Releases: rancher-sandbox/rancher-desktop
Rancher Desktop 1.17.1
This is the 1.17.1 release of Rancher Desktop, an open source desktop application to bring Kubernetes and container management to macOS, Windows, and Linux.
Installers
What has changed in 1.17.1
Windows installer no longer installs WSL2
Due to Windows Subsystem for Linux installer changes, we no longer attempt to install WSL2 as part of our installer. Please install it separately following the Microsoft instructions before running the Rancher Desktop installer.
For administrative installs, please set the WSLINSTALLED property to 1 as before if suppressing the installer check is desired.
Windows Networking fixes
Downgraded gvisor-tap-vsock to v0.7.5 to resolve DNS failures observed in v0.8.1. This restores DNS resolution behind VPNs and fixes other name resolution issues.
macOS networking changes
It is now possible again to run Rancher Desktop while offline.
DNS changes due to connecting or disconnecting from a VPN are propagated automatically and don't require an app restart.
AppImage works again on Rocky 9 and others
In addition Ubuntu 24.04+ made some changes that make its default configuration incompatible with most AppImages containing Electron-based apps (they crash with a TRAP error). A workaround is to run the AppImage with the --no-sandbox --disable-gpu-sandbox options. Alternatively you can enable unprivileged user namespaces with
sudo sysctl -w kernel.apparmor_restrict_unprivileged_userns=0
Updates to Bundled Utilities in 1.17.1
- docker
27.4.1→27.5.0 - docker-compose
2.32.1→2.32.4 - helm
3.16.4→3.17.0 - spin
3.1.1→3.1.2 - spin-shim
0.17.0→0.18.0 - trivy
0.58.1→0.58.2
Changelog
The full version changelog, from v1.17.0, can be found using GitHub compare and the details of the release can be found in the v1.17.1 milestone.
Release notes for 1.17.0
Open WebUI extension
Rancher Desktop now includes the "Open WebUI" extension. If not already present, it will download and install Ollama on the host (to have access to the GPU) and it will also run Open WebUI and SearXNG in containers to make it easy to explore and experiment with different LLM models. Working with LLMs using Open WebUI has more information.
RPM package works again on openSUSE
openSUSE made a change to QEMU that was incompatible with the RPM release of Rancher Desktop; the AppImage bundles its own copy of QEMU and was unaffected. Rancher Desktop 1.17.0 is compatible again with the version of QEMU used by the latest releases of openSUSE.
QEMU and Apple M4
Apple's M4 CPU was not supported by QEMU in earlier releases of Rancher Desktop (VZ was unaffected). 1.17.0 ships with a version of QEMU that has been fixed to work with M4 CPUs.
The 1.15.0 release was supposed to be fully native for Apple Silicon, but it turned out that the applet to prompt for the sudo password was still Intel-only. Now Rosetta should really no longer be needed for Rancher Desktop.
Bundled k3s versions list
Rancher Desktop cannot start unless it has a list of available k3s versions. This has led to problems if the version list could not be determined at first start or after a factory reset. 1.17.0 bundles a k3s version list, which is up-to-date as of the release data of Rancher Desktop. As a result, the app will always have a list of available versions; it will only be potentially missing new versions released after 1.17.0 itself.
Networking improvements
Networking improvements have been made across all platforms, with updates to both upstream libraries and Rancher Desktop itself:
- Enabled UDP Port Forwarding when a network tunnel is active (#6821).
- Added support for the host network driver (--net=host) in both Docker and containerd engines (#7378).
- Resolved Docker Compose network TCP (RST) issues (#7720).
- Restored iptables scanning for Kubernetes ports in CNI-DN-* that were previously overlooked (#7722).
- Addressed performance inefficiencies in the guestAgent process on Windows (#7763), (#7782), (#7825), (#7891), and (#7558).
Known Issues
MSI installer does not install missing WSL on Windows 11 (#7975)
The Rancher Desktop install does not correctly process the latest output from the wsl --version command on Windows 11 and fails to install WSL2 if it is not already present. The workaround is to manually install WSL2 before installing Rancher Desktop.
