Changing to Kind in Dockers Desktop

Problems:

When changing the cluster provision in Docker Desktop to Kind (with 3 nodes) the following error is show when checking the version of kubectl.

~/source/replicate$ kubectl version
Client Version: v1.32.2
Kustomize Version: v5.5.0
The connection to the server kubernetes.docker.internal:6443 was refused - did you specify the right host or port?

Steps:

1. The first thing I did was backed up my source file code and deinstalled and reinstalled Ubuntu24.04 LTS. I still get the same error.

2. I asked Copilot this question and got this response. Question: I changed the Kubernetes configuration on my Docker.Desktop to Kind with 3 nodes. Now when I check my kubectl version I get this with a error at the end, what should I do? kubectl version Client Version: v1.32.2 Kustomize Version: v5.5.0 The connection to the server kubernetes.docker.internal:6443 was refused - did you specify the right host or port?

   GitHub Copilot Response:This error means your kubectl is still trying to connect to the old Docker Desktop Kubernetes cluster, which is no longer running. Since you switched to a Kind cluster, you need to update your kubeconfig to point to the new Kind cluster.

   To fix: List available contexts:

    kubectl config get-contexts
      
    CURRENT   NAME             CLUSTER          AUTHINFO         NAMESPACE
    *         docker-desktop   docker-desktop   docker-desktop
   

   Switch to the Kind context (replace kind-kind with your Kind context name if different): Verify connection:

    kubectl config use-context kind-kind
   

   If you see cluster info without errors, your kubectl is now connected to the Kind cluster.

    kubectl cluster-info
    E0606 13:16:22.025717    4224 memcache.go:265] "Unhandled Error" err="couldn't get current server API group list: Get \"https://kubernetes.docker.internal:6443/api?timeout=32s\": dial tcp 127.0.0.1:6443: connect: connection refused"
    E0606 13:16:22.030947    4224 memcache.go:265] "Unhandled Error" err="couldn't get current server API group list: Get \"https://kubernetes.docker.internal:6443/api?timeout=32s\": dial tcp 127.0.0.1:6443: connect: connection refused"
    E0606 13:16:22.036123    4224 memcache.go:265] "Unhandled Error" err="couldn't get current server API group list: Get \"https://kubernetes.docker.internal:6443/api?timeout=32s\": dial tcp 127.0.0.1:6443: connect: connection refused"
    E0606 13:16:22.041898    4224 memcache.go:265] "Unhandled Error" err="couldn't get current server API group list: Get \"https://kubernetes.docker.internal:6443/api?timeout=32s\": dial tcp 127.0.0.1:6443: connect: connection refused"
    E0606 13:16:22.047983    4224 memcache.go:265] "Unhandled Error" err="couldn't get current server API group list: Get \"https://kubernetes.docker.internal:6443/api?timeout=32s\": dial tcp 127.0.0.1:6443: connect: connection refused"
       
   
    To further debug and diagnose cluster problems, use 'kubectl cluster-info dump'.
    The connection to the server kubernetes.docker.internal:6443 was refused - did you specify the right host or port?
   

3. This fix didn’t work. More Info to come.

Solution:

Start a Powershell command line and run this command and it should work. The command works in Powershell but not the WSL Linux install

kubectl get nodes
NAME                    STATUS     ROLES           AGE   VERSION
desktop-control-plane   Ready      control-plane   48m   v1.31.1
desktop-worker          NotReady   <none>          48m   v1.31.1
desktop-worker2         NotReady   <none>          48m   v1.31.1

To fix the issue set the environment in your WSL Linux install to this below (Windows path to the Kubernetes config)

export KUBECONFIG=/mnt/c/Users/<YourUserName>/.kube/config

To fix permanently if using the default shell bash (default on Wsl Ubuntu ) add this to the ~./bashrc file.

export KUBECONFIG=/mnt/c/Users/<YourUserName>/.kube/config

System:

1. Wsl2 on Windows 11
2. Distro installed is Ubuntu24.04 LTS

WSL 2

wsl --uninstall Ubuntu-24.04
wsl --install Ubuntu-24.04

Docker Desktop Settings page

Docker Desktop settings