Kubernetes fails to start after upgrading to Docker Desktop v4.62.0 on Windows

[DarrenMatthewsSorted]

Description

Bug Report: Kubernetes fails to start after upgrading to Docker Desktop v4.62.0 on Windows

Environment

• Docker Desktop: v4.62.0
• OS: Windows
• Kubernetes: v1.34.1 (kubeadm, single node)
• WSL2 backend

Description
After upgrading to Docker Desktop v4.62.0, Kubernetes fails to start with the following errors:

1. failed to run Kubelet: running with swap on is not supported
   The upgrade appears to enable a swap partition (/dev/sdb, 8GB) in the Docker VM, which kubelet rejects by default.

2. starting kubelet: waiting for [/sys/fs/cgroup/cpu/kubepods /sys/fs/cgroup/cpu/podruntime]: not all files found after 1m0s timeout
   The required cgroup directories are not being created during cluster initialisation.

3. The kubelet config at /var/lib/kubelet/config.yaml is generated with cgroupDriver: systemd, but cri-dockerd defaults to cgroupfs, causing a driver mismatch.

Steps to Reproduce

1. Upgrade Docker Desktop to v4.62.0 on Windows
2. Enable Kubernetes (kubeadm)
3. Observe Kubernetes fails to start
4. Reset cluster — same errors persist

Workaround
The following manual fixes restore functionality, but they are lost on every Docker Desktop restart as the VM is ephemeral:

# 1. Disable swap check
echo 'KUBELET_KUBEADM_ARGS="--pod-infra-container-image=registry.k8s.io/pause:3.10.1 --fail-swap-on=false"' > /var/lib/kubelet/kubeadm-flags.env

# 2. Fix cgroupDriver mismatch
sed -i 's/cgroupDriver: systemd/cgroupDriver: cgroupfs/' /var/lib/kubelet/config.yaml

# 3. Pre-create missing cgroup directories
mkdir -p /sys/fs/cgroup/cpu/kubepods
mkdir -p /sys/fs/cgroup/cpu/podruntime
mkdir -p /sys/fs/cgroup/memory/kubepods
mkdir -p /sys/fs/cgroup/memory/podruntime

Expected Behaviour
Kubernetes should start successfully after upgrade without requiring manual intervention inside the Docker VM.

Actual Behaviour
Kubernetes fails to start. The Reset cluster button does not resolve the issue.

Reproduce

Steps to Reproduce

1. Upgrade Docker Desktop to v4.62.0 on Windows
2. Enable Kubernetes (kubeadm)
3. Observe Kubernetes fails to start
4. Reset cluster — same errors persist

Expected behavior

No response

docker version

Client:
 Version:           29.2.1
 API version:       1.53
 Go version:        go1.25.6
 Git commit:        a5c7197
 Built:             Mon Feb  2 17:20:16 2026
 OS/Arch:           windows/amd64
 Context:           desktop-linux

Server: Docker Desktop 4.62.0 (219486)
 Engine:
  Version:          29.2.1
  API version:      1.53 (minimum version 1.44)
  Go version:       go1.25.6
  Git commit:       6bc6209
  Built:            Mon Feb  2 17:17:24 2026
  OS/Arch:          linux/amd64
  Experimental:     false
 containerd:
  Version:          v2.2.1
  GitCommit:        dea7da592f5d1d2b7755e3a161be07f43fad8f75
 runc:
  Version:          1.3.4
  GitCommit:        v1.3.4-0-gd6d73eb8
 docker-init:
  Version:          0.19.0
  GitCommit:        de40ad0

docker info

Client:
 Version:    29.2.1
 Context:    desktop-linux
 Debug Mode: false
 Plugins:
  ai: Docker AI Agent - Ask Gordon (Docker Inc.)
    Version:  v1.18.0
    Path:     C:\Program Files\Docker\cli-plugins\docker-ai.exe
  buildx: Docker Buildx (Docker Inc.)
    Version:  v0.31.1-desktop.1
    Path:     C:\Program Files\Docker\cli-plugins\docker-buildx.exe
  compose: Docker Compose (Docker Inc.)
    Version:  v5.0.2
    Path:     C:\Program Files\Docker\cli-plugins\docker-compose.exe
  debug: Get a shell into any image or container (Docker Inc.)
    Version:  0.0.47
    Path:     C:\Program Files\Docker\cli-plugins\docker-debug.exe
  desktop: Docker Desktop commands (Docker Inc.)
    Version:  v0.3.0
    Path:     C:\Program Files\Docker\cli-plugins\docker-desktop.exe
  extension: Manages Docker extensions (Docker Inc.)
    Version:  v0.2.31
    Path:     C:\Program Files\Docker\cli-plugins\docker-extension.exe
  init: Creates Docker-related starter files for your project (Docker Inc.)
    Version:  v1.4.0
    Path:     C:\Program Files\Docker\cli-plugins\docker-init.exe
  mcp: Docker MCP Plugin (Docker Inc.)
    Version:  v0.40.0
    Path:     C:\Program Files\Docker\cli-plugins\docker-mcp.exe
  model: Docker Model Runner (Docker Inc.)
    Version:  v1.0.12
    Path:     C:\Program Files\Docker\cli-plugins\docker-model.exe
  offload: Docker Offload (Docker Inc.)
    Version:  v0.5.52
    Path:     C:\Program Files\Docker\cli-plugins\docker-offload.exe
  pass: Docker Pass Secrets Manager Plugin (beta) (Docker Inc.)
    Version:  v0.0.24
    Path:     C:\Program Files\Docker\cli-plugins\docker-pass.exe
  sandbox: Docker Sandbox (Docker Inc.)
    Version:  v0.12.0
    Path:     C:\Program Files\Docker\cli-plugins\docker-sandbox.exe
  sbom: View the packaged-based Software Bill Of Materials (SBOM) for an image (Anchore Inc.)
    Version:  0.6.0
    Path:     C:\Program Files\Docker\cli-plugins\docker-sbom.exe
  scout: Docker Scout (Docker Inc.)
    Version:  v1.19.0
    Path:     C:\Program Files\Docker\cli-plugins\docker-scout.exe

