Minikube not setting kubectl config

[rwideman]

What Happened?

Installed Debian 12 server netinstall, install all the pre-reqs including docker and kubectl. Downloaded binary for Minikube as the DEB is corrupt on releases/latest page. Ran minikube with the following:
minikube start minikube start --driver=docker
😄 minikube v1.34.0 on Debian 12.8
✨ Using the docker driver based on user configuration
📌 Using Docker driver with root privileges
👍 Starting "minikube" primary control-plane node in "minikube" cluster
🚜 Pulling base image v0.0.45 ...
🔥 Creating docker container (CPUs=2, Memory=16000MB) ...
🐳 Preparing Kubernetes v1.31.0 on Docker 27.2.0 ...
▪ 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

kubectl version
Client Version: v1.32.0
Kustomize Version: v5.5.0
The connection to the server localhost:8080 was refused - did you specify the right host or port?

kubectl config view
apiVersion: v1
clusters: null
contexts:

• context:
  cluster: ""
  user: ""
  name: minikube
  current-context: minikube
  kind: Config
  preferences: {}
  users: null

---

minikube kubectl -- version
Client Version: v1.31.0
Kustomize Version: v5.4.2
Server Version: v1.31.0

Attach the log file

logs.txt

Operating System

Other

Driver

Docker

[rwideman]

FYI, does the same with kubectl v1.31:
rwideman@rwdell:~$ minikube start --driver=docker
😄 minikube v1.34.0 on Debian 12.8
✨ Using the docker driver based on user configuration
📌 Using Docker driver with root privileges
👍 Starting "minikube" primary control-plane node in "minikube" cluster
🚜 Pulling base image v0.0.45 ...
🔥 Creating docker container (CPUs=2, Memory=16000MB) ...
🐳 Preparing Kubernetes v1.31.0 on Docker 27.2.0 ...
▪ 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

kubectl version
Client Version: v1.31.4
Kustomize Version: v5.4.2
The connection to the server localhost:8080 was refused - did you specify the right host or port?

minikube kubectl -- version
Client Version: v1.31.0
Kustomize Version: v5.4.2
Server Version: v1.31.0

kubectl config view
apiVersion: v1
clusters: null
contexts:

• context:
  cluster: ""
  user: ""
  name: minikube
  current-context: minikube
  kind: Config
  preferences: {}
  users: null