Rancher Desktop 1.13.0

This is the 1.13 release of Rancher Desktop, an open source desktop application to bring Kubernetes and container management to macOS, Windows, and Linux.

Updated Windows Requirements

This release requires a newer WSL kernel release (5.15.0.0 or higher) than previous releases. You can check the currently installed version with this command:

C:\>wsl uname -r
5.15.133.1-microsoft-standard-WSL2

If necessary, the installer will attempt to upgrade WSL via the Microsoft Store, but if that fails because the user doesn't have permissions, then the installation or upgrade of Rancher Desktop will fail so the user will have to upgrade WSL on their own.

Installers

• Windows
• macOS x86_64
• macOS aarch64
• Linux install notes

Notable Features & Changes

WebAssembly/Wasm support (experimental)

Rancher Desktop can now be configured to run WebAssembly applications in addition to Linux containers. It includes the Spin runtime, and additional wasm shims can be installed manually.

WebAssembly is currently supported as a stand-alone container running on the moby engine, or in Kubernetes pods running with containerd.

Turning on Wasm support with the moby engine will change the location where images are stored, so all previously downloaded or built images become inaccessible. You may want to run docker system prune --all to reclaim the space (if you don't plan on disabling Wasm support again).

Wasm support will be locked and disabled if the machine has a locked profile installed that uses schema version 10 or earlier. You will need to use schema version 11 to unlock.

Cluster Dashboard button

Rancher Desktop now displays a "Cluster Dashboard" button in the navigation bar on the left side of the window. This is purely for discovery, as many users have been unaware that this functionality exists; the button performs the same action as the "Cluster Dashboard" menu item in the notification icon context menu.

The button is only displayed when Kubernetes is enabled.

Important Bug Fixes

~/.kube/config in WSL distros (Windows)

Rancher Desktop up to version 1.11 used a symlink from ~/.kube/config inside WSL distributions back to the Windows version of this config file (when WSL integration is enabled).

In Rancher Desktop 1.12, this symlink had to be replaced by a separate config file inside WSL because Kubernetes would use a different IP address when using the tunneling network stack (it runs inside a separate network namespace). This meant that the user had to maintain multiple config files and the kube context inside a distro could be different from the Windows side.

In this 1.13 release, we are running a tunnel to the WSL network namespace; this means Kubernetes is again reachable via 127.0.0.1 from both Windows and the WSL distros. The separate ~/.kube/config files inside the distros will be converted back into a symlink, but only if it contains no other information than the Rancher Desktop cluster itself. If there is additional configuration data, then the user will have to perform the data merging manually if they want to get back to using a symlink as well.

Support for QEMU on M3 machines (macOS)

QEMU for Apple Silicon machines has been updated to version 8.2.1 and now supports the M3 CPU architecture as well.

Support for kind (macOS and Linux only)

This release supports kind on macOS and Linux as long as Kubernetes is either disabled or running Kubernetes 1.20.4 or higher (older Kubernetes versions require cgroups v1, which is incompatible with kind).

Experimental virtiofs mount type could delete $HOME directory data (Linux only)

This serious bug has been fixed.

Note that on Linux this setting requires the Rust implementation of virtiofsd to be installed on the host; otherwise it won't work.

Experimental 9p mount type now works correctly for RPM and DEB installation (Linux only)

It is still not working in the AppImage install.

Known Issues

Windows Networking

There is a known issue with the new network not including all aliased domains (#5239).

Container Dashboard

The dashboard does not update automatically when container states have changed or new containers are introduced (#5775).

Extensions Install - Allowed Images

When using the Allowed Images feature and also specifying extensions in a deployment profile, the extension images must be included in both lists (#4920).

Updates to Bundled Utilities

• docker 24.0.7 → 25.0.4
• docker-buildx 0.12.0 → 0.13.0
• docker-compose 2.23.3 → 2.24.7
• docker-credential-ecr-login 0.8.0 → 0.8.1
• helm 3.13.3 → 3.14.2
• moby/buildkit 0.12.3 → 0.12.5
• nerdctl 1.7.1 → 1.7.3
• trivy 0.48.0 → 0.49.1

Bundled Wasm shims

The spin shim comes from the containerd-wasm-shims release 0.11.1.

• Spin version 2.2.0

Connect with the developers

• The issue queue

• Rancher Users Slack in the #rancher-desktop channel

Changelog

The full version changelog, from v1.12.3, can be found using GitHub compare and the details of the release can be found in the v1.13.0 milestone.

Rancher Desktop 1.12.3

This is the 1.12.3 release of Rancher Desktop, an open source desktop application to bring Kubernetes and container management to Mac, Windows, and Linux.

