diff --git a/sky/provision/docker_utils.py b/sky/provision/docker_utils.py
index ab6c92d558a..8de7beab2e7 100644
--- a/sky/provision/docker_utils.py
+++ b/sky/provision/docker_utils.py
@@ -166,8 +166,7 @@ def _run(self,
             rc,
             cmd,
             error_msg='Failed to run docker setup commands',
-            stderr=stdout + stderr,
-            stream_logs=False)
+            stderr=stdout + stderr)
         return stdout.strip()
 
     def initialize(self) -> str:
@@ -231,6 +230,8 @@ def initialize(self) -> str:
             # issue with nvidia container toolkit:
             # https://github.com/NVIDIA/nvidia-container-toolkit/issues/48
             self._run(
+                '[ -f /etc/docker/daemon.json ] || '
+                'echo "{}" | sudo tee /etc/docker/daemon.json;'
                 'sudo jq \'.["exec-opts"] = ["native.cgroupdriver=cgroupfs"]\' '
                 '/etc/docker/daemon.json > /tmp/daemon.json;'
                 'sudo mv /tmp/daemon.json /etc/docker/daemon.json;'
diff --git a/sky/skylet/providers/command_runner.py b/sky/skylet/providers/command_runner.py
index ae54abe4a6b..06c5d6d48af 100644
--- a/sky/skylet/providers/command_runner.py
+++ b/sky/skylet/providers/command_runner.py
@@ -234,6 +234,8 @@ def run_init(self, *, as_head: bool, file_mounts: Dict[str, str],
             # issue with nvidia container toolkit:
             # https://github.com/NVIDIA/nvidia-container-toolkit/issues/48
             self.run(
+                '[ -f /etc/docker/daemon.json ] || '
+                'echo "{}" | sudo tee /etc/docker/daemon.json;'
                 'sudo jq \'.["exec-opts"] = ["native.cgroupdriver=cgroupfs"]\' '
                 '/etc/docker/daemon.json > /tmp/daemon.json;'
                 'sudo mv /tmp/daemon.json /etc/docker/daemon.json;'
diff --git a/tests/test_smoke.py b/tests/test_smoke.py
index bcfe96cdbac..af05d8c3b62 100644
--- a/tests/test_smoke.py
+++ b/tests/test_smoke.py
@@ -1464,6 +1464,7 @@ def test_ibm_job_queue_multinode():
 @pytest.mark.no_scp  # Doesn't support SCP for now
 @pytest.mark.no_oci  # Doesn't support OCI for now
 @pytest.mark.no_kubernetes  # Doesn't support Kubernetes for now
+# TODO(zhwu): we should fix this for kubernetes
 def test_docker_preinstalled_package(generic_cloud: str):
     name = _get_cluster_name()
     test = Test(