Minikube v1.35.0 downloads base image v0.0.46, but the cluster is started using kicbase/stable:latest

[ytooyama]

Thank you for always providing useful software.I will report the issue because there was a problem while using it.

What Happened?

Minikube v1.35.0 downloads base image v0.0.46, but uses kicbase/stable:latest to start the cluster.
It seems to download an unnecessary 2GB image.

note: It is a configuration that configures the docker driver

% minikube version                         
minikube version: v1.35.0
commit: dd5d320e41b5451cdf3c01891bc4e13d189586ed

% LANG=C minikube start 
😄  minikube v1.35.0 on Darwin 15.5
✨  Using the docker driver based on user configuration
📌  Using Docker Desktop driver with root privileges
👍  Starting "minikube" primary control-plane node in "minikube" cluster
🚜  Pulling base image v0.0.46 ...
❗  minikube was unable to download gcr.io/k8s-minikube/kicbase:v0.0.46, but successfully downloaded docker.io/kicbase/stable:v0.0.46@sha256:fd2d445ddcc33ebc5c6b68a17e6219ea207ce63c005095ea1525296da2d1a279 as a fallback image
🔥  Creating docker container (CPUs=2, Memory=3866MB) ...
🐳  Preparing Kubernetes v1.32.0 on Docker 27.4.1 ...
    ▪ Generating certificates and keys ...
    ▪ Booting up control plane ...
    ▪ Configuring RBAC rules ...
🔗  Configuring bridge CNI (Container Networking Interface) ...
🔎  Verifying Kubernetes components...
    ▪ Using image gcr.io/k8s-minikube/storage-provisioner:v5
🌟  Enabled addons: storage-provisioner, default-storageclass
🏄  Done! kubectl is now configured to use "minikube" cluster and "default" namespace by default

% docker image ls
REPOSITORY                         TAG       IMAGE ID       CREATED        SIZE
kicbase/stable                     v0.0.46   cef9f3c2e399   4 months ago   1.86GB
kicbase/stable                     <none>    fd2d445ddcc3   4 months ago   1.86GB

Attach the log file

log.txt

Operating System

ProductName: macOS
ProductVersion: 15.5
BuildVersion: 24F74

Driver

Docker
Docker Desktop 4.41.2

[YouZhengChuan]

You can specify the base image used by minikube start:

minikube start --base-image='gcr.io/k8s-minikube/kicbase:v0.0.46'

[medyagh]

@ytooyama how do you know minikube is not using the kicbase/stable v0.0.46 ?

can you paste the output of "docker ps"

and also the images cef9f3c2e399 and fd2d445ddcc3 are the same beecause one is stored locally as tar file and has no tag (so it is not latest)
% docker image ls
REPOSITORY TAG IMAGE ID CREATED SIZE
kicbase/stable v0.0.46 cef9f3c2e399 4 months ago 1.86GB
kicbase/stable fd2d445ddcc3 4 months ago 1.86GB

[ytooyama]

Thank you for your reply. I tried again.

% docker image ls
REPOSITORY                         TAG       IMAGE ID       CREATED        SIZE
docker/compose-bridge-kubernetes   latest    74721870d4e3   5 months ago   7.03MB

//I couldn't download gcr.io/k8s-minikube/kicbase:v0.0.46, so I downloaded the fallback image

