Installing Docker CE manually using a DEB package

Now we will show you how to download and install the Docker CE DEB package. You should consider using this method if, for whatever reason, the repositories are not available for your workstation.

You will need to download the Docker CE package, so start by opening your browser and going to the Ubuntu Docker CE packages download site at https://download.docker.com/linux/ubuntu/dists/.

There, you will find a list of Ubuntu version folders listed, which looks something like this:

You want to select the folder that matches the version of Ubuntu installed on your workstation, which in my case is the xenial folder. 

Continue browsing to /pool/stable/ and then to the processor folder that matches your workstation hardware. For me that is amd64, and it looks like this:

Now click on the version of Docker CE you want to download and install.

Be sure to select the Save File option before you click OK.

Once the package has been downloaded to your workstation, to install it, just use the dpkg command for manually installing a package.

You provide the path and filename for the downloaded Docker CE package as a parameter to dpkg. Here is the command I used for the package that was just downloaded:

# installing docker package
sudo dpkg -i ~/Downloads/docker-ce_18.03.1~ce-0~ubuntu_amd64.deb

Executing the command looks like this:

Now that Docker is installed, let's use the version command to confirm successful install, and then run the hello-world container to validate that Docker is working as desired:

# validating the install and functionality
docker --version
sudo docker run hello-world

This is good. Just like the repository installation, your docker group has been created and both of the start steps are handled for you in the manual package installation. You do not have to start Docker, and you do not have to configure Docker to start on boot. So, you are ready to start creating Docker images and running Docker containers.

However, before we get going with creating and running, there is one more method of installing Docker on an Ubuntu workstation that we will cover. You can use Docker's convenience scripts to install the latest edge or test versions of Docker CE. Let's take a look at how to do that now.