VZ emulation no longer works offline
Due to a change in a networking dependency, it is no longer possible to run VMs using VZ emulation while offline. QEMU is unaffected. Stay with 1.16.0 if you require VZ mode to work while disconnected.
spinkube operator has incompatible changes
The spinkube operator has been updated to version 0.4.0, which had incompatible API changes; it is likely that all applications using it need to be redeployed.
Deprecations
macOS 12 Monterey and earlier are no longer supported
Apple usually only provides security updates for the last 3 major macOS releases. GitHub removes CI runners once the OS is no longer supported. Due to availability of hardware resources and software dependencies, we may be unable to create new Rancher Desktop releases compatible with older macOS versions.
While Rancher Desktop 1.17.0 seems to work fine on macOS 12 Monterey, it should be considered unsupported.
The status of macOS 11 Big Sur is unknown, so auto-upgrade will not offer an upgrade to 1.17.0 on Big Sur or earlier.
Updates to Bundled Utilities
- amazon-eco-credential-helper unchanged
0.9.0 - docker
27.2.1→27.4.1 - docker-buildx
0.17.1→0.19.3 - docker-compose
2.29.5→2.32.1 - docker-credential-helpers unchanged
0.8.2 - helm
3.16.1→3.16.4 - kuberlr unchanged
0.5.2 - moby/buildkit
0.12.5→0.18.1 - nerdctl
1.7.7→2.0.2 - spin
2.7.0→3.1.1 - spin-shim
0.15.1→0.17.0 - spinkube
0.3.0→0.4.0 - trivy
0.55.2→0.58.1
Connect with the developers
-
The issue queue
-
Rancher Users Slack in the #rancher-desktop channel
Changelog
The full version changelog, from v1.16.0, can be found using GitHub compare and the details of the release can be found in the v1.17.0 milestone.
Rancher Desktop 1.17.0
This is the 1.17.0 release of Rancher Desktop, an open source desktop application to bring Kubernetes and container management to macOS, Windows, and Linux.
⚠️ WARNINGS ⚠️
The 1.17.0 release seems to have introduced a couple of regressions. We will not include 1.17.0 in the auto-updater and wait instead for a 1.17.1 patch release that addresses the important regressions:
-
Linux AppImage installer doesn't work on openSUSE Tumbleweed, Rocky 9, Ubuntu 24.04+ and possibly others
Installers
Notable Changes and Bug Fixes
Open WebUI extension
Rancher Desktop now includes the "Open WebUI" extension. If not already present, it will download and install Ollama on the host (to have access to the GPU) and it will also run Open WebUI and SearXNG in containers to make it easy to explore and experiment with different LLM models. Working with LLMs using Open WebUI has more information.
RPM package works again on openSUSE
openSUSE made a change to QEMU that was incompatible with the RPM release of Rancher Desktop; the AppImage bundles its own copy of QEMU and was unaffected. Rancher Desktop 1.17.0 is compatible again with the version of QEMU used by the latest releases of openSUSE.
QEMU and Apple M4
Apple's M4 CPU was not supported by QEMU in earlier releases of Rancher Desktop (VZ was unaffected). 1.17.0 ships with a version of QEMU that has been fixed to work with M4 CPUs.
The 1.15.0 release was supposed to be fully native for Apple Silicon, but it turned out that the applet to prompt for the sudo password was still Intel-only. Now Rosetta should really no longer be needed for Rancher Desktop.
Bundled k3s versions list
Rancher Desktop cannot start unless it has a list of available k3s versions. This has led to problems if the version list could not be determined at first start or after a factory reset. 1.17.0 bundles a k3s version list, which is up-to-date as of the release data of Rancher Desktop. As a result, the app will always have a list of available versions; it will only be potentially missing new versions released after 1.17.0 itself.
Networking improvements
Networking improvements have been made across all platforms, with updates to both upstream libraries and Rancher Desktop itself:
- Enabled UDP Port Forwarding when a network tunnel is active (#6821).
