server Version: 18.06.0-ce
Storage Driver: aufs
Root Dir: /var/lib/docker/165536.165536/aufs
Backing Filesystem: extfs
Dirs: 5
Dirperm1 Supported: false
Logging Driver: json-file
Cgroup Driver: cgroupfs
Plugins:
Volume: local
Network: bridge host macvlan null overlay
Log: awslogs fluentd gcplogs gelf journald json-file logentries splunk syslog
Swarm: inactive
Runtimes: runc
Default Runtime: runc
Init Binary: docker-init
containerd version: d64c661f1d51c48782c9cec8fda7604785f93587
runc version: 69663f0bd4b60df09991c08812a60108003fa340
init version: fec3683
Security Options:
apparmor
userns
Kernel Version: 3.13.0-153-generic
Operating System: Ubuntu 14.04.5 LTS
OSType: linux
Architecture: x86_64
CPUs: 4
Total Memory: 3.86GiB
Name: **************
ID: OL25:ISXX:RWR7:EY76:OQ6O:XLWG:ETWJ:FV2A:MC6A:ROP7:6DWD:DJX4
Docker Root Dir: /var/lib/docker/165536.165536
Debug Mode (client): false
Debug Mode (server): false
Registry: https://index.docker.io/v1/
Labels:
Experimental: false
Insecure Registries:
127.0.0.0/8
Live Restore Enabled: false
Thanks!

Answer 1

That can happen when them use ENTRYPOINT instead of CMD. Check your image/container with "docker inspect". Your commandline argument becomes a CMD of ENTRYPOINT.
https://docs.docker.com/engine/reference/builder/#understand-how-cmd-and-entrypoint-interact

Answer 2

I could reproduce this issue whenever I executed docker run -it opensuse/leap followed by exit command. The container is actually stopped after exit command, but still showed running in docker ps.
Solution: Restart your docker daemon. And then try running your containers once again. If they stop, they won't show running status.
command: service docker restart
This worked in my case.

Answer 3

Please update your Kernel. Although Docker should work with most Kernel 3.10+ versions, there are often low level issues with older Kernels. See also https://github.com/moby/moby/issues/36084#issuecomment-364886573 for a seemingly same issue with a working solution:
updated to HWE ( 4.13.0-32-generic) and exec works again, however keep in mind that stock 16.04 uses 4.4.0 kernels - there should some kind of warning (at least) that specific versions combination will not work