Docker Desktop Preview for Apple M1 releases

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A new version of Docker Desktop Preview for Apple M1 has been released. Unlike the previous version of Docker Desktop Preview based on a private branch, the new version integrates all code into the main development branch, and the entire process is automated, and new previews will be released regularly thereafter.

Highlights of this update:
  • Kubernetes now works (although you might need to reset the cluster in our Troubleshoot menu one time to regenerate the certificates).
  • The host.docker.internal and vm.docker.internal DNS entries now resolve.
  • We removed hard-coded IP addresses: it now dynamically discovers the IP allocated by macOS.
  • osxfs file sharing now works.
  • We made a configuration change that should improve disk performance.
  • The Restart option in the Docker menu works.
Main work still in progress:
  • HTTP proxy support. At the moment the HTTP proxy configured on the host is ignored.
In addition, there are currently some issues that cannot be controlled temporarily, and only the following suggestions can be given:
  • Some corporate security or VPN software blocks the connection between the host and the VM, or the VM and the outside world. This can happen even if it doesn’t happen on Intel Macs because we had to switch to a new connection method with Apple’s new virtualization framework. There are some possible workarounds posted by users on our github issue, https://github.com/docker/for-mac/issues/5208.
  • If you are trying to run Intel-based containers on an M1 machine, they can sometimes crash. We are using a piece of software called qemu to emulate Intel chips on M1 but it occasionally fails to run the container. Where possible we recommend sticking to arm64 containers on M1 machines; they will also be faster.

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