- Added support for the host network driver (--net=host) in both Docker and containerd engines (#7378).
- Resolved Docker Compose network TCP (RST) issues (#7720).
- Restored iptables scanning for Kubernetes ports in CNI-DN-* that were previously overlooked (#7722).
- Addressed performance inefficiencies in the guestAgent process on Windows (#7763), (#7782), (#7825), (#7891), and (#7558).
Known Issues
MSI installer does not install missing WSL on Windows 11 (#7975)
The Rancher Desktop install does not correctly process the latest output from the wsl --version command on Windows 11 and fails to install WSL2 if it is not already present. The workaround is to manually install WSL2 before installing Rancher Desktop.
VZ emulation no longer works offline
Due to a change in a networking dependency, it is no longer possible to run VMs using VZ emulation while offline. QEMU is unaffected. Stay with 1.16.0 if you require VZ mode to work while disconnected.
spinkube operator has incompatible changes
The spinkube operator has been updated to version 0.4.0, which had incompatible API changes; it is likely that all applications using it need to be redeployed.
Deprecations
macOS 12 Monterey and earlier are no longer supported
Apple usually only provides security updates for the last 3 major macOS releases. GitHub removes CI runners once the OS is no longer supported. Due to availability of hardware resources and software dependencies, we may be unable to create new Rancher Desktop releases compatible with older macOS versions.
While Rancher Desktop 1.17.0 seems to work fine on macOS 12 Monterey, it should be considered unsupported.
The status of macOS 11 Big Sur is unknown, so auto-upgrade will not offer an upgrade to 1.17.0 on Big Sur or earlier.
Updates to Bundled Utilities
- amazon-eco-credential-helper unchanged
0.9.0 - docker
27.2.1→27.4.1 - docker-buildx
0.17.1→0.19.3 - docker-compose
2.29.5→2.32.1 - docker-credential-helpers unchanged
0.8.2 - helm
3.16.1→3.16.4 - kuberlr unchanged
0.5.2 - moby/buildkit
0.12.5→0.18.1 - nerdctl
1.7.7→2.0.2 - spin
2.7.0→3.1.1 - spin-shim
0.15.1→0.17.0 - spinkube
0.3.0→0.4.0 - trivy
0.55.2→0.58.1
Connect with the developers
-
The issue queue
-
Rancher Users Slack in the #rancher-desktop channel
Changelog
The full version changelog, from v1.16.0, can be found using GitHub compare and the details of the release can be found in the v1.17.0 milestone.
Rancher Desktop 1.16.0
This is the 1.16.0 release of Rancher Desktop, an open source desktop application to bring Kubernetes and container management to macOS, Windows, and Linux.
Installers
Notable Changes and Bug Fixes
Windows networking updates
Removing support for the legacy networking stack on Windows uncovered a couple of remaining issues:
-
Removed the legacy network stack (#7296)
-
Removed iptables scraping from the guest agent (#7447)
-
Resolved IP address collisions with userspace networks in other WSL distributions (#7383)
-
Addressed open connection issues in wsl-proxy, preventing the distro from exhausting file descriptors (#7331)
docker buildx and docker compose plugins are using the updated binaries (Windows)
Rancher Desktop has been shipping updated docker-buildx and docker-compose executables, but when they are started as a plugin via docker buildx or docker compose then they are loaded from the %USERPROFILE%\.docker\cli-plugins directory and not located via the PATH. Previous Rancher Desktop releases would not overwrite existing files in the plugin directory, which means docker buildx and docker compose could have been running outdated version.
Automatic PATH management has been fixed (macOS, Linux)
The changes made in 1.15.0 to prevent shell profiles from being deleted in certain edge conditions broke the updating of shell profiles completely. This happened only with the signed release versions, which is why it wasn't detected earlier.
In 1.16.0 any kind of extended attributes on a shell profile will be copied and will not prevent the update (#7394).
sudo-prompt applet is a native binary for macOS on Apple Silicon
The 1.15.0 release was supposed to be fully native for Apple Silicon, but it turned out that the applet to prompt for the sudo password was still Intel-only. Now Rosetta should really no longer be needed for Rancher Desktop.
