Docker build hangs for linux/arm/v7

[soapergem]

Contributing guidelines

• I've read the contributing guidelines and wholeheartedly agree

I've found a bug and checked that ...

• ... the documentation does not mention anything about my problem
• ... there are no open or closed issues that are related to my problem

Description

I am trying to build a Docker image using buildx for three different architectures:

• linux/amd64
• linux/arm64
• linux/arm/v7

This is essentially the command I'm running:

docker buildx build --platform linux/arm/v7,linux/arm64/v8,linux/amd64 \
  --provenance false --tag my-cool-container:latest .

The build seems to progress to completion for the first two, but when it reaches RUN npm install for the linux/arm/v7 architecture, it hangs forever. Today I let it try building for over 7 hours before finally abandoning it and killing the process.

It seems another user had submitted a nearly identical bug report over a year ago, but she closed her own issue after posting a workaround. Her workaround was to use an older base image of Node.js instead of the current one. I would prefer not to have to resort to using an insecure and outdated base image, and instead have someone from the Docker team look into this and figure out why steps like npm install or yarn install never finish on linux/arm/v7.

Expected behaviour

When running docker buildx build ... for multi-architecture builds, I would it expect it to eventually finish building.

Actual behaviour

It seems to complete everything except the build for linux/arm/v7... it just hangs indefinitely.

Buildx version

github.com/docker/buildx v0.24.0-desktop.2 953495e521442d9143502280bfb4342850a35a26

Docker info

Client:
 Version:    28.2.2
 Context:    default
 Debug Mode: false
 Plugins:
  ai: Docker AI Agent - Ask Gordon (Docker Inc.)
    Version:  v1.4.0
    Path:     /usr/local/lib/docker/cli-plugins/docker-ai
  buildx: Docker Buildx (Docker Inc.)
    Version:  v0.24.0-desktop.2
    Path:     /usr/local/lib/docker/cli-plugins/docker-buildx
  cloud: Docker Cloud (Docker Inc.)
    Version:  v0.3.9
    Path:     /usr/local/lib/docker/cli-plugins/docker-cloud
  compose: Docker Compose (Docker Inc.)
    Version:  v2.37.1-desktop.1
    Path:     /usr/local/lib/docker/cli-plugins/docker-compose
  debug: Get a shell into any image or container (Docker Inc.)
    Version:  0.0.41
    Path:     /usr/local/lib/docker/cli-plugins/docker-debug
  desktop: Docker Desktop commands (Docker Inc.)
    Version:  v0.1.9
    Path:     /usr/local/lib/docker/cli-plugins/docker-desktop
  extension: Manages Docker extensions (Docker Inc.)
    Version:  v0.2.29
    Path:     /usr/local/lib/docker/cli-plugins/docker-extension
  init: Creates Docker-related starter files for your project (Docker Inc.)
    Version:  v1.4.0
    Path:     /usr/local/lib/docker/cli-plugins/docker-init
  mcp: Docker MCP Plugin (Docker Inc.)
    Version:  dev
    Path:     /usr/local/lib/docker/cli-plugins/docker-mcp
  model: Docker Model Runner (Docker Inc.)
    Version:  v0.1.24
    Path:     /usr/local/lib/docker/cli-plugins/docker-model
  sbom: View the packaged-based Software Bill Of Materials (SBOM) for an image (Anchore Inc.)
    Version:  0.6.0
    Path:     /usr/local/lib/docker/cli-plugins/docker-sbom
  scout: Docker Scout (Docker Inc.)
    Version:  v1.18.0
    Path:     /usr/local/lib/docker/cli-plugins/docker-scout
WARNING: Plugin "/usr/libexec/docker/cli-plugins/docker-app" is not valid: failed to fetch metadata: fork/exec /usr/libexec/docker/cli-plugins/docker-app: no such file or directory
WARNING: Plugin "/usr/local/lib/docker/cli-plugins/docker-dev" is not valid: failed to fetch metadata: fork/exec /usr/local/lib/docker/cli-plugins/docker-dev: no such file or directory
WARNING: Plugin "/usr/local/lib/docker/cli-plugins/docker-feedback" is not valid: failed to fetch metadata: fork/exec /usr/local/lib/docker/cli-plugins/docker-feedback: no such file or directory
WARNING: Plugin "/usr/local/lib/docker/cli-plugins/docker-scan" is not valid: failed to fetch metadata: fork/exec /usr/local/lib/docker/cli-plugins/docker-scan: no such file or directory

Server:
 Containers: 23
  Running: 1
  Paused: 0
  Stopped: 22
 Images: 32
 Server Version: 28.2.2
 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: 2
 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: 05044ec0a9a75232cad458027ca83437aae3f4da
 runc version: v1.2.5-0-g59923ef
 init version: de40ad0
 Security Options:
  seccomp
   Profile: builtin
  cgroupns
 Kernel Version: 6.6.87.2-microsoft-standard-WSL2
 Operating System: Docker Desktop
 OSType: linux
 Architecture: x86_64
 CPUs: 16
 Total Memory: 15.55GiB
 Name: docker-desktop
 ID: e5848a11-0c1c-4d51-b25a-c20c81a361f8
 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=unix:///var/run/docker-cli.sock
 Experimental: false
 Insecure Registries:
  hubproxy.docker.internal:5555
  ::1/128
  127.0.0.0/8
 Live Restore Enabled: false

WARNING: DOCKER_INSECURE_NO_IPTABLES_RAW is set

Builders list

NAME/NODE       DRIVER/ENDPOINT                   STATUS    BUILDKIT   PLATFORMS
build*          docker-container
 \_ build        \_ unix:///var/run/docker.sock   running   v0.15.1    linux/amd64 (+3), linux/arm64, linux/arm (+2), linux/ppc64le, (5 more)
default         docker
 \_ default      \_ default                       running   v0.22.0    linux/amd64 (+3), linux/arm64, linux/arm (+2), linux/ppc64le, (3 more)
desktop-linux                                     error

Cannot load builder desktop-linux: protocol not available

Configuration

FROM docker.io/node:22-alpine
WORKDIR /opt
EXPOSE 3000
COPY package.json /opt
COPY package-lock.json /opt
RUN npm install
COPY . /opt
RUN npm run build
ENTRYPOINT ["npm", "run", "start"]

Build logs

Additional info

No response

[crazy-max]

Architecture: x86_64
...
why steps like npm install or yarn install never finish on linux/arm/v7.

Seems you're building under emulation with QEMU so that might be why it hangs.

Did you try installing latest QEMU?:

$ docker run --privileged --rm tonistiigi/binfmt:desktop-v9.2.2 --install all
$ docker buildx build --platform linux/arm/v7 ...

Current latest is 9.2.2 but Docker Desktop ships with 8.1.5 as there are issues with latest QEMU.

Note that building under emulation has performance penalty and might fail in some cases. This is related to issues in QEMU and not directly to Docker tooling hence why we provide support on best-effort basis for such case.

Best would be to build on native nodes as shown in our docs or you can try with Docker Build Cloud that provides managed multi-node builders on Docker's infrastructure.