Linux is a slightly different way of thinking. There are any number of ways that you can solve any problem you have. In Windows there are usually only one or two that work. This is largely a result of the hacker mentality from which linux and Unix came from. “If you don’t like how it works, rewrite it your way” and “Read the F***ing Manual” were frequent refrains when I started playing with linux.

Mint is a fine distro which is based off of Ubuntu, if I remember correctly. Most documentation that applies to Ubuntu will also apply to you.

Not sure what exactly you installed, but I’m guessing that you did something along the lines of sudo apt-get install docker.

If you did that without doing anything ahead of time, what you probably got was a slightly out of date version of docker only from Mint’s repositories. Follow the instructions here to uninstall whatever you installed and install docker from docker’s own repositories.

The Docker Desktop that you may be used to from Windows is available for linux, however it is not part of the default install usually. You might look at this documentation.

I don’t use it, as I prefer ctop combined with docker-compose.

Towards that end, here is my docker-compose.yaml for my instance of Audiobookshelf. I have it connected to my Tailscale tailnet, but if you comment out the tailscale service stuff and uncomment the port section in the audiobookshelf service, you can run it directly. Assuming your not making any changes,

Create a directory somewhere,

mkdir ~/docker

mkdir ~/docker/audiobookshelf

This creates a directory in your home directory called docker and then a directory within that one called audiobookshelf. Now we want to enter that directory.

cd ~/docker/audiobookshelf

Then create your docker compose file

touch docker-compose.yaml

You can edit this file with whatever text editor you like, but I prefer micro which you may not have installed.

micro docker-compose.yaml

and then paste the contents into the file and change whatever setting you need to for your system. At a minimum you will need to change the volumes section so that the podcast and audiobook paths point to the correct location on your system. it follows the format <system path>:<container path>.

Once you’ve made all the needed changes, save and exit the editor and start the the instance by typing

sudo docker compose up -d

Now, add the service directly to your tailnet by opening a shell in the tailscale container

sudo docker exec -it audiobookshelf-tailscale /bin/sh

and then typing

tailscale up

copy the link it gives you into your browser to authenticate the instance. Assuming that neither you or I made any typos you should now be able to access audiobookshelf from http://books If you chose to comment out all the tailscale stuff you would find it at http://localhost:13378

docker-compose.yaml

version: "3.7"
services:
  tailscale:
    container_name: audiobookshelf-tailscale
    hostname: books                         # This will become the tailscale device name
    image: ghcr.io/tailscale/tailscale:latest
    volumes:
      - "./tailscale_var_lib:/var/lib"        # State data will be stored in this directory
      - "/dev/net/tun:/dev/net/tun"           # Required for tailscale to work
    cap_add:                                    # Required for tailscale to work
      - net_admin
      - sys_module
    command: tailscaled
    restart: unless-stopped
  audiobookshelf:
    container_name: audiobookshelf
    image: ghcr.io/advplyr/audiobookshelf:latest
    restart: unless-stopped
#    ports:                                                                  # Not needed due to tailscale
#      - 13378:80                                                                                                     
    volumes:
      - '/mnt/nas/old_media_server/media/books/Audio Books:/audiobooks'       # This line has quotes because there is a space that needed to be escaped.
      - /mnt/nas/old_media_server/media/podcasts:/podcasts                               # See, no quotes needed here, better to have them though.
      - /opt/audiobookshelf/config:/config                                       # I store my docker services in the /opt directory. You may want to change this to './config' and './metadata' while your playing around
      - /opt/audiobookshelf/metadata:/metadata
    network_mode: service:tailscale                                  # This line tells the audiobookshelf container to send all traffic to tailscale container

I’ve left my docker-compose file as-is so you can see how it works in my setup.

Docker is professional software and because of that isn’t always the most intuitive thing to use.

The first big thing to get your head around is that there is no GUI. Everything you do to manage docker is through the command line. If you really want to, there’s some third party GUI software for managing Docker, but I haven’t used it in the 2 years I’ve been using Docker.

Once you’ve installed docker, there’s a little bit of setup required to make it run smoothly. The Docker Docs page on Linux post-installation steps has detailed instructions on how to do that and how to run a test container

Docker is a pain in the dick

I strongly suggest that you install portainer if this is your first time playing with docker.

It’ll make your life and learning curve dramatically easier.

I’m not suggesting you dont learn how to do it all over CLI (I actually think CLI is way easier and faster to deploy once you get the hang of it), but if you’re looking to deploy something right away, I believe portainer is your best bet.

Is there a Linux for people who are deeply entrenched in how Windows works?

Zorin is this, though your choice of Mint is good too. It will not help you understand docker though.

If you’re trying to do Audibookshelf on a home server CasaOS made docker super easy for me.

AI can be of great help when learning docker, as it is genuinely super confusing. You don’t “find” docker, it’s a terminal program that you interact with… From the terminal.