⚠️ Warning ⚠️

Do NOT use the experimental virtiofs mount type (on Linux and macOS). We have experienced catastrophic data loss with this mount option on Linux (the $HOME directory on the host was wiped out), and have seen a single bug report on Lima claiming a similar experience on macOS. We are not aware of a direct incidence with Rancher Desktop on macOS, but Lima is the underlying technology managing the VM and volume mounts.

Due to the catastrophic failure mode we urge everyone to NOT use this option.

We will temporarily remove this setting in the 1.13.0 release until the issue is understood and fixed.

Installers

• Windows
• macOS x86_64
• macOS aarch64
• Linux install notes

What has changed in 1.12.3

The 1.12.3 patch release updates runc to version 1.1.12, buildkitd to 0.12.5, and nerdctl to 1.7.3 to fix a number of CVEs:

• CVE-2024-21626 Several container breakouts due to internally leaked fds (high)
• CVE-2024-23650 Possible panic when incorrect parameters sent from frontend (moderate)
• CVE-2024-23651 Possible race condition with accessing subpaths from cache mounts (high)
• CVE-2024-23652 Possible host system access from mount stub cleaner (high)
• CVE-2024-23653 Interactive containers API does not validate entitlements check (high)

All these CVEs can only be exploited if the user is using malicious input in the container build process or is running container images that have already been compromised.

The following CVE is not fixed in this patch release because there is no upstream release for moby 23.* that includes the fix yet:

• CVE-2024-24557 Classic builder cache poisoning (moderate)

Note that Rancher Desktop is only affected by this CVE if the user explicitly opts out of Buildkit to use the legacy/classic builder (sets DOCKER_BUILDKIT=0). It does not apply to the default configuration.

What has changed in 1.12.2

The 1.12.2 patch release fixes a single issue on macOS and Linux where the shell profile (e.g. ~/.bash_profile) could be deleted (#6281). This was due to a race condition, after either a fresh install or a factory-reset, which would display the first-run dialog. When this dialog was closed (accepted) quickly, the file could be overwritten with truncated content.

There are no changes (except for the version number bump) on Windows.

What has changed in 1.12.1

The 1.12.1 patch release fixes a single memory corruption issue on Windows for importing CA certificates (#6308). There are no changes (except for the version number bump) on macOS and Linux.

Release notes for 1.12.0

Notable Features & Changes

Windows WSL Installation

For Windows users that have previously overridden the WSL installation check, please use WSLINSTALLED instead of WSLKERNELINSTALLED.

Windows tunnelling networking mode is no longer experimental

It has feature parity with the legacy networking mode and will become the default setting for new installations (and factory reset) in the 1.13 release. We expect to remove the legacy networking support in 1.14.

macOS builds for aarch64 are now native binaries

The VM code has always been platform-native, but the UI used to require Rosetta because it was still an x86_64 binary. Now everything except for kuberlr and the kubectl versions managed by it are aarch64 binaries. The problem with kuberlr and kubectl is that there are no native binaries available from upstream for older Kubernetes versions.

macOS socket_vmnet networking is no longer experimental

socket_vmnet is a replacement for vde_vmnet, which is deprecated upstream. It was never supported in VZ emulation mode, so Rancher Desktop already uses socket_vmnet in VZ mode when admin access is enabled.

socket_vmnet will become the default for QEMU as well in the 1.13 release; in 1.14, vde_vmnet will be removed.

Deployment Profiles

This release now requires deployment profiles to have an explicit version field (which is 10, as of release 1.11.0).

The version of rdctl that ships with this release will have the version field in any generated deployment files. However, this means that existing files will either need to be regenerated or manually edited in place.

• For Linux, add "version": 10, at the very start of the JSON-formatted deployment file immediately after
  the initial open brace {.

• For macOS, add <key>Version</key><integer>10</integer> after the initial <dict> tag.

• For Windows, add a DWORD value named version with value 10 (hexadecimal a) at the top level of each profile that needs updating.

Important Bug Fixes

Snapshots

Improvements and fixes regarding executing multiple application actions while a snapshot is undergoing a management activity (#5846, #5848, #5849, and #5854).

Known Issues

Apple M3 CPUs

Apple M3 CPUs are not supported (yet) by QEMU. Please use VZ emulation instead (#5943).

Snapshots

There is a known issue with the Snapshot Cancel operation in the UI. It is possible that the operation can no longer be cancelled when the button is pressed. In that case, the operation may succeed but the UI will still claim that it has been cancelled (#6159).

Windows Networking

There is a known issue with the new network not including all aliased domains (#5239).

Container Dashboard

There are known issues with the Container Dashboard when using the nerdctl container engine; one is that the "Started" field shows an inaccurate time for containers starting up. The dashboard also has an issue updating when container states have changed or new containers are introduced (#6191, #6189, #5877, and #5775).

