Docker version:

• Docker desktop: 4.42.1(196648)
• Engine: 28.2.2

Docker daemon is runing in linux mode:

Ingrated with the default WSL2 distro: Debian

Issues:

Can't connect to docker daemon from the WSL2 CLI:

$ sudo docker ps
Cannot connect to the Docker daemon at unix:///var/run/docker.sock. Is the docker daemon running?

But able to connect to the Docker daemon from the Windows CLI:

C:\>docker info
Client:
 Version:    28.2.2
 Context:    desktop-linux
 Debug Mode: false
 Plugins:
  ai: Docker AI Agent - Ask Gordon (Docker Inc.)
    Version:  v1.4.0
    Path:     C:\Program Files\Docker\cli-plugins\docker-ai.exe
  buildx: Docker Buildx (Docker Inc.)
    Version:  v0.24.0-desktop.2
    Path:     C:\Program Files\Docker\cli-plugins\docker-buildx.exe
  cloud: Docker Cloud (Docker Inc.)
    Version:  v0.3.9
    Path:     C:\Program Files\Docker\cli-plugins\docker-cloud.exe
  compose: Docker Compose (Docker Inc.)
    Version:  v2.37.1-desktop.1
    Path:     C:\Program Files\Docker\cli-plugins\docker-compose.exe
  debug: Get a shell into any image or container (Docker Inc.)
    Version:  0.0.41
    Path:     C:\Program Files\Docker\cli-plugins\docker-debug.exe
  desktop: Docker Desktop commands (Docker Inc.)
    Version:  v0.1.9
    Path:     C:\Program Files\Docker\cli-plugins\docker-desktop.exe
  extension: Manages Docker extensions (Docker Inc.)
    Version:  v0.2.29
    Path:     C:\Program Files\Docker\cli-plugins\docker-extension.exe
  init: Creates Docker-related starter files for your project (Docker Inc.)
    Version:  v1.4.0
    Path:     C:\Program Files\Docker\cli-plugins\docker-init.exe
  mcp: Docker MCP Plugin (Docker Inc.)
    Version:  dev
    Path:     C:\Program Files\Docker\cli-plugins\docker-mcp.exe
  model: Docker Model Runner (Docker Inc.)
    Version:  v0.1.24
    Path:     C:\Program Files\Docker\cli-plugins\docker-model.exe
  sbom: View the packaged-based Software Bill Of Materials (SBOM) for an image (Anchore Inc.)
    Version:  0.6.0
    Path:     C:\Program Files\Docker\cli-plugins\docker-sbom.exe
  scout: Docker Scout (Docker Inc.)
    Version:  v1.18.0
    Path:     C:\Program Files\Docker\cli-plugins\docker-scout.exe

Server:
 Containers: 41
  Running: 36
  Paused: 0
  Stopped: 5
 Images: 69
 Server Version: 28.2.2
 Storage Driver: overlay2
  Backing Filesystem: extfs
  Supports d_type: true
  Using metacopy: false
  Native Overlay Diff: true
  userxattr: false
 Logging Driver: json-file
 Cgroup Driver: cgroupfs
 Cgroup Version: 2
 Plugins:
  Volume: local
  Network: bridge host ipvlan macvlan null overlay
  Log: awslogs fluentd gcplogs gelf journald json-file local splunk syslog
 CDI spec directories:
  /etc/cdi
  /var/run/cdi
 Discovered Devices:
  cdi: docker.com/gpu=webgpu
 Swarm: inactive
 Runtimes: io.containerd.runc.v2 nvidia runc
 Default Runtime: runc
 Init Binary: docker-init
 containerd version: 05044ec0a9a75232cad458027ca83437aae3f4da
 runc version: v1.2.5-0-g59923ef
 init version: de40ad0
 Security Options:
  seccomp
   Profile: builtin
  cgroupns
 Kernel Version: 6.6.87.2-microsoft-standard-WSL2
 Operating System: Docker Desktop
 OSType: linux
 Architecture: x86_64
 CPUs: 16
 Total Memory: 15.58GiB
 Name: docker-desktop
 ID: 2c8fd2c6-1faf-411d-87e5-ea3647b987ec
 Docker Root Dir: /var/lib/docker
 Debug Mode: false
 HTTP Proxy: http.docker.internal:3128
 HTTPS Proxy: http.docker.internal:3128
 No Proxy: hubproxy.docker.internal
 Labels:
  com.docker.desktop.address=npipe://\\.\pipe\docker_cli
 Experimental: false
 Insecure Registries:
  hubproxy.docker.internal:5555
  ::1/128
  127.0.0.0/8
 Live Restore Enabled: false

WARNING: DOCKER_INSECURE_NO_IPTABLES_RAW is set

After searching the WSL file system, found a unix socket located at /mnt/wsl/docker-desktop/shared-sockets/host-services/docker.proxy.sock, so created a symlink so that I could connect to docker daemon from the WSL2 CLI:

$ sudo ln -s /mnt/wsl/docker-desktop/shared-sockets/host-services/docker.proxy.sock /var/run/docker.sock

Background:

The daemon of the newer version of Docker Desktop runs in a separate docker-desktop subsystem. All WSL subsystems share a docker daemon through a proxy.