$ git --version git version 2.17.1 Repro: $ git clone https://github.com/PX4/Firmware.git $ cd Firmware $ git submodule update --init --recursive --depth=1 ... error: Server does not allow request for unadvertised object 22df9475ca0d157e2db066a20f64c35906bf7f25 Fetched in submodule path 'Tools/sitl_gazebo', but it did not contain 22df9475ca0d157e2db066a20f64c35906bf7f25. Direct fetching of that commit failed. The same line without --depth=1 flag works fine: $ git submodule update --init --recursive Implication: Docker uses the line with --depth=1, so it fails to build from remote URLs. See https://github.com/docker/distribution/issues/2998