% LANG=C minikube start -v1
😄  minikube v1.35.0 on Darwin 15.5
✨  Using the docker driver based on user configuration
📌  Using Docker Desktop driver with root privileges
👍  Starting "minikube" primary control-plane node in "minikube" cluster
🚜  Pulling base image v0.0.46 ...
❗  minikube was unable to download gcr.io/k8s-minikube/kicbase:v0.0.46, but successfully downloaded docker.io/kicbase/stable:v0.0.46@sha256:fd2d445ddcc33ebc5c6b68a17e6219ea207ce63c005095ea1525296da2d1a279 as a fallback image
🔥  Creating docker container (CPUs=2, Memory=3866MB) ...
🐳  Preparing Kubernetes v1.32.0 on Docker 27.4.1 ...
    ▪ Generating certificates and keys ...
    ▪ Booting up control plane ...
    ▪ Configuring RBAC rules ...
🔗  Configuring bridge CNI (Container Networking Interface) ...
🔎  Verifying Kubernetes components...
    ▪ Using image gcr.io/k8s-minikube/storage-provisioner:v5
🌟  Enabled addons: storage-provisioner, default-storageclass
🏄  Done! kubectl is now configured to use "minikube" cluster and "default" namespace by default

//There are two images

% docker image ls
REPOSITORY                         TAG       IMAGE ID       CREATED        SIZE
kicbase/stable                     v0.0.46   cef9f3c2e399   4 months ago   1.86GB
kicbase/stable                     <none>    fd2d445ddcc3   4 months ago   1.86GB
docker/compose-bridge-kubernetes   latest    74721870d4e3   5 months ago   7.03MB

//When you run docker ps

% docker ps                
CONTAINER ID   IMAGE                    COMMAND                   CREATED          STATUS          PORTS                                                                                                                                  NAMES
2fb63767c538   kicbase/stable:v0.0.46   "/usr/local/bin/entr…"   33 seconds ago   Up 32 seconds   127.0.0.1:56515->22/tcp, 127.0.0.1:56516->2376/tcp, 127.0.0.1:56518->5000/tcp, 127.0.0.1:56519->8443/tcp, 127.0.0.1:56517->32443/tcp   minikube


//If you inspect the container, it is actually using the image of fd2d445ddcc3.

