Quickstart command for PKI results in error about missing file

Author: tashianCreated Jun 23, 2026Updated Jun 23, 2026

Discussed in https://github.com/smallstep/certificates/discussions/2722

Originally posted by Quicksoapy June 23, 2026 On Dockerhub: https://hub.docker.com/r/smallstep/step-ca, it says you can quickstart a PKI using this command: docker run -it -v step:/home/step \ -p 9000:9000 \ -e "DOCKER_STEPCA_INIT_NAME=Smallstep" \ -e "DOCKER_STEPCA_INIT_DNS_NAMES=localhost,$(hostname -f)" \ -e "DOCKER_STEPCA_INIT_REMOTE_MANAGEMENT=true" \ smallstep/step-ca

When running this, this is the response I get: Unable to find image 'smallstep/step-ca:latest' locally latest: Pulling from smallstep/step-ca 987ab97de7c8: Pull complete 59043673e5af: Pull complete 589002ba0eae: Pull complete 3fa522a93ff5: Pull complete f19dea81e0af: Pull complete 4f4fb700ef54: Pull complete 3882371c5807: Pull complete 1f1296b59fe9: Download complete Digest: sha256:a2b17872915c193259b75a5474c398326f41bd199f0842093e52cf4182bc8270 Status: Downloaded newer image for smallstep/step-ca:latest error reading /home/step/secrets/password: open /home/step/secrets/password: no such file or directory

I am running this on Debian 13. Is this a known issue? Is there a fix? thanks!