Known Issues
Rancher Desktop stopped working on openSUSE Tumbleweed
This is due to a breaking change in the firmware shipped with QEMU on openSUSE (#7463). The openSUSE bug is tracked by https://bugzilla.suse.com/show_bug.cgi?id=1230291.
This issue does not affect installation using the AppImage installer because it bundles its own version of QEMU.
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).
Deprecations
macOS 11 Big Sur and earlier are no longer officially supported
Apple usually only provides security updates for the last 3 major macOS releases. GitHub removes CI runners once the OS is no longer supported. Due to availability of hardware resources and software dependencies, we may be unable to create new Rancher Desktop releases compatible with older macOS versions in the future.
We will try not to break Rancher Desktop on older macOS versions as long as reasonably possible, but those versions should be considered unsupported.
Updates to Bundled Utilities
- amazon-eco-credential-helper
0.8.0→0.9.0 - docker
27.1.1→27.2.1 - docker-buildx
0.16.2→0.17.1 - docker-compose
2.29.1→2.29.5 - docker-credential-helpers unchanged
0.8.2 - helm
3.15.3→3.16.1 - moby/buildkit unchanged
0.12.5 - nerdctl
1.7.6→1.7.7 - spin
2.5.1→2.7.0 - spin-shim unchanged
0.15.1 - spinkube
0.2.0→0.3.0 - trivy
0.53.0→0.55.2
Connect with the developers
-
The issue queue
-
Rancher Users Slack in the #rancher-desktop channel
Changelog
The full version changelog, from v1.15.1, can be found using GitHub compare and the details of the release can be found in the v1.16.0 milestone.
Rancher Desktop 1.15.1
This is the 1.15.1 release of Rancher Desktop, an open source desktop application to bring Kubernetes and container management to macOS, Windows, and Linux.
Installers
What has changed in 1.15.1
- Windows only: Resolved a socket leak when using Kubernetes or other containers from WSL distributions, eventually causing connections to stop working after running out of file descriptors. (#7331)
- macOS and Linux only: Resolved an issue where the inability to manage
.bashrc/.zshrc/etc., broke the ability to automatically start Rancher Desktop when the user logs in. (#7337)
Release notes for 1.15.0
Notable Features & Changes
Kubernetes versions before 1.21.0 are no longer supported
If you are on an earlier version, updating to Rancher Desktop 1.15.0 will automatically update you to Kubernetes 1.21.14. If you must continue to use an older version, you should stay on Rancher Desktop 1.14.2.
kuberlr and kubectl are native binaries for macOS on Apple Silicon
Rosetta is no longer needed for Rancher Desktop.
New networking tunnel stack is now the only option on Windows
It is no longer possible to select the legacy networking mode.
On macOS the socket_vmnet has replaced vde_vmnet
It is a complete superset of the old functionality, and the old setting is no longer available.
Important Bug Fixes
Shell profile settings are not accidentally deleted
When Rancher Desktop started either after a fresh install, or after a factory reset, and the computer was without internet access, then there was a race condition that could result in the deletion of shell profiles (.bash_profile, .zshrc, etc) (#7154).
This race condition has been fixed. However, the code has been updated to always keep a backup file around, just in case there is another undiscovered way to trigger a similar bug.
A memory leak on Windows has been fixed that could lead to a frozen system
This issue in the tray menu updater was diagnosed and fixed by @mikeseese (#7238). Thank you for your help!
Port forwarding bug with older Kubernetes versions on Windows has been fixed.
For Kubernetes 1.25 versions older than 1.25.3, 1.24 versions older than 1.24.7, or any version before 1.23.13 the port forwarding to the host was not working (#5341). This has been fixed.
Known Issues
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).
