Mercenarys' note

WSL setting note

• Highlights
  • Run Linux in Windows
  • Shared file system
  • Use GPU (no PCI passthrough required)
  • Support GUI
• Side effect
  • OpenGL is not supported yet

Install

Run Windows CMD as administrator:

wsl -l -o                            // list available Linux options 
wsl --install -d <Linux name>        // install the specified Linux 

Reference:

• Microsoft official document: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/wsl/wsl-config

Enable GUI

The first method allows basic GUI usage. The second method ensure a long-term GUI operation.

Method-1

M1.1. Settings in Linux terminal

Install GUI related package such as:

sudo apt install ubuntu-desktop
sudo apt install nautilus
export DISPLAY=<WINDOWS LOCALHOST IP>:0.0 

You can find your Windows localhost IP by “ipconfig” in Windows CMD.
There might be difference in wsl