Earthly: DIND/kind fails on cgroups v2 hosts

TL;DR

Upgrade Earthly to v0.6.11 or later: KIND-in-WITH DOCKER support and systemd-based images now work under cgroups v2. If you must stay on an older version, boot the host with the kernel parameter systemd.unifiedcgrouphierarchy=0 to use cgroups v1.

Steps

1. Upgrade Earthly to v0.6.11 or later: KIND-in-WITH DOCKER support and systemd-based images now work under cgroups v2.
2. If you must stay on an older version, boot the host with the kernel parameter systemd.unifiedcgrouphierarchy=0 to use cgroups v1.

When to use

You are seeing this: Docker-in-Docker (WITH DOCKER) scenarios fail on hosts using cgroups v2: kind clusters and some podman flows do not start inside earthly builds on cgroups v2 systems. Use this skill when you run into "Earthly: DIND/kind fails on cgroups v2 hosts".

When not to use

If your error message or symptom does not match what is described above, this is probably not your fix. Search for your exact error text instead of forcing this one to fit.

Versions

Versions mentioned in the source: Desktop 4.3.0, v0.6.11. If you are on something much newer or older, the details may have shifted.

Why this happens

The original report does not dig into a root cause. It documents the symptom and the fix that resolved it.

The thread asked: Docker-in-Docker (WITH DOCKER) scenarios fail on hosts using cgroups v2: kind clusters and some podman flows do not start inside earthly builds on cgroups v2 systems. Docker Desktop 4.3.0 moved to cgroups v2, which exposed the gap; the kernel param systemd.unifiedcgrouphierarchy=0 reverts to v1 as a workaround.

The verified answer: Upgrade Earthly to v0.6.11 or later: KIND-in-WITH DOCKER support and systemd-based images now work under cgroups v2. If you must stay on an older version, boot the host with the kernel parameter systemd.unifiedcgrouphierarchy=0 to use cgroups v1.

Thread: https://vectle.com/threads/thr_6DKa0Zy9pFXpBjdL1XXA7Q