Deprecations
macOS 11 Big Sur and earlier are no longer officially supported
Apple usually only provides security updates for the last 3 major macOS releases. GitHub removes CI runners once the OS is no longer supported. Due to availability of hardware resources and software dependencies, we may be unable to create new Rancher Desktop releases compatible with older macOS versions in the future.
We will try not to break Rancher Desktop on older macOS versions as long as reasonably possible, but those versions should be considered unsupported.
Updates to Bundled Utilities
- docker
26.1.0→27.1.1 - docker-buildx
0.14.1→0.16.2 - docker-compose
2.27.1→2.29.1 - docker-credential-ecr-login unchanged
0.8.0 - helm
3.15.1→3.15.3 - moby/buildkit unchanged
0.12.5 - nerdctl unchanged
1.7.6 - spin: new
2.5.1 - spin-shim:
0.14.1→0.15.1 - spinkube: unchanged
0.2.0 - trivy
0.51.4→0.53.0
Connect with the developers
-
The issue queue
-
Rancher Users Slack in the #rancher-desktop channel
Changelog
The full version changelog, from v1.14.2, can be found using GitHub compare and the details of the release can be found in the v1.15.0 milestone.
Contributors
Assets 14
Rancher Desktop 1.15.0
This is the 1.15.0 release of Rancher Desktop, an open source desktop application to bring Kubernetes and container management to macOS, Windows, and Linux.
Installers
Notable Features & Changes
Kubernetes versions before 1.21.0 are no longer supported
If you are on an earlier version, updating to Rancher Desktop 1.15.0 will automatically update you to Kubernetes 1.21.14. If you must continue to use an older version, you should stay on Rancher Desktop 1.14.2.
kuberlr and kubectl are native binaries for macOS on Apple Silicon
Rosetta is no longer needed for Rancher Desktop.
New networking tunnel stack is now the only option on Windows
It is no longer possible to select the legacy networking mode.
On macOS the socket_vmnet has replaced vde_vmnet
It is a complete superset of the old functionality, and the old setting is no longer available.
Important Bug Fixes
Shell profile settings are not accidentally deleted
When Rancher Desktop started either after a fresh install, or after a factory reset, and the computer was without internet access, then there was a race condition that could result in the deletion of shell profiles (.bash_profile, .zshrc, etc) (#7154).
This race condition has been fixed. However, the code has been updated to always keep a backup file around, just in case there is another undiscovered way to trigger a similar bug.
A memory leak on Windows has been fixed that could lead to a frozen system
This issue in the tray menu updater was diagnosed and fixed by @mikeseese (#7238). Thank you for your help!
Port forwarding bug with older Kubernetes versions on Windows has been fixed.
For Kubernetes 1.25 versions older than 1.25.3, 1.24 versions older than 1.24.7, or any version before 1.23.13 the port forwarding to the host was not working (#5341). This has been fixed.
Known Issues
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).
Deprecations
macOS 11 Big Sur and earlier are no longer officially supported
Apple usually only provides security updates for the last 3 major macOS releases. GitHub removes CI runners once the OS is no longer supported. Due to availability of hardware resources and software dependencies, we may be unable to create new Rancher Desktop releases compatible with older macOS versions in the future.
We will try not to break Rancher Desktop on older macOS versions as long as reasonably possible, but those versions should be considered unsupported.
Updates to Bundled Utilities
- docker
26.1.0→27.1.1 - docker-buildx
0.14.1→0.16.2 - docker-compose
2.27.1→2.29.1 - docker-credential-ecr-login unchanged
0.8.0 - helm
3.15.1→3.15.3 - moby/buildkit unchanged
0.12.5 - nerdctl unchanged
1.7.6 - spin: new
2.5.1 - spin-shim:
0.14.1→0.15.1 - spinkube: unchanged
0.2.0 - trivy
0.51.4→0.53.0
Connect with the developers
-
The issue queue
-
Rancher Users Slack in the #rancher-desktop channel
Changelog
The full version changelog, from v1.14.2, can be found using GitHub compare and the details of the release can be found in the v1.15.0 milestone.
