Hacktoberfest 2026: the issues maintainers tagged for October, open and beginner-friendly. Browse Hacktoberfest issues

When new users run docker run … in the tutorial and Docker Desktop isn’t running, they just get cryptic errors.

Open
#464 0 comments 0 reactions 0 assignees View on GitHub

Nobody has claimed this yet.

Assessment

Difficulty
3/5
Estimated time
1-2 days
Newbie friendliness
55/100
Issue type
Feature
Clarity
Mostly clear
Activity status
Stale
Tech stack
bash, docker, powershell

Research direction

Review the Docker tutorial step that runs docker run and the scripts/ folder first. Add Bash and PowerShell checks with helpful startup guidance, then mention both scripts in the tutorial and verify the messages when Docker is unavailable and available.

Written by the indexing model from the issue text.

Description

Add a small script (in Bash for Linux/macOS and PowerShell for Windows) that:

Checks if Docker is running

Prints a friendly message if it’s not

Suggests how to start it

Example (Bash):

bash
Copy
Edit
#!/bin/bash
if ! docker info > /dev/null 2>&1; then
echo "❌ Docker is not running."
echo "Please start Docker Desktop and try again."
exit 1
fi
echo "✅ Docker is running fine!"
This could live in a scripts/ folder and be mentioned in the tutorial.

Dominant language
JavaScript
Stars
3.1k
Forks
6.4k
PR merge metrics
No merged PRs in 30d

Contributor guide

No contributing guide indexed for this repository

First steps

  1. Read the whole issue, then the project's contributing guide.
  2. Comment on the issue to say you are picking it up — it saves two people doing the same work.
  3. Fork the repository and make your change on a branch.
  4. Open a pull request that references the issue number.

More from docker/getting-started

All issues in docker/getting-started

Similar issues

More JavaScript issues

Get new issues in your inbox

A short digest of beginner-friendly GitHub issues.