Provisioning Scripts - Windows

The location for provisioning scripts on Windows has changed from %AppData%\rancher-desktop\provisioning to %LocalAppData%\rancher-desktop\provisioning. The files are not automatically migrated when Rancher Desktop is updated, so they must be manually moved or copied to the new location.

9p - Linux OS

There is a known issue with some Linux distributions and using the experimental mount type 9p (#4943).

Extensions Install - Allowed Images

When using the Allowed Images feature and also specifying extensions in a deployment profile, the extension images must be included in both lists (#4920).

Updates to Bundled Utilities

• helm 3.12.3 → 3.13.3
• docker 24.0.6 → 24.0.7
• docker-buildx 0.11.2 → 0.12.0
• docker-compose 2.22.0 → 2.23.3
• docker-credential-ecr-login 0.7.1 → 0.7.1
• nerdctl 1.6.2 → 1.7.1
• moby/buildkit 0.12.3 → 0.12.4
• trivy 0.46.0 → 0.46.0

Connect with the developers

• The issue queue

• Rancher Users Slack in the #rancher-desktop channel

Changelog

The full version changelog, from v1.12.0, can be found using GitHub compare and the details of the release can be found in the v1.12.0 milestone.

Rancher Desktop 1.12.2

This is the 1.12.2 release of Rancher Desktop, an open source desktop application to bring Kubernetes and container management to Mac, Windows, and Linux.

Installers

• Windows
• macOS x86_64
• macOS aarch64
• Linux install notes

What has changed in 1.12.2

The 1.12.2 patch release fixes a single issue on macOS and Linux where the shell profile (e.g. ~/.bash_profile) could be deleted (#6281). This was due to a race condition, after either a fresh install or a factory-reset, which would display the first-run dialog. When this dialog was closed (accepted) quickly, the file could be overwritten with truncated content.

There are no changes (except for the version number bump) on Windows.

What has changed in 1.12.1

The 1.12.1 patch release fixes a single memory corruption issue on Windows for importing CA certificates (#6308). There are no changes (except for the version number bump) on macOS and Linux.

Release notes for 1.12.0

Below are the release notes for 1.20.0:

Notable Features & Changes

Windows WSL Installation

For Windows users that have previously overridden the WSL installation check, please use WSLINSTALLED instead of WSLKERNELINSTALLED.

Windows tunnelling networking mode is no longer experimental

It has feature parity with the legacy networking mode and will become the default setting for new installations (and factory reset) in the 1.13 release. We expect to remove the legacy networking support in 1.14.

macOS builds for aarch64 are now native binaries

The VM code has always been platform-native, but the UI used to require Rosetta because it was still an x86_64 binary. Now everything except for kuberlr and the kubectl versions managed by it are aarch64 binaries. The problem with kuberlr and kubectl is that there are no native binaries available from upstream for older Kubernetes versions.

macOS socket_vmnet networking is no longer experimental

socket_vmnet is a replacement for vde_vmnet, which is deprecated upstream. It was never supported in VZ emulation mode, so Rancher Desktop already uses socket_vmnet in VZ mode when admin access is enabled.

socket_vmnet will become the default for QEMU as well in the 1.13 release; in 1.14, vde_vmnet will be removed.

Deployment Profiles

This release now requires deployment profiles to have an explicit version field (which is 10, as of release 1.11.0).

The version of rdctl that ships with this release will have the version field in any generated deployment files. However, this means that existing files will either need to be regenerated or manually edited in place.

• For Linux, add "version": 10, at the very start of the JSON-formatted deployment file immediately after
  the initial open brace {.

• For macOS, add <key>Version</key><integer>10</integer> after the initial <dict> tag.

• For Windows, add a DWORD value named version with value 10 (hexadecimal a) at the top level of each profile that needs updating.

Important Bug Fixes

Snapshots

Improvements and fixes regarding executing multiple application actions while a snapshot is undergoing a management activity (#5846, #5848, #5849, and #5854).

Known Issues

Apple M3 CPUs

Apple M3 CPUs are not supported (yet) by QEMU. Please use VZ emulation instead (#5943).

Snapshots

There is a known issue with the Snapshot Cancel operation in the UI. It is possible that the operation can no longer be cancelled when the button is pressed. In that case, the operation may succeed but the UI will still claim that it has been cancelled (#6159).

Windows Networking

There is a known issue with the new network not including all aliased domains (#5239).

Container Dashboard

There are known issues with the Container Dashboard when using the nerdctl container engine; one is that the "Started" field shows an inaccurate time for containers starting up. The dashboard also has an issue updating when container states have changed or new containers are introduced (#6191, #6189, #5877, and #5775).

Provisioning Scripts - Windows

The location for provisioning scripts on Windows has changed from %AppData%\rancher-desktop\provisioning to %LocalAppData%\rancher-desktop\provisioning. The files are not automatically migrated when Rancher Desktop is updated, so they must be manually moved or copied to the new location.