Contributors
Assets 14
Rancher Desktop 1.14.2
This is the 1.14.2 release of Rancher Desktop, an open source desktop application to bring Kubernetes and container management to macOS, Windows, and Linux.
Installers
What has changed in 1.14.2
This release is mostly identical to 1.14.1 with the single exception being the spin executable for macOS. Since it is being notarized, it had to be signed with the hardened runtime, which broke the functionality of running applications natively (not in a container or on Kubernetes) via spin up. In the 1.14.2 release, the macOS spin binaries are signed with the com.apple.security.cs.allow-unsigned-executable-memory entitlement to allow native code generation.
We are not enabling auto-update for the 1.14.2 release because the percentage of affected users will be very small. You need to manually update if you are on macOS and want to run spin up.
What has changed in 1.14.1
Cluster Explorer would no longer dynamically refresh in 1.14.0 because the web socket connection had been broken. This issue has been fixed (#6968).
There are no other changes in 1.14.1.
Full Changelog: The full version changelog, from v1.14.0, can be found using GitHub compare.
Release Notes for 1.14.0
Notable Features & Changes
Bundles the spin cli (experimental)
Rancher Desktop now includes the spin CLI to support building Wasm images.
The js2wasm and kube plugins, as well as the default templates, are installed the first time the WebAssembly support option has been selected in the Container Engine settings.
The plugins and templates are also installed into any distro for which WSL Integration has been enabled.
Option to install the spinkube operator (experimental)
Rancher Desktop now has an option to install the spinkube operator in the Kubernetes settings to support running Spin applications on Kubernetes. It will install and configure cert-manager and the spin-operator into the cluster. This option requires that WebAssembly support is enabled.
The tunnelling network on Windows supports WSL integration
Containers and Kubernetes services can now be accessed from other WSL distributions, as long as WSL Integration is enabled for them.
The tunnelling network implementation is now complete and has become the default setting in this release (for new installations or after a factory reset). Support for the legacy network is scheduled to be removed in the following release (1.15.0).
The timezone inside the VM now matches the timezone on the host
This means CronJobs in Kubernetes can now be specified using localtime.
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).
Deprecations
The legacy networking stack on Windows will be removed in 1.15.0
The tunnelling network on Windows has become the default in this release and should be a full superset of the legacy stack capabilities.
We are planning to remove the legacy networking mode in 1.15.0.
vde_vmnet will be removed in 1.15.0
The socket_vmnet daemon provides all the functionality required by Rancher Desktop and is actively maintained while vde_vmnet itself is deprecated.
VZ emulation already uses socket_vmnet unconditionally because it never had support for vde_vmnet.
The option will be removed and socket_vmnet will automatically be used when Administrative Access is enabled.
Kubernetes versions before 1.21.0 will no longer be supported in 1.15.0
Kubernetes only maintains updates for the latest 3 minor releases (so right now only for 1.27.0 and up). Rancher Desktop tries to support a wider range of legacy versions, but sometimes it becomes necessary to remove support for older versions to keep the code maintainable while adding new features.
We intend to remove support for Kubernetes versions before 1.21.0 in Rancher Desktop 1.15.0.
macOS 11 Big Sur and earlier are no longer officially supported
Apple usually only provides security updates for the last 3 major macOS releases. GitHub removes CI runners once the OS is no longer supported. Due to availability of hardware resources and software dependencies, we may be unable to create new Rancher Desktop releases compatible with older macOS versions in the future.
We will try not to break Rancher Desktop on older macOS versions as long as reasonably possible, but those versions should be considered unsupported.
Updates to Bundled Utilities
- docker
25.0.4→26.1.0 - docker-buildx
0.13.0→0.14.1 - docker-compose
2.24.7→2.27.1 - docker-credential-ecr-login
0.7.1→0.8.0 - helm
3.14.2→3.15.1 - moby/buildkit unchanged
0.12.5 - nerdctl
1.7.3→1.7.6 - spin: new
2.5.1 - spin-shim:
0.11.1→0.14.1 - spinkube: new
0.2.0 - trivy
0.49.1→0.51.4
Connect with the developers
-
The issue queue
-
Rancher Users Slack in the #rancher-desktop channel
Changelog
The full version changelog, from v1.13.1, can be found using GitHub compare and the details of the release can be found in the v1.14.0 milestone.