Server:
 Containers: 18
  Running: 18
  Paused: 0
  Stopped: 0
 Images: 105
 Server Version: 29.2.1
 Storage Driver: overlay2
  Backing Filesystem: extfs
  Supports d_type: true
  Using metacopy: false
  Native Overlay Diff: true
  userxattr: false
 Logging Driver: json-file
 Cgroup Driver: cgroupfs
 Cgroup Version: 1
 Plugins:
  Volume: local
  Network: bridge host ipvlan macvlan null overlay
  Log: awslogs fluentd gcplogs gelf journald json-file local splunk syslog
 CDI spec directories:
  /etc/cdi
  /var/run/cdi
 Discovered Devices:
  cdi: docker.com/gpu=webgpu
 Swarm: inactive
 Runtimes: io.containerd.runc.v2 nvidia runc
 Default Runtime: runc
 Init Binary: docker-init
 containerd version: dea7da592f5d1d2b7755e3a161be07f43fad8f75
 runc version: v1.3.4-0-gd6d73eb8
 init version: de40ad0
 Security Options:
  seccomp
   Profile: builtin
 Kernel Version: 5.15.153.1-microsoft-standard-WSL2
 Operating System: Docker Desktop
 OSType: linux
 Architecture: x86_64
 CPUs: 4
 Total Memory: 31.35GiB
 Name: docker-desktop
 ID: 78587f63-4ce8-4539-824c-f4d28b47ac7d
 Docker Root Dir: /var/lib/docker
 Debug Mode: false
 HTTP Proxy: http.docker.internal:3128
 HTTPS Proxy: http.docker.internal:3128
 No Proxy: hubproxy.docker.internal
 Labels:
  com.docker.desktop.address=npipe://\\.\pipe\docker_cli
 Experimental: false
 Insecure Registries:
  hubproxy.docker.internal:5555
  ::1/128
  127.0.0.0/8
 Live Restore Enabled: false
 Firewall Backend: iptables

WARNING: No blkio throttle.read_bps_device support
WARNING: No blkio throttle.write_bps_device support
WARNING: No blkio throttle.read_iops_device support
WARNING: No blkio throttle.write_iops_device support
WARNING: Support for cgroup v1 is deprecated and planned to be removed by no later than May 2029 (https://github.com/moby/moby/issues/51111)

Diagnostics ID

85C76F74-074B-440F-B8B5-F28E3DDB1236/20260225120212

Additional Info

No response

[DarrenMatthewsSorted]

Update. I've updated to version 4.66.0 and the issue is still present.

Using these commands as a workaround to get it working

1. Disable swap check

docker run --rm -it --privileged --pid=host --net=host `
  -v /:/host alpine:latest `
  chroot /host sh -c "echo 'KUBELET_KUBEADM_ARGS=""--pod-infra-container-image=registry.k8s.io/pause:3.10.1 --fail-swap-on=false""' > /var/lib/kubelet/kubeadm-flags.env"

2. Fix cgroupDriver

docker run --rm -it --privileged --pid=host --net=host `
  -v /:/host alpine:latest `
  chroot /host sh -c "sed -i 's/cgroupDriver: systemd/cgroupDriver: cgroupfs/' /var/lib/kubelet/config.yaml"

3. Pre-create missing cgroup directories

docker run --rm -it --privileged --pid=host --net=host `
  -v /:/host alpine:latest `
  chroot /host sh -c "mkdir -p /sys/fs/cgroup/cpu/kubepods /sys/fs/cgroup/cpu/podruntime /sys/fs/cgroup/memory/kubepods /sys/fs/cgroup/memory/podruntime"