9p - Linux OS

There is a known issue with some Linux distributions and using the experimental mount type 9p (#4943).

Extensions Install - Allowed Images

When using the Allowed Images feature and also specifying extensions in a deployment profile, the extension images must be included in both lists (#4920).

Updates to Bundled Utilities

• helm 3.12.3 → 3.13.3
• docker 24.0.6 → 24.0.7
• docker-buildx 0.11.2 → 0.12.0
• docker-compose 2.22.0 → 2.23.3
• docker-credential-ecr-login 0.7.1 → 0.7.1
• nerdctl 1.6.2 → 1.7.1
• moby/buildkit 0.12.3 → 0.12.4
• trivy 0.46.0 → 0.46.0

Connect with the developers

• The issue queue

• Rancher Users Slack in the #rancher-desktop channel

Changelog

The full version changelog, from v1.12.0, can be found using GitHub compare and the details of the release can be found in the v1.12.0 milestone.

Rancher Desktop 1.12.1

This is the 1.12.1 release of Rancher Desktop, an open source desktop application to bring Kubernetes and container management to Mac, Windows, and Linux.

Installers

• Windows
• macOS x86_64
• macOS aarch64
• Linux install notes

What has changed in 1.12.1

The 1.12.1 patch release fixes a single memory corruption issue on Windows for importing CA certificates (#6308). There are no changes (except for the version number bump) on macOS and Linux.

Release notes for 1.12.0

Below are the release notes for 1.20.0:

Notable Features & Changes

Windows WSL Installation

For Windows users that have previously overridden the WSL installation check, please use WSLINSTALLED instead of WSLKERNELINSTALLED.

Windows tunnelling networking mode is no longer experimental

It has feature parity with the legacy networking mode and will become the default setting for new installations (and factory reset) in the 1.13 release. We expect to remove the legacy networking support in 1.14.

macOS builds for aarch64 are now native binaries

The VM code has always been platform-native, but the UI used to require Rosetta because it was still an x86_64 binary. Now everything except for kuberlr and the kubectl versions managed by it are aarch64 binaries. The problem with kuberlr and kubectl is that there are no native binaries available from upstream for older Kubernetes versions.

macOS socket_vmnet networking is no longer experimental

socket_vmnet is a replacement for vde_vmnet, which is deprecated upstream. It was never supported in VZ emulation mode, so Rancher Desktop already uses socket_vmnet in VZ mode when admin access is enabled.

socket_vmnet will become the default for QEMU as well in the 1.13 release; in 1.14, vde_vmnet will be removed.

Deployment Profiles

This release now requires deployment profiles to have an explicit version field (which is 10, as of release 1.11.0).

The version of rdctl that ships with this release will have the version field in any generated deployment files. However, this means that existing files will either need to be regenerated or manually edited in place.

• For Linux, add "version": 10, at the very start of the JSON-formatted deployment file immediately after
  the initial open brace {.

• For macOS, add <key>Version</key><integer>10</integer> after the initial <dict> tag.

• For Windows, add a DWORD value named version with value 10 (hexadecimal a) at the top level of each profile that needs updating.

Important Bug Fixes

Snapshots

Improvements and fixes regarding executing multiple application actions while a snapshot is undergoing a management activity (#5846, #5848, #5849, and #5854).

Known Issues

Apple M3 CPUs

Apple M3 CPUs are not supported (yet) by QEMU. Please use VZ emulation instead (#5943).

Snapshots

There is a known issue with the Snapshot Cancel operation in the UI. It is possible that the operation can no longer be cancelled when the button is pressed. In that case, the operation may succeed but the UI will still claim that it has been cancelled (#6159).

Windows Networking

There is a known issue with the new network not including all aliased domains (#5239).

Container Dashboard

There are known issues with the Container Dashboard when using the nerdctl container engine; one is that the "Started" field shows an inaccurate time for containers starting up. The dashboard also has an issue updating when container states have changed or new containers are introduced (#6191, #6189, #5877, and #5775).

Provisioning Scripts - Windows

The location for provisioning scripts on Windows has changed from %AppData%\rancher-desktop\provisioning to %LocalAppData%\rancher-desktop\provisioning. The files are not automatically migrated when Rancher Desktop is updated, so they must be manually moved or copied to the new location.

9p - Linux OS

There is a known issue with some Linux distributions and using the experimental mount type 9p (#4943).

Extensions Install - Allowed Images

When using the Allowed Images feature and also specifying extensions in a deployment profile, the extension images must be included in both lists (#4920).