Rancher Desktop 1.14.1
This is the 1.14.1 release of Rancher Desktop, an open source desktop application to bring Kubernetes and container management to macOS, Windows, and Linux.
Installers
What has changed in 1.14.1
Cluster Explorer would no longer dynamically refresh in 1.14.0 because the web socket connection had been broken. This issue has been fixed (#6968).
There are no other changes in 1.14.1.
Full Changelog: The full version changelog, from v1.14.0, can be found using GitHub compare.
Release Notes for 1.14.0
Notable Features & Changes
Bundles the spin cli (experimental)
Rancher Desktop now includes the spin CLI to support building Wasm images.
The js2wasm and kube plugins, as well as the default templates, are installed the first time the WebAssembly support option has been selected in the Container Engine settings.
The plugins and templates are also installed into any distro for which WSL Integration has been enabled.
Option to install the spinkube operator (experimental)
Rancher Desktop now has an option to install the spinkube operator in the Kubernetes settings to support running Spin applications on Kubernetes. It will install and configure cert-manager and the spin-operator into the cluster. This option requires that WebAssembly support is enabled.
The tunnelling network on Windows supports WSL integration
Containers and Kubernetes services can now be accessed from other WSL distributions, as long as WSL Integration is enabled for them.
The tunnelling network implementation is now complete and has become the default setting in this release (for new installations or after a factory reset). Support for the legacy network is scheduled to be removed in the following release (1.15.0).
The timezone inside the VM now matches the timezone on the host
This means CronJobs in Kubernetes can now be specified using localtime.
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).
Deprecations
The legacy networking stack on Windows will be removed in 1.15.0
The tunnelling network on Windows has become the default in this release and should be a full superset of the legacy stack capabilities.
We are planning to remove the legacy networking mode in 1.15.0.
vde_vmnet will be removed in 1.15.0
The socket_vmnet daemon provides all the functionality required by Rancher Desktop and is actively maintained while vde_vmnet itself is deprecated.
VZ emulation already uses socket_vmnet unconditionally because it never had support for vde_vmnet.
The option will be removed and socket_vmnet will automatically be used when Administrative Access is enabled.
Kubernetes versions before 1.21.0 will no longer be supported in 1.15.0
Kubernetes only maintains updates for the latest 3 minor releases (so right now only for 1.27.0 and up). Rancher Desktop tries to support a wider range of legacy versions, but sometimes it becomes necessary to remove support for older versions to keep the code maintainable while adding new features.
We intend to remove support for Kubernetes versions before 1.21.0 in Rancher Desktop 1.15.0.
macOS 11 Big Sur and earlier are no longer officially supported
Apple usually only provides security updates for the last 3 major macOS releases. GitHub removes CI runners once the OS is no longer supported. Due to availability of hardware resources and software dependencies, we may be unable to create new Rancher Desktop releases compatible with older macOS versions in the future.
We will try not to break Rancher Desktop on older macOS versions as long as reasonably possible, but those versions should be considered unsupported.
Updates to Bundled Utilities
- docker
25.0.4→26.1.0 - docker-buildx
0.13.0→0.14.1 - docker-compose
2.24.7→2.27.1 - docker-credential-ecr-login
0.7.1→0.8.0 - helm
3.14.2→3.15.1 - moby/buildkit unchanged
0.12.5 - nerdctl
1.7.3→1.7.6 - spin: new
2.5.1 - spin-shim:
0.11.1→0.14.1 - spinkube: new
0.2.0 - trivy
0.49.1→0.51.4
Connect with the developers
-
The issue queue
-
Rancher Users Slack in the #rancher-desktop channel
Changelog
The full version changelog, from v1.13.1, can be found using GitHub compare and the details of the release can be found in the v1.14.0 milestone.