I’m gonna get A LOT of hate for this, but check out Warp terminal. It has a really nice GUI for configuration and really nice autocomplete for commands.

OP: chatGPT is your personal Linux guru. Pretend it’s your friend who knows everything about linux and tell it what you want to achieve.

Paste in any error messages and it will tell you how to fix them. Just make sure it knows what distro you’re using first.

That’s how I learned to use docker :)

how the hell do I find docker

Type “docker” in terminal and hit enter. Since it’s installed, your system will likely recognize it as a command and populate a help menu for you. You’ll want to visit docker’s website for a full manual.

I think it will be easier to use docker compose with a premade docker compose file.

Create a new directory cd into it and then nano docker-compose.yaml. For instance, here is a docker compose I found one the audio bookshelf website:

version: "3.7"
  services: 
    audiobookshelf:
      image: ghcr.io/advplyr/audiobookshelf:latest
      ports: - 13378:80
      volumes:
        - </path/to/audiobooks>:/audiobooks
        - </path/to/podcasts>:/podcasts - </path/to/config>:/config
        - </path/to/metadata>:/metadata

https://www.audiobookshelf.org/docs/#docker-compose-install

Docker is one of the container technologies

Containers vs Images

This is a very simplified explanation, which hopefully clears up for you. As with all simplifications, they aren’t entirely correct.

Containers put processes, files, and networking into a space where they are secluded from the rest. You main OS is called the host and the container is called the guest. You can selectively share resources with the guest. To use an analogy, if you house were the computer with linux, if you took a room, put tools and resources for those tools into it, put workers into it, got them to start working and locked the door, they’d be contained in the room, unable to break out. If you want to give workers access to resources, you either a window, a corridor, or even a door depending on much access you want to give them.

Containers are created from an image. Think of it as the tools, resources, and configuration required every time you create a room in your house for workers to do a job. The woodworkers will need different tools and resources than say metalworkers.

Most images are stored on DockerHub. So when you do docker pull linuxserver/sonarr you download the image. When you do docker run linuxserver/sonarr you create a container from an image.

Installation

You’re on Cinnamon Mint which is linux distribution derived from another linux distribution called debian. You have to follow the installation instructions. Everything is there. If something doesn’t work, it’s most likely because you skipped a step. The most important ones are the post-installation steps:

• Adding your user to the docker group
• Logging out and back in (or simply restarting)

Those are the most commonly missed steps. I’ve fallen for this trap too!

Local help

To use linux, you need to learn about ways to help yourself or find help. On linux, most well-written programs print a help. Simply running the command without any arguments most often output a help text --> running docker does so. If they don’t, then the --help flag often does --> docker --help. The shorthand is -h --> docker -h.

Some commands have sub commands e.g docker run, docker image, docker ps, … . Those subcommands also take flags of which -h and --help are available.

The help output is often not extensive and programs often have a manual. To access it the command is man --> man find will output the manual for the find command. Docker doesn’t have a local manual but an online one.

For clarification when running a command there are different ways to interpret the text after the command:

Flags/Options

These are named parameters to the command. Some do not take input like -h and --help which are called flags. Some do like --file /etc/passwd and are often called options.

Arguments

These are unnamed parameters and each command interprets them differently. echo "hello world" --> echo is the command and "hello world" is the argument. Some commands can take multiple arguments

Running containers

Imperatively

As described above docker run linuxserver/sonarr runs an image in a container. However, it runs in the foreground (as opposed to the background in what is most often called a “daemon”). Starting in the foreground is most likely not how you want to run things as that means if you close your terminal, you end the process too. To run something in the background, you use docker run --detatch linuxserver/sonarr.

You can pass options like -v or --volume to make a file or folder from your host system available in the guest e.g -v /path/on/host:/tmp/path/in/guest. Or -p / --port to forward a host port to a guest port e.g -p 8080:80. That means if you access port 8080 on your host, the traffic will be forwarded to port 80 in the guest.

These are imperatives as in you command the computer to do a specific action. Run that docker image, stop that docker container, restart these containers, start a container with this port forward and that volume with this user …

Declaratively

If you don’t want to keep typing the same commands, you can declare everything about your containers up front. Their volumes, ports, environment variables, which image is used, which network card/interface they have access to, which other network they share with other containers, and so on.

This is done with docker-compose or docker compose for newer docker versions (not all operating systems have the new docker version).

This already a long text, so if you want to know more, the best resource is the docker compose manual and the compose file reference.

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Hopefully this helped with the basics and understanding what you’re doing. There are probably great video resources out there that explain it more didactically than I do with steps you can follow along.

Good luck!

