How to install Rancher Desktop on Linux and macOS

Jack Wallen shows you how to install the Docker desktop alternative Rancher Desktop on both Linux and macOS.

Docker Desktop is one of the most popular GUI tools for developing and managing Docker containers. However, it is not alone in the world of Docker GUIs. While many Docker GUIs have come and gone, some have stood the test of time. One such GUI tool is Rancher Desktop.

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With Rancher Desktop you will enjoy features such as:

• Kubernetes integration
• image management
• Vulnerability scanning of images
• composition
• Troubleshooting
• And more

One thing I like about Rancher Desktop is that it handles tasks like Kubernetes integration automatically. All you have to do is select the runtime environment and Rancher Desktop will do the rest.

You should also know that Rancher Desktop is not a Docker container manager, it is a Kubernetes container manager. Rancher Desktop uses either containerd or Moby as the runtime engine, so Docker doesn’t need to be installed. However, I have found that a Docker installation does not interfere with the installation or use of Rancher Desktop.

I want to show you how to install Rancher Desktop on both Linux and macOS.

What you need to install Rancher Desktop

First you need to install Rancher Desktop as a running instance of Linux and macOS. I will mainly focus on the Linux side of things and use Pop!_OS.

On Linux you also need:

• A distribution that can support .deb or .rpm packages or AppImages
• An x86_64 processor with either AMD-V or VT-x
• Read and write access to /dev/kvm, which can be checked with the command [ -r /dev/kvm ] && [ -w /dev/kvm ] || echo 'insufficient privileges'

On macOS you need:

• macOS Catalina 10.15 or later
• Apple Silicon (M1) or Intel CPU with VT-x

For both instances you need at least 8 GB RAM and 4 CPUs.

That’s it: let’s get to work.

How to Install Rancher Desktop on Linux

There is an extra step you need to do on Linux and that is setting up Pass. First install Pass with:

sudo apt-get install pass -y

After installing pass, create a gpg key with:

gpg --generate-key

Answer the questions and give the new key a strong/unique password. You should see a string in the output that looks something like this:

D9294B1289455DB88C0920DE856A0FC952349B9

Once the key is created, initialize pass with your key using the following command:

pass init KEY

Where KEY is the key from the above output.

Next we can install Rancher Desktop. To do this, first add the Rancher GPG key with:

curl -s https://download.opensuse.org/repositories/isv:/Rancher:/stable/deb/Release.key | gpg --dearmor | sudo dd status=none of=/usr/share/keyrings/isv-rancher-stable-archive-keyring.gpg

Next add the repository with:

echo 'deb [signed-by=/usr/share/keyrings/isv-rancher-stable-archive-keyring.gpg] https://download.opensuse.org/repositories/isv:/Rancher:/stable/deb/ ./' | sudo dd status=none of=/etc/apt/sources.list.d/isv-rancher-stable.list

Finally, update apt and install Rancher Desktop with:

sudo apt update
sudo apt install rancher-desktop

You should now see the Rancher Desktop Launcher on your desktop menu. Open the app and you’ll be greeted by the initial setup tool (Figure A).

Figure A

Make sure you select the latest version of Kubernetes, select containerd as the runtime environment, and set the PATH configuration to automatic. Once you’ve done that, click Accept and you should see the main Rancher Desktop window with a progress bar at the bottom left showing the Kubernetes download status (Figure B).

Figure B

After Kubernetes is downloaded and installed, you can use Rancher Desktop.

How to install Rancher Desktop on macOS

macOS installation is significantly easier than Linux. All you have to do is download the correct Rancher Desktop binary installer (for x86_64, mac.aarch64 or aarch64) and double click on the file once downloaded. You should see the same GUI windows as the Linux installation.

The only difference with macOS is that you have to grant the administrator access to the network configuration (Figure C).

Figure C

Click OK and enter your user password when prompted. Rancher Desktop will then start downloading the necessary bits for Kubernetes and you’re good to go.

And that’s all there is to installing Rancher Desktop on both Linux and macOS. Next time we visit this handy GUI, we will discover how to use the tool.

Have fun with container management!

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