Rancher Desktop 1.14.0
This is the 1.14 release of Rancher Desktop, an open source desktop application to bring Kubernetes and container management to macOS, Windows, and Linux.
Installers
Notable Features & Changes
Bundles the spin cli (experimental)
Rancher Desktop now includes the spin CLI to support building Wasm images.
The js2wasm and kube plugins, as well as the default templates, are installed the first time the WebAssembly support option has been selected in the Container Engine settings.
The plugins and templates are also installed into any distro for which WSL Integration has been enabled.
Option to install the spinkube operator (experimental)
Rancher Desktop now has an option to install the spinkube operator in the Kubernetes settings to support running Spin applications on Kubernetes. It will install and configure cert-manager and the spin-operator into the cluster. This option requires that WebAssembly support is enabled.
The tunnelling network on Windows supports WSL integration
Containers and Kubernetes services can now be accessed from other WSL distributions, as long as WSL Integration is enabled for them.
The tunnelling network implementation is now complete and has become the default setting in this release (for new installations or after a factory reset). Support for the legacy network is scheduled to be removed in the following release (1.15.0).
The timezone inside the VM now matches the timezone on the host
This means CronJobs in Kubernetes can now be specified using localtime.
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).
Deprecations
The legacy networking stack on Windows will be removed in 1.15.0
The tunnelling network on Windows has become the default in this release and should be a full superset of the legacy stack capabilities.
We are planning to remove the legacy networking mode in 1.15.0.
vde_vmnet will be removed in 1.15.0
The socket_vmnet daemon provides all the functionality required by Rancher Desktop and is actively maintained while vde_vmnet itself is deprecated.
VZ emulation already uses socket_vmnet unconditionally because it never had support for vde_vmnet.
The option will be removed and socket_vmnet will automatically be used when Administrative Access is enabled.
Kubernetes versions before 1.21.0 will no longer be supported in 1.15.0
Kubernetes only maintains updates for the latest 3 minor releases (so right now only for 1.27.0 and up). Rancher Desktop tries to support a wider range of legacy versions, but sometimes it becomes necessary to remove support for older versions to keep the code maintainable while adding new features.
We intend to remove support for Kubernetes versions before 1.21.0 in Rancher Desktop 1.15.0.
macOS 11 Big Sur and earlier are no longer officially supported
Apple usually only provides security updates for the last 3 major macOS releases. GitHub removes CI runners once the OS is no longer supported. Due to availability of hardware resources and software dependencies, we may be unable to create new Rancher Desktop releases compatible with older macOS versions in the future.
We will try not to break Rancher Desktop on older macOS versions as long as reasonably possible, but those versions should be considered unsupported.
Updates to Bundled Utilities
- docker
25.0.4→26.1.0 - docker-buildx
0.13.0→0.14.1 - docker-compose
2.24.7→2.27.1 - docker-credential-ecr-login
0.7.1→0.8.0 - helm
3.14.2→3.15.1 - moby/buildkit unchanged
0.12.5 - nerdctl
1.7.3→1.7.6 - spin: new
2.5.1 - spin-shim:
0.11.1→0.14.1 - spinkube: new
0.2.0 - trivy
0.49.1→0.51.4
Connect with the developers
-
The issue queue
-
Rancher Users Slack in the #rancher-desktop channel
Changelog
The full version changelog, from v1.13.1, can be found using GitHub compare and the details of the release can be found in the v1.14.0 milestone.
Rancher Desktop 1.13.1
This is the 1.13.1 release of Rancher Desktop, an open source desktop application to bring Kubernetes and container management to macOS, Windows, and Linux.
Installers
What has changed in 1.13.1
- Windows only: The minimum WSL kernel requirement (5.15.0.0 or higher) introduced in the v1.13.0 release is no longer required; as a result, the Rancher Desktop installer no longer automatically upgrades WSL. (#6606, #6624)
Full Changelog: The full version changelog, from v1.13.0, can be found using GitHub compare.
Release Notes for 1.13.0
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-helpers
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 1.13.0
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
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.