CC BY-NC-SA 4.0

If you’re not planning to actually learn Docker, use an LLM AI to help you out. I just tried the following prompt in Gemini “generate docker-compose.yml that runs audiobookshelf and Sonarr with Sabnzbd” and it generated something that looks reasonable. Then you can follow it up with prompts like “how do I auto start it on linux?” and it will generate the systemd unit, and also tell you what commands to run.

I remember being so lost in the dark when starting docker. There’s 2 main approaches to launching docker containers. One is with CLI arguments and one is from a docker-compose.yml file.

I highly recommend the latter.

Try going to chatGPT and ask it to write a docker compose file for whatever service you’re trying to stand up.

Ok, so I don’t know the specifics, this might not be entirely accurate, but this is a general step-by-step guide for Debian based distros like Mint.

Install docker

The first thing you need to do is install docker, this can be done via whatever GUI you use for a package manager or via the terminal using sudo apt install docker (I’m not sure docker is the name of the package, I’m just guessing, you can do an apt search docker to see what’s available)

Add yourself to dockers

This is likely not needed on Mint, but just in case your user should be in the docker group, i.e. run sudo gpasswd -a docker. I’m almost sure Mint does this by default.

Enable docker systemd

This also might not be needed, again I’m almost sure Mint does this for you when you install docker, but just in case the command is sudo systemctl enable docker

Reboot

Because there have been changes to your user groups you need to relogin, easier to reboot.

use docker

Now you have a system with docker, you can test this by running the following command docker run hello-world, if you see a bunch of text that contains “Hello from docker” docker is working.

setup a docker-compose file

Create a folder, and in that folder create a text file called docker-compose.yaml in that file. This file will tell docker what you want to run, for example to have Nextcloud (which is an awesome self-hosted drive alternative. I’m not going to teach you the specific services you want, you can figure those out by looking at their page on the linuxserver page or something) you can look here https://hub.docker.com/r/linuxserver/nextcloud on how to write your docker-compose file, for example you could write:

services:
  nextcloud:
    image: lscr.io/linuxserver/nextcloud:latest
    container_name: nextcloud
    environment:
      - PUID=1000
      - PGID=1000
      - TZ=Etc/UTC
    volumes:
      - ./config:/config
      - ./data:/data
    ports:
      - 8080:80
      - 443:443
    restart: unless-stopped

Then open a terminal on that folder and run docker compose up -d after that is done open a browser and go to http://localhost:8080 and begin using Nextcloud.

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

I’m also pretty new to Linux, but I’ve finally gotten a bit of a grasp on it. I started learning Linux to set up a home server, so I also jumped straight into Docker. You have gotten some thorough replies, but I thought I’d share my chaotic journey with it that has ended in a decent ratio of success vs confusion. Note: I have used Ubuntu from the start.

Don’t use docker desktop. It’s garbage. Also, don’t use the Snap image.

$sudo apt install docker.io

$sudo apt install docker-compose

Those are both cli “programs”. They aren’t apps like you have on Windows. It seems VERY intimidating to talk into the void of the terminal, but you’ll build confidence. Docker commands work like any other commands, all in the same place.

Now install Portainer CE. The instructions are very simple to follow. You can reach Portainer through your browser at the localhost address it gives you, which you type directly into the URL bar. I think it’s http://localhost:9000.

Portainer will give you an easy visual way to manage Docker. You can perform many tasks through Portainer instead of using the command line. Honestly, I’m pretty sure you could do everything on Portainer and not even touch the terminal. I don’t suggest that because you will have to have at least a basic understanding of how Linux and Docker work. You will be confused, and you will feel crazy. Eventually, you’ll get more comfortable living in that psychosis.

On to Docker Compose!! This is my preferred way to run containers. I have a designated folder in /opt that I use for my compose files. This way, I know exactly how I set up my programs. My memory is awful and I tweak things so often that I’ll completely forget how I have even gotten to this point or where ANY of my files are. It’s pretty easy to find docker compose files online that you can copy and paste and it instantly works!

To make it simple, after I have saved my docker-compose.yaml file in the designated folder, I right click on the empty area and choose “open in terminal”.

$sudo docker-compose up -d

The -d instructs the program to continue to run, even if you exit out of the terminal. At this point, your container will also show up in portainer!

I think that covers the basics. My biggest tip is to keep a notepad handy to write down commands that you have to search for. Your bookmarks will fill up very quickly otherwise. Expect to get stuck sometimes. Expect to spend hours trying to troubleshoot an issue, then have it suddenly work with no idea what you actually did to fix it. Accept the win and never touch it again.

I have done fresh installs many times. Some because I’ve played with 10 different programs that I decided against and want the leftover files gone, some because I wanted to try different mixes of distros, and once because I legitimately broke the OS.

Keep your important stuff on an external drive to avoid any loss and don’t be afraid to mess around with it!

Btw, I’m a huge KDE plasma fan. It’s lighter than GNOME, but very user friendly. I’ve settled on Kubuntu as my distro of choice.