Updates to Bundled Utilities

• helm 3.12.3 → 3.13.3
• docker 24.0.6 → 24.0.7
• docker-buildx 0.11.2 → 0.12.0
• docker-compose 2.22.0 → 2.23.3
• docker-credential-ecr-login 0.7.1 → 0.7.1
• nerdctl 1.6.2 → 1.7.1
• moby/buildkit 0.12.3 → 0.12.4
• trivy 0.46.0 → 0.46.0

Connect with the developers

• The issue queue

• Rancher Users Slack in the #rancher-desktop channel

Changelog

The full version changelog, from v1.12.0, can be found using GitHub compare and the details of the release can be found in the v1.12.0 milestone.

Rancher Desktop 1.12

This is the 1.12 release of Rancher Desktop, an open source desktop application to bring Kubernetes and container management to Mac, Windows, and Linux.

Installers

• Windows
• macOS x86_64
• macOS aarch64
• Linux install notes

Notable Features & Changes

Windows WSL Installation

For Windows users that have previously overridden the WSL installation check, please use WSLINSTALLED instead of WSLKERNELINSTALLED.

Windows tunnelling networking mode is no longer experimental

It has feature parity with the legacy networking mode and will become the default setting for new installations (and factory reset) in the 1.13 release. We expect to remove the legacy networking support in 1.14.

macOS builds for aarch64 are now native binaries

The VM code has always been platform-native, but the UI used to require Rosetta because it was still an x86_64 binary. Now everything except for kuberlr and the kubectl versions managed by it are aarch64 binaries. The problem with kuberlr and kubectl is that there are no native binaries available from upstream for older Kubernetes versions.

macOS socket_vmnet networking is no longer experimental

socket_vmnet is a replacement for vde_vmnet, which is deprecated upstream. It was never supported in VZ emulation mode, so Rancher Desktop already uses socket_vmnet in VZ mode when admin access is enabled.

socket_vmnet will become the default for QEMU as well in the 1.13 release; in 1.14, vde_vmnet will be removed.

Deployment Profiles

This release now requires deployment profiles to have an explicit version field (which is 10, as of release 1.11.0).

The version of rdctl that ships with this release will have the version field in any generated deployment files. However, this means that existing files will either need to be regenerated or manually edited in place.

• For Linux, add "version": 10, at the very start of the JSON-formatted deployment file immediately after
  the initial open brace {.

• For macOS, add <key>Version</key><integer>10</integer> after the initial <dict> tag.

• For Windows, add a DWORD value named version with value 10 (hexadecimal a) at the top level of each profile that needs updating.

Important Bug Fixes

Snapshots

Improvements and fixes regarding executing multiple application actions while a snapshot is undergoing a management activity (#5846, #5848, #5849, and #5854).

Known Issues

Apple M3 CPUs

Apple M3 CPUs are not supported (yet) by QEMU. Please use VZ emulation instead (#5943).

Snapshots

There is a known issue with the Snapshot Cancel operation in the UI. It is possible that the operation can no longer be cancelled when the button is pressed. In that case, the operation may succeed but the UI will still claim that it has been cancelled (#6159).

Windows Networking

There is a known issue with the new network not including all aliased domains (#5239).

Container Dashboard

There are known issues with the Container Dashboard when using the nerdctl container engine; one is that the "Started" field shows an inaccurate time for containers starting up. The dashboard also has an issue updating when container states have changed or new containers are introduced (#6191, #6189, #5877, and #5775).

Provisioning Scripts - Windows

The location for provisioning scripts on Windows has changed from %AppData%\rancher-desktop\provisioning to %LocalAppData%\rancher-desktop\provisioning. The files are not automatically migrated when Rancher Desktop is updated, so they must be manually moved or copied to the new location.

9p - Linux OS

There is a known issue with some Linux distributions and using the experimental mount type 9p (#4943).

Extensions Install - Allowed Images

When using the Allowed Images feature and also specifying extensions in a deployment profile, the extension images must be included in both lists (#4920).

Updates to Bundled Utilities

• helm 3.12.3 → 3.13.3
• docker 24.0.6 → 24.0.7
• docker-buildx 0.11.2 → 0.12.0
• docker-compose 2.22.0 → 2.23.3
• docker-credential-ecr-login 0.7.1 → 0.7.1
• nerdctl 1.6.2 → 1.7.1
• moby/buildkit 0.12.3 → 0.12.4
• trivy 0.46.0 → 0.46.0

Connect with the developers

• The issue queue

• Rancher Users Slack in the #rancher-desktop channel

Changelog

The full version changelog, from v1.12.0, can be found using GitHub compare and the details of the release can be found in the v1.12.0 milestone.

Rancher Desktop 1.11.1

This is the 1.11.1 release of Rancher Desktop, an open source desktop application to bring Kubernetes and container management to Mac, Windows, and Linux.

Installers

• Windows
• macOS x86_64
• macOS aarch64
• Linux install notes

The Linux packages and AppImage are not yet available due to technical issues. They will be released within the next 2 days. Note that there are no changes between 1.11.0 and 1.11.1 for the Linux binaries, so there isn't any reason to install the patch release on Linux.