% docker inspect minikube
[
    {
        "Id": "2fb63767c5382bd366dec6afb951408b88997d9c3c14e9cbb707c39474a8c5be",
        "Created": "2025-05-15T23:50:49.239382145Z",
        "Path": "/usr/local/bin/entrypoint",
        "Args": [
            "/sbin/init"
        ],
        "State": {
            "Status": "running",
            "Running": true,
            "Paused": false,
            "Restarting": false,
            "OOMKilled": false,
            "Dead": false,
            "Pid": 360644,
            "ExitCode": 0,
            "Error": "",
            "StartedAt": "2025-05-15T23:50:49.295372714Z",
            "FinishedAt": "0001-01-01T00:00:00Z"
        },
        "Image": "sha256:fd2d445ddcc33ebc5c6b68a17e6219ea207ce63c005095ea1525296da2d1a279",
        "ResolvConfPath": "/var/lib/docker/containers/2fb63767c5382bd366dec6afb951408b88997d9c3c14e9cbb707c39474a8c5be/resolv.conf",
        "HostnamePath": "/var/lib/docker/containers/2fb63767c5382bd366dec6afb951408b88997d9c3c14e9cbb707c39474a8c5be/hostname",
        "HostsPath": "/var/lib/docker/containers/2fb63767c5382bd366dec6afb951408b88997d9c3c14e9cbb707c39474a8c5be/hosts",
        "LogPath": "/var/lib/docker/containers/2fb63767c5382bd366dec6afb951408b88997d9c3c14e9cbb707c39474a8c5be/2fb63767c5382bd366dec6afb951408b88997d9c3c14e9cbb707c39474a8c5be-json.log",
        "Name": "/minikube",
        "RestartCount": 0,
        "Driver": "overlayfs",
        "Platform": "linux",
        "MountLabel": "",
        "ProcessLabel": "",
        "AppArmorProfile": "",
        "ExecIDs": null,
        "HostConfig": {
            "Binds": [
                "/lib/modules:/lib/modules:ro",
                "minikube:/var"
            ],
            "ContainerIDFile": "",
            "LogConfig": {
                "Type": "json-file",
                "Config": {}
            },
            "NetworkMode": "minikube",
            "PortBindings": {
                "22/tcp": [
                    {
                        "HostIp": "127.0.0.1",
                        "HostPort": "0"
                    }
                ],
                "2376/tcp": [
                    {
                        "HostIp": "127.0.0.1",
                        "HostPort": "0"
                    }
                ],
                "32443/tcp": [
                    {
                        "HostIp": "127.0.0.1",
                        "HostPort": "0"
                    }
                ],
                "5000/tcp": [
                    {
                        "HostIp": "127.0.0.1",
                        "HostPort": "0"
                    }
                ],
                "8443/tcp": [
                    {
                        "HostIp": "127.0.0.1",
                        "HostPort": "0"
                    }
                ]
            },
            "RestartPolicy": {
                "Name": "no",
                "MaximumRetryCount": 0
            },
            "AutoRemove": false,
            "VolumeDriver": "",
            "VolumesFrom": null,
            "ConsoleSize": [
                0,
                0
            ],
            "CapAdd": null,
            "CapDrop": null,
            "CgroupnsMode": "private",
            "Dns": [],
            "DnsOptions": [],
            "DnsSearch": [],
            "ExtraHosts": null,
            "GroupAdd": null,
            "IpcMode": "private",
            "Cgroup": "",
            "Links": null,
            "OomScoreAdj": 0,
            "PidMode": "",
            "Privileged": true,
            "PublishAllPorts": false,
            "ReadonlyRootfs": false,
            "SecurityOpt": [
                "seccomp=unconfined",
                "apparmor=unconfined",
                "label=disable"
            ],
            "Tmpfs": {
                "/run": "",
                "/tmp": ""
            },
            "UTSMode": "",
            "UsernsMode": "",
            "ShmSize": 67108864,
            "Runtime": "runc",
            "Isolation": "",
            "CpuShares": 0,
            "Memory": 4053794816,
            "NanoCpus": 2000000000,
            "CgroupParent": "",
            "BlkioWeight": 0,
            "BlkioWeightDevice": [],
            "BlkioDeviceReadBps": [],
            "BlkioDeviceWriteBps": [],
            "BlkioDeviceReadIOps": [],
            "BlkioDeviceWriteIOps": [],
            "CpuPeriod": 0,
            "CpuQuota": 0,
            "CpuRealtimePeriod": 0,
            "CpuRealtimeRuntime": 0,
            "CpusetCpus": "",
            "CpusetMems": "",
            "Devices": [],
            "DeviceCgroupRules": null,
            "DeviceRequests": null,
            "MemoryReservation": 0,
            "MemorySwap": 4053794816,
            "MemorySwappiness": null,
            "OomKillDisable": null,
            "PidsLimit": null,
            "Ulimits": [],
            "CpuCount": 0,
            "CpuPercent": 0,
            "IOMaximumIOps": 0,
            "IOMaximumBandwidth": 0,
            "MaskedPaths": null,
            "ReadonlyPaths": null
        },
        "GraphDriver": {
            "Data": null,
            "Name": "overlayfs"
        },
        "Mounts": [
