Surely using Docker on Linux Mint is the same as Ubuntu? I can just follow the official Ubuntu install guide.

Well this is not quite true. Yes, Linux Mint is built on Ubuntu and using Docker should be the same. BUT the official install guide will not work for you. There is a minor tweak that is required. And that is why this article exists.

The "Official" install command (02/04/2025)

Here is the official install command from the Ubuntu docker guide (install/ubuntu).

# Add Docker's official GPG key:
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install ca-certificates curl
sudo install -m 0755 -d /etc/apt/keyrings
sudo curl -fsSL https://download.docker.com/linux/ubuntu/gpg -o /etc/apt/keyrings/docker.asc
sudo chmod a+r /etc/apt/keyrings/docker.asc

# Add the repository to Apt sources:
echo \
  "deb [arch=$(dpkg --print-architecture) signed-by=/etc/apt/keyrings/docker.asc] https://download.docker.com/linux/ubuntu \
  $(. /etc/os-release && echo "${UBUNTU_CODENAME:-$VERSION_CODENAME}") stable" | \
  sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/docker.list > /dev/null
sudo apt-get update

When you run this it will complain. You will see the following error.

E: The repository 'https://download.docker.com/linux/ubuntu vera Release' does not have a Release file.

Notice the "vera" release. Ubuntu has no release named vera. That is the Linux Mint release version. This is the crux of the issue.

The install command you are looking for

The fix here is to use the Debian download passing in the latest Debian release name. This is currently "bookworm".

The updated command is below. I have hard coded the release name as bookworm and updated the download url to use debian instead of ubuntu.

# Add Docker's official GPG key:
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install ca-certificates curl
sudo install -m 0755 -d /etc/apt/keyrings
sudo curl -fsSL https://download.docker.com/linux/ubuntu/gpg -o /etc/apt/keyrings/docker.asc
sudo chmod a+r /etc/apt/keyrings/docker.asc

# Add the repository to Apt sources:
echo \
  "deb [arch=$(dpkg --print-architecture) signed-by=/etc/apt/keyrings/docker.asc] https://download.docker.com/linux/debian \
  bookworm stable" | \
  sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/docker.list > /dev/null
sudo apt-get update

I hope this solves your issue, and that docker is now running on your lovely Linux Mint instance.