This patch release fixes two issues in Rancher Desktop 1.11.0

Windows

This patch fixes potential corruption of the Windows kube config file in the case whereby a WSL distro uses a symlink to the host file and WSL integration is enabled for this distro. Note that these symlinks may have been created by earlier releases of Rancher Desktop (#5981, #5946).

Rancher Desktop 1.11.1 will replace such symlinks with a separate file. This is necessary because the Kubernetes endpoint is now different between the Windows host and inside a WSL2 distro.

macOS

On macOS in Rancher Desktop 1.11.0, the VM would no longer get a routable IP address even when running with "Administrative Access" (related to vde_vmnet and socket_vmnet drivers). This issue has been fixed (#6051).

Linux

There are no changes related to Linux in this release compared to 1.11.0.

Known Issues

Apple M3 CPUs

There have been multiple reports that QEMU does not work with the latest Apple Silicon. Please use VZ emulation instead (#5943).

Snapshots

Currently there are known issues regarding executing multiple application actions while a snapshot is undergoing a management activity (#5846, #5848, #5849, and #5854). Please don't perform snapshot operations through the GUI and the CLI at the same time.

Container Dashboard

There are known issues with the Container Dashboard with filtering table items, ports being displayed correctly, and if using the nerdctl container engine, there is an issue with the "Started" field showing an inaccurate time for containers starting up. The dashboard also has an issue updating when container states have changed or new containers are introduced (#5759, #5893, #5877, and #5775).

Provisioning Scripts - Windows

The location for provisioning scripts on Windows has changed from %AppData%\rancher-desktop\provisioning to %LocalAppData%\rancher-desktop\provisioning. The files are not automatically migrated when Rancher Desktop is updated, so they must be manually moved or copied to the new location.

9p - Linux OS

There is a known issue with some Linux distributions and using the experimental mount type 9p (#4943).

Extensions Install - Allowed Images

When using the Allowed Images feature and also specifying extensions in a deployment profile, the extension images must be included in both lists (#4920).

Please check the Rancher Desktop 1.11.0 release notes for a comprehensive list of new features and bug fixes.

Connect with the developers

• The issue queue

• Rancher Users Slack in the #rancher-desktop channel

Changelog

The full version changelog, from v1.11.0, can be found using GitHub compare and the details of the release can be found in the v1.11.0 milestone.

Rancher Desktop 1.11.0

This is the 1.11.0 release of Rancher Desktop, an open source desktop application to bring Kubernetes and container management to macOS, Windows, and Linux.

Windows and macOS Installers

• Windows
• macOS x86_64
• macOS aarch64
• Linux install notes

Notable Features & Changes

Snapshots (Experimental)

Rancher Desktop now has the ability to take snapshots which store the current configuration of your virtual machine and all associated settings. Snapshots can be managed both from the application GUI under the Snapshots tab or on the command line using rdctl snapshot.

Management activities include creating, deleting, and restoring of saved snapshots. Please note that management activities should complete before performing other actions in the application. Concurrent actions are not supported at the moment. Please see the documentation and reference page for more information and known issues below for current limitations

Container Dashboard (Experimental)

The new Containers tab offers quick access to view and manage containers from the application GUI. You can perform control activities such as stop, start, and delete as well as bulk selection/actions on containers that have a similar state. Please view the documentation for more information and known issues below for current limitations.

macOS Networking

You can now use the network configuration socket-vmnet with VZ emulation applied and administrative access enabled.

Windows Networking Tunnel (Experimental)

With the WSL networking tunnel enabled, the WSL integrations have received an update to allow distributions access to the Kubernetes API server hosted in Rancher Desktop's namespace network.

Important Bug Fixes

BuildX Error

• Fixes #5363 where newly created BuildX instances were failing with "cgroup" errors.

WSL Updates

• Fixes #4560 during startup for Rancher Desktop where the WSL integration was executing distributions not explicitly marked for integration and causing startup issues.

• Fixes #5805 where WSL integrations could not be disabled from the UI.

• Fixes #5551 where the WSL version was unable to be properly parsed causing application errors.

Locked No-Proxy Field UI Update

• Fixes #5468 where the No proxy hostname list was editable in the UI after being locked via deployment policy.

VZ Emulation

• Fixes #5542 where an incompatible mount type could be set for VZ emulation using the command line and rdctl.

Deployment Profile - Windows

• Fixes #5857 where deployment profiles created via rdctl with locked fields were not able to initialize the application.

Known Issues

Apple M3 CPUs

There have been multiple reports that QEMU does not work with the latest Apple Silicon. Please use VZ emulation instead (#5943).

Snapshots

Currently there are known issues regarding executing multiple application actions while a snapshot is undergoing a management activity (#5846, #5848, #5849, and #5854).

