Containers with a restart policy don't start again after the Mac restarts #136

Environment

• VMPal: 0.121
• macOS: 27.2.1 on Mac mini M5 Pro
• Settings › Containers: "Run Linux containers with the docker command" is on
• Containers engine resources: 4 GB memory, 4 CPU cores

What happens

After I restart the Mac and log in, my containers are not running. The Containers settings say the service runs "in the background, also after you log in", so I expected containers with a restart policy to come back on their own, like they do with Docker Desktop.

Steps to reproduce

1. Turn on Settings › Containers › Run Linux containers with the docker command.
2. Start a container with a restart policy, for example:
   docker run -d --restart unless-stopped --name test-redis redis
3. Confirm the policy:
   docker inspect -f '{{.Name}} {{.HostConfig.RestartPolicy.Name}}' test-redis → unless-stopped
4. Restart the Mac and log in.
5. Without running any docker command, open Settings › Containers, then run docker ps.

Expected

Containers with always or unless-stopped are running again after login, without any docker command.

Actual

• Settings › Containers › Status after login: [Running / Stopped]
• docker ps shows: [no containers / ...]
• Containers start only after I run docker start by hand.

Notes

• The settings say "Linux runs only while your containers do". If the engine waits for a docker command before it boots, restart policies never get a chance to run at login.
• For now, I'm working around this with a LaunchAgent that runs docker start at login.