Running Docker Desktop on Apple Silicon

Almost a year ago I posted about my use of Docker to streamline my development SQL instances and since then I’ve been working quite happily on my aging Mac - until I bought my shiny new Macbook Pro and my instructions didn’t result in a runnable container.

Now I’d checked out a lot of things before putting my hand in my pocket and shelling out for the Macbook and I was wondering what I’d done - maybe I’d fallen at the first hurdle and should have just bought a ‘regular’ Windows laptop instead.

Well, I wasn’t having that - no, not at all.

As with so many problems in technology, I cannot possibly be the first person to have bumped into the, especially as this is an Apple M3 CPU - the 3rd generation of Apple Silicon, surely the early adopters ran into this.

Well, after trawling the internet and going down some blind alleys I managed to get SQL running on Docker on my Macbook Pro, M3 Pro.

TLDR; Basically you need to install the Apple Rosetta application, make sure you are running the latest version of Docker Desktop and enable the use of Rosetta for x86/amd64 emulation.

Pulling the trigger on Mac

I’ve been thinking about going all in on Mac for a while now and with my current one no receiving OS upgrades I am now unable to install the latest version of xCode which means I can’t build Xamarin/MAUI apps targeting iOS devices.

Well, today I finally pulled the trigger and order a new MacBook Pro (MBP) which will be delivered in a couple of days. I’m really looking forward to the performance improvements from my 2015 Macbook Pro and my i7 Windows Workstation (custom built in 2010) to the new M3 Pro CPU in my new purchase.

People I’ve worked with in the past will recall me saying things like ‘you can put an Apple device in my cold dead hands’ but times change and views need to change with them, even mine.

But I could have bought 2 or 3 laptops for what I’ve just spent on the new Macbook - why didn’t I just get a decent laptop for say £1000? Well, it mainly comes down to my need/desire to develop mobile applications.

So, that was 2023 then

I doesn’t seem like nearly 12 months ago that I wrote about my plans for this year and I couldn’t have had any idea how difficult and challenging a year it was going to be.

Docker Desktop issues with Gitlab on Mac

A little while ago I installed Ubuntu on my aging iMac and subsequently installed Gitlab on it with a view to bring as much of my source code on premise as possible.

As frequently happens, a proof of concept investigation soon becomes something you rely on but it still needs some of the basics sorting out - in the case of my Gitlab instance this means docker image upgrades and a backup/restore process.

I have to say I was both surprised and pleased to see the frequency of the docker image updates but so far I’ve not installed any of them as I need to investigate and verify that I can backup and restore everything in the event that an image update goes wrong or I have a hardware failure of some sort.

With the iMac running my ‘production’ instance and Gitlab not apparently supporting a Docker installation on Windows that only leaves my MacBook Pro (MBP) to perform my investigations.

The first thing was to install and configure Gitlab via Docker on the MBP …. that should be a walk in the park yes?

Well, as I’m writing about it you can correctly assume that wasn’t the case.

Wifi printing from a Mac, simple huh?

People say that there are only two certainties in life, death and taxes, but they always forget about the third one - printing.

Love it, hate it or deny it we all need to print something at some time. Whether it’s a boarding pass, a Click & Collect receipt or a form that has to have an ink signature before being scanned and emailed back.

Before you start shouting about ‘you can store all this on your phone old man’ just remember that we don’t always have a signal or infinite battery charge - just saying!

Well, if you are running Windows this doesn’t seem to be much of a problem. Printer manufacturers create drivers and installation packages and utilities to grease the wheels for Windows users. But what about Mac users - it’s that same for them right? Right?