Container Dashboard

There are known issues with the Container Dashboard with filtering table items, ports being displayed correctly, and if using the nerdctl container engine there is an issue with the "Started" field showing an inaccurate time for containers starting up. The dashboard also has an issue updating when container states have changed or new containers are introduced (#5759, #5893, #5877, and #5775).

Provisioning Scripts - Windows

The location for provisioning scripts on Windows has changed from %AppData%\rancher-desktop\provisioning to %LocalAppData%\rancher-desktop\provisioning. The files are not automatically migrated when Rancher Desktop is updated, but must be manually moved or copied to the new location.

9p - Linux OS

There is a known issue with some Linux distributions and using the experimental mount type 9p (#4943).

Extensions Install - Allowed Images

When using the Allowed Images feature, and also specifying extensions in a deployment profile, then the extension images must be included in both lists (#4920).

Updates to Bundled Utilities

• helm 3.12.3 → 3.13.1
• docker 24.0.5 → 24.0.6
• docker-buildx 0.11.2 → 0.12.0
• docker-compose 2.20.3 → 2.22.0
• docker-credential-ecr-login 0.7.1 → 0.7.1
• nerdctl 1.5.0 → 1.6.2
• moby/buildkit 0.11.6 → 0.12.3
• trivy 0.44.1 → 0.46.0

Connect With the Developers

• The issue queue

• Rancher Users Slack in the #rancher-desktop channel

Changelog

The full version changelog, from v1.10.0, can be found using GitHub compare and the details of the release can be found in the v1.11.0 milestone.

Rancher Desktop 1.10.0

This is the 1.10.0 release of Rancher Desktop, an open source desktop application to bring Kubernetes and container management to macOS, Windows, and Linux.

Windows and macOS Installers

• Windows
• macOS x86_64
• macOS aarch64
• Linux install notes

New Features

Deployment Profile Updates

• Rancher Desktop now supports generating Windows .reg or macOS .plist files using the rdctl create-profile [options] command. Please see the command reference for documentation.

Mount Type virtiofs Available on Linux & macOS

• Initially available for macOS, this release adds the virtiofs mount type for Linux environments as well. This can be set as an option on the Virtual Machine | Volumes tab.

Windows Proxy Update

• The WSL noproxy list is now displayed in a text area from the preferences dialog via Preferences > WSL > Proxy.

Important Bug Fixes

Desktop Extensions - Switching Container Engines

• Fixes #4788 where Rancher Desktop will now silently remove incompatible extensions when switching container engines between the moby and containerd options.

Deployment Profile Updates

• Fixes #4952 where an incorrect Kubernetes version value in a deployment profile was not terminating the application.

• Fixes #5047 with editable Kubernetes fields in locked deployment profiles.

Windows Network Update

• Fixes #5396 where port binding to localhost failed when using a moby backend engine and allows for exposed ports to be discoverable in the namespaced network.

Windows Proxy Update

• Fixes #5366 where users were unable to delete a host from the No proxy hostname list.

Known Issues

Allowed Images List & rdctl create-profile --output=reg

• There is a known issue #5466 where an empty allowed images list is not being output while using the command rdctl create-profile --output=reg --from-settings.
  A workaround is to add at least one image to the allowed images list, which can point to a non-existing image or registry.

Updates to Bundled Utilities

• helm 3.12.0 → 3.12.3
• docker 24.0.2 → 24.0.5
• docker-buildx 0.10.5 → 0.11.2
• docker-compose 2.18.0 → 2.20.3
• docker-credential-ecr-login 0.7.1 → 0.7.1
• nerdctl 1.4.0 → 1.5.0
• moby/buildkit 0.12.0 → 0.11.6 (downgrade due to an issue with cgroups)
• trivy 0.42.0 → 0.44.1

Connect With the Developers

• The issue queue

• Rancher Users Slack in the #rancher-desktop channel

Changelog

The full version changelog, from v1.9.1, can be found using GitHub compare and the details of the release can be found in the v1.10.0 milestone.

Rancher Desktop 1.9.1

This is the 1.9.1 release of Rancher Desktop, an open source desktop application to bring Kubernetes and container management to macOS, Windows, and Linux.

Windows and macOS Installers

• Windows
• macOS x86_64
• macOS aarch64
• Linux install notes

Important bug fixes in this patch release

Locked settings could be unlocked

When the main application window was closed and re-opened without terminating the application, then all settings locked by a deployment profile could be edited again. They were only reset to their locked values when Rancher Desktop was restarted.

Uncaught proxy handling errors

The module handling https proxies inside Rancher Desktop was updated to its latest version, which contained a bug tied to handling proxy error messages that contained additional error information in addition to the HTTP status code. This bug would throw an exception that Rancher Desktop would not handle. The module has been downgraded to the previous version again until the bug is fixed upstream.

