Ubuntu systemd[1]: docker.service: Job docker.service/start failed with result ‘dependency’

Question

I am running Ubuntu 20.04 to run a dockerized NextCloud installation. Usually, I just need to run

$ docker-compose pull
$ docker-compose up -d

to update my containers but now I ran into the following error:

# service docker status

● docker.service - Docker Application Container Engine

Loaded: loaded (/lib/systemd/system/docker.service; enabled; vendor preset: enabled)

Active: inactive (dead)

TriggeredBy: **●** docker.socket

Docs: https://docs.docker.com

Jun 06 12:19:07 ubuntu systemd[1]: **Dependency failed for Docker Application Container Engine.**

Jun 06 12:19:07 ubuntu systemd[1]: **docker.service: Job docker.service/start failed with result 'dependency'.**

Jun 06 12:20:38 ubuntu systemd[1]: **Dependency failed for Docker Application Container Engine.**

Jun 06 12:20:38 ubuntu systemd[1]: **docker.service: Job docker.service/start failed with result 'dependency'.**

Jun 06 12:22:08 ubuntu systemd[1]: **Dependency failed for Docker Application Container Engine.**

Jun 06 12:22:08 ubuntu systemd[1]: **docker.service: Job docker.service/start failed with result 'dependency'.**

Jun 06 12:29:03 ubuntu systemd[1]: **Dependency failed for Docker Application Container Engine.**

Jun 06 12:29:03 ubuntu systemd[1]: **docker.service: Job docker.service/start failed with result 'dependency'.**

Jun 06 12:33:10 ubuntu systemd[1]: **Dependency failed for Docker Application Container Engine.**

Jun 06 12:33:10 ubuntu systemd[1]: **docker.service: Job docker.service/start failed with result 'dependency'.**

I tried to re-install docker but that did not resolve the problem. When running

apt-get install docker-ce

I obtain the above mentioned error.

Any idea how to continue?

Answer 1

Related to last comment, try this

mv /data/docker /data/docker.old
sudo systemctl start docker

Please tell me if it worked...

Answer 2

Unfortunately, I was not able to resolve the error and have setup a new server. Thank you anyway for your help!

Answer 3

try starting dockerd as below "/usr/bin/dockerd -H unix://" you can see the error why docker is not starting.

Answer 4

For future viewers. I had the same problem.

Solution for me:

groupadd docker
systemctl start docker.socket

It seems I accidentally deleted the docker group. This led to docker.socket not starting which in turn is a dependency of docker.service, hence the not so helpful error you recieved.