Building docker for the ARM-64 architecture - docker

Question

I have been trying to compile docker for the ARM-64 architecture. Docker doesn’t officially support ARM 64-bits (at least not through the package management tools); hence I have to build it from source. Building docker binary set needs docker itself as a dependency. I’ve already managed to compile both the docker daemon and the client via the following (hack) command:
./hack/make.sh dynbinary
However, I haven’t managed to run it successfully. Both binaries are compiled and work, but when I want to start up the daemon it complains about other dependencies:
Failed to connect to containerd. Please make sure containerd is installed in your PATH or you have specified the correct address. Got error: exec: "docker-containerd": executable file not found in $PATH
As I mentioned earlier, I cannot build all the binaries as they need docker itself running.
Looking forward to your help.

Answer 1

Two weeks ago, I was able to install Docker on a Pine64 running Armbian (Debian based). It was as easy as following the official documentation for armhf with one exception, change [arch=armhf] by [arch=arm64] when you add the new apt source.
After the install you have a real Arm64 docker running :
root#pine64:~# docker system info
Containers: 0
Running: 0
Paused: 0
Stopped: 0
Images: 60
Server Version: 17.12.0-ce
Storage Driver: aufs
Root Dir: /var/lib/docker/aufs
Backing Filesystem: extfs
Dirs: 28
Dirperm1 Supported: true
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: 89623f28b87a6004d4b785663257362d1658a729
runc version: b2567b37d7b75eb4cf325b77297b140ea686ce8f
init version: 949e6fa
Security Options:
apparmor
seccomp
Profile: default
Kernel Version: 3.10.107-pine64
Operating System: Debian GNU/Linux 8 (jessie)
OSType: linux
Architecture: aarch64
CPUs: 4
Total Memory: 979.6MiB
Name: pine64
ID: xxx
Docker Root Dir: /var/lib/docker
Debug Mode (client): false
Debug Mode (server): false
Username: xxx
Registry: https://index.docker.io/v1/
Labels:
Experimental: false
Insecure Registries:
127.0.0.0/8
Live Restore Enabled: false