Other fixes

New networking stack on Windows

• The new networking code would break when the user name contained a space.

• Port forwarding did not work with the new networking code.

Buildkit support on Windows

The Rancher Desktop WSL distro did not include the necessary tools to use buildkit on Windows.

Apple Virtualization Framework could not be enabled on macOS 13.0 (Intel) and 13.3 (M1)

This was due to an incorrect version comparison and has been fixed.

Rancher Desktop failed silently when ~/.docker/config.json was invalid

It now displays an error message during startup.

Known issue

The Kubernetes version can be modified via rdctl start --kubernetes.version 1.XX.Y even when it is otherwise locked down by a deployment profile. This is the only setting affected by this bug; Kubernetes versions are updated later once the list of available versions is known.

Updates to bundled utilities

• helm 3.12.0 → 3.12.1
• docker-buildx 0.10.5 → 0.11.0
• docker-compose 2.18.1 → 2.19.0
• trivy 0.42.0 → 0.42.1

Connect with the developers

• The issue queue

• Rancher Users Slack in the #rancher-desktop channel

Changelog

The full version changelog, from v1.9.0, can be found using GitHub compare and the details of the release can be found in the v1.9.1 milestones.

Rancher Desktop 1.9

This is the 1.9.0 release of Rancher Desktop, an open source desktop application to bring Kubernetes and container management to macOS, Windows, and Linux.

Windows and macOS Installers

• Windows
• macOS x86_64
• macOS aarch64
• Linux install notes

New features

Docker Extensions

This release provides support for Docker Extensions. They can be installed via the UI from a catalog, or via the CLI from any registry.

The extensions in the bundled catalog have been tested to work with Rancher Desktop 1.9. Some extensions only work with the moby container engine; they will not be displayed in the catalog when using containerd.

The Epinio extension only works when Kubernetes has been enabled.

Additional extensions can be installed via the CLI but may not work with Rancher Desktop.

Preferences for experimental settings

The following settings were previously only configurable via rdctl. They have been added to the Preferences dialog, which has been extended with additional tabs:

Windows

• A new networking stack implementation can be selected that works better in VPN environments. This new stack now automatically configures port forwarding as well.

macOS

• Virtual machine type can be set to qemu or vz (Apple Virtualization Framework). vz requires macOS 13.0 Ventura on Intel and macOS 13.3 on Arm (M1, M2) machines. Rosetta can be enabled to run Intel container images on M1/M2 computers under vz emulation.

• Directory mounting can use virtiofs instead of the default reverse-sshfs mode when using vz.

• The socket-vmnet driver can be selected instead of the default vde-vmnet driver. It is only being used when running with administrative privileges to provide a routable (bridged) IP address on the local network.

macOS and Linux

• Directory mounting can use 9p instead of reverse-sshfs. Various parameters of the 9p protocol can be configured as well.

Windows Proxy support

• Many thanks to @tperale for contributing an implementation of proxy support on Windows. The proxy settings can be configured via the Preferences dialog and via rdctl.

Locked Settings in Deployment Profiles

• For enterprise deployments, an administrator can now lock any setting globally to enforce company policy. Locked settings get a 🔒 icon in the Preferences dialog and cannot be modified.

Important bug fixes

Apple Virtualization Framework

• Several fixes to support for VZ emulation mode have been applied.

• Rosetta is now configured correctly.

• The 3 minute timeout during VM shutdown has been fixed.

Kubernetes service port forwarding

Fixes an issue that was introduced in 1.8 in Rancher Desktop Agent where if Kubernetes sends updates for services and the port mappings had not changed, the existing maps are deleted.

Other changes

• The default window size of the application has been increased.

• The default container engine has been changed from containerd to moby. This only affects new installations, and factory-reset.

• By default, Rancher Desktop will no longer request administrative access. That is need for a routable (bridged) IP address, and for creating the Docker socket in the default /var/run/docker.sock location.

  Rancher Desktop also sets up a rancher-desktop docker context and selects it, so having the socket in the default location is not necessary in most situation. Administrative access can be requested via the Preferences dialog.

  This change also only affects new installations, and factory reset. Existing configurations will not be modified.

Updates to bundled utilities

• helm 3.11.2 → 3.12.0
• docker 23.0.1 → 24.0.2
• docker-buildx 0.10.4 → 0.10.5
• docker-compose 2.16.0 → 2.18.1
• docker-credential-ecr-login 0.6.0 → 0.7.1
• nerdctl 1.2.1 → 1.4.0
• trivy 0.38.2 → 0.42.0

Connect with the developers

• The issue queue

• Rancher Users Slack in the #rancher-desktop channel

Changelog

The full version changelog, from v1.8.1, can be found using GitHub compare and the details of the release can be found in the v1.9.0-tech-preview and v1.9.0 milestones.