            {
                "Type": "bind",
                "Source": "/lib/modules",
                "Destination": "/lib/modules",
                "Mode": "ro",
                "RW": false,
                "Propagation": "rprivate"
            },
            {
                "Type": "volume",
                "Name": "minikube",
                "Source": "/var/lib/docker/volumes/minikube/_data",
                "Destination": "/var",
                "Driver": "local",
                "Mode": "z",
                "RW": true,
                "Propagation": ""
            }
        ],
        "Config": {
            "Hostname": "minikube",
            "Domainname": "",
            "User": "",
            "AttachStdin": false,
            "AttachStdout": false,
            "AttachStderr": false,
            "ExposedPorts": {
                "22/tcp": {},
                "2376/tcp": {},
                "32443/tcp": {},
                "5000/tcp": {},
                "8443/tcp": {}
            },
            "Tty": true,
            "OpenStdin": false,
            "StdinOnce": false,
            "Env": [
                "container=docker",
                "PATH=/usr/local/sbin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/bin:/sbin:/bin"
            ],
            "Cmd": null,
            "Image": "docker.io/kicbase/stable:v0.0.46@sha256:fd2d445ddcc33ebc5c6b68a17e6219ea207ce63c005095ea1525296da2d1a279",
            "Volumes": null,
            "WorkingDir": "/",
            "Entrypoint": [
                "/usr/local/bin/entrypoint",
                "/sbin/init"
            ],
            "OnBuild": null,
            "Labels": {
                "created_by.minikube.sigs.k8s.io": "true",
                "mode.minikube.sigs.k8s.io": "minikube",
                "name.minikube.sigs.k8s.io": "minikube",
                "role.minikube.sigs.k8s.io": ""
            },
            "StopSignal": "SIGRTMIN+3"
        },
        "NetworkSettings": {
            "Bridge": "",
            "SandboxID": "95506a76dd764b99008848e793bf269e3ce90d235c7950b4f33a8a2d71401381",
            "SandboxKey": "/var/run/docker/netns/95506a76dd76",
            "Ports": {
                "22/tcp": [
                    {
                        "HostIp": "127.0.0.1",
                        "HostPort": "56515"
                    }
                ],
                "2376/tcp": [
                    {
                        "HostIp": "127.0.0.1",
                        "HostPort": "56516"
                    }
                ],
                "32443/tcp": [
                    {
                        "HostIp": "127.0.0.1",
                        "HostPort": "56517"
                    }
                ],
                "5000/tcp": [
                    {
                        "HostIp": "127.0.0.1",
                        "HostPort": "56518"
                    }
                ],
                "8443/tcp": [
                    {
                        "HostIp": "127.0.0.1",
                        "HostPort": "56519"
                    }
                ]
            },
            "HairpinMode": false,
            "LinkLocalIPv6Address": "",
            "LinkLocalIPv6PrefixLen": 0,
            "SecondaryIPAddresses": null,
            "SecondaryIPv6Addresses": null,
            "EndpointID": "",
            "Gateway": "",
            "GlobalIPv6Address": "",
            "GlobalIPv6PrefixLen": 0,
            "IPAddress": "",
            "IPPrefixLen": 0,
            "IPv6Gateway": "",
            "MacAddress": "",
            "Networks": {
                "minikube": {
                    "IPAMConfig": {
                        "IPv4Address": "192.168.49.2"
                    },
                    "Links": null,
                    "Aliases": null,
                    "MacAddress": "c2:32:76:6c:c6:44",
                    "DriverOpts": null,
                    "GwPriority": 0,
                    "NetworkID": "00d7081e2e0a9123d89747b20048f44634e582764100a8576430591193092412",
                    "EndpointID": "7bc7981acd982f8d5d2ce17c5a1436b01903084edc8c3aec405b9c26ce9d54bd",
                    "Gateway": "192.168.49.1",
                    "IPAddress": "192.168.49.2",
                    "IPPrefixLen": 24,
                    "IPv6Gateway": "",
                    "GlobalIPv6Address": "",
                    "GlobalIPv6PrefixLen": 0,
                    "DNSNames": [
                        "minikube",
                        "2fb63767c538"
                    ]
                }
            }
        },
        "ImageManifestDescriptor": {
            "mediaType": "application/vnd.oci.image.manifest.v1+json",
            "digest": "sha256:6a5c3006d65eb750231ccc68046df82e2cec1a6ccec23f85e02c3be0a644249e",
            "size": 483,
            "platform": {
                "architecture": "amd64",
                "os": "linux"
            }
        }
    }
]

and also the images cef9f3c2e399 and fd2d445ddcc3 are the same beecause one is stored locally as tar file and has no tag (so it is not latest)

It seems that you don't have to worry too much. I'm just a little curious.