Testing with Talos Linux

Create a Kubernetes cluster in docker quickly with Talos Linux. Also works for podman. We can use Docker-CE or Docker-Desktop for it.
I happen to have Docker-Desktop on both my Linux rig and my MacBook Pro.
I have a few Ubuntu VM running Talos using Docker-CE.

Installing Talos

Prerequisites

• Install Docker Desktop
• Homebrew, follow this post
• Using a VM from a Remote VM is discussed in this post

Install kubectl

Download kubectl via one of methods outlined in the documentation.

brew install kubectl

Check for success

kubectl version --client

Install talosctl (macOS / Linux)

brew install siderolabs/tap/talosctl

curl -sL https://talos.dev/install | sh

Create the Cluster

Now run the following to create 1 controlplane and one worker

talosctl cluster create

For more workers do talosctl cluster create --workers 3

ℹ️ If you are using Docker Desktop on a macOS computer,
you need to enable the default Docker socket in your settings.

You can explore using Talos API commands:

talosctl dashboard --nodes 10.5.0.2

Verify that you can reach Kubernetes:

kubectl get nodes -o wide

List all your nodes by docker ps.

Using the Cluster

The controlplane will be 10.5.0.2 and the workers 10.5.0.3 →

If you want to move the kubeconfig to another place, use the following command talosctl kubeconfig '.kube/talaos-default' -n 10.5.0.2 to extract it. Now go to the .kube directory export KUBBECONFIG and use kubctl get nodes to show the nodes.

The Dashboard

To see what going on, Talos has an amassing TUI Dashboard, exit with [Ctrl]+C.

talosctl dashboard -n 10.5.0.2

Other useful commands

talosctl services -n 10.5.0.2

Add Functionalities

See the Boot Assets Guide for pre-built images and also change the configuration.

Destroy the Cluster

When you are all done testing, remove the cluster:

talosctl cluster destroy

Using multiple Clusters

Create a new cluster

talosctl cluster create --name cluster2 --cidr 10.6.0.0/24

Destroy a specific cluster

talosctl cluster destroy --name cluster2

Switch between clusters, use --context flag

talosctl --context cluster2 version
kubectl --context admin@cluster2 get nodes

Install Docker Desktop on Ubuntu

This page contains information on how to install, launch and upgrade Docker Desktop on an Ubuntu distribution.
Prerequisites

⚠️ To install Docker Desktop successfully, you must meet the general system requirements.
- Have a 64-bit version of either the LTS or the current non-LTS version of
Ubuntu Jammy Jellyfish 22.04.
- Docker Desktop is supported on amd64 architecture (Intel and AMD ).

⛔ The latest Ubuntu 24.04 LTS is not yet supported.
Docker Desktop will fail to start. Due to a change in how the latest Ubuntu release restricts the unprivileged namespaces, sudo sysctl -w kernel.apparmor_restrict_unprivileged_userns=0 needs to be run at least once. Refer to the Ubuntu Blog for more details.

For non-Gnome Desktop environments

The gnome-terminal must be installed:

 sudo apt install gnome-terminal

Install Docker Desktop

Recommended approach to install Docker Desktop on Ubuntu:

Add Docker's official GPG key

sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get install ca-certificates curl -y
sudo install -m 0755 -d /etc/apt/keyrings
sudo curl -fsSL https://download.docker.com/linux/ubuntu/gpg -o /etc/apt/keyrings/docker.asc
sudo chmod a+r /etc/apt/keyrings/docker.asc

Add the repository to Apt sources

echo \
  "deb [arch=$(dpkg --print-architecture) signed-by=/etc/apt/keyrings/docker.asc] https://download.docker.com/linux/ubuntu \
  $(. /etc/os-release && echo "$VERSION_CODENAME") stable" | \
  sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/docker.list > /dev/null
sudo apt-get update

Install Docker Packages

sudo apt-get install docker-ce docker-ce-cli containerd.io docker-buildx-plugin docker-compose-plugin

Check for Success

sudo docker run hello-world

Download and Install the Docker-Desktop

If you prefer the Docker Desktop, you may install it by:

Download

wget https://desktop.docker.com/linux/main/amd/docker-desktop-amd64.deb

Install

sudo apt-get install docker-desktop-amd64.deb

Launch the Docker Desktop

systemctl --user start docker-desktop

systemctl --user enable docker-desktop

systemctl --user stop docker-desktop

Update Docker-Desktop

1. Remove the old installation file
2. Download the new one
3. Do the installation. The PC will reboot

References

Talos Distro ^[1] Talos on Proxmox ^[2] Homebrew ^[3] Docker ^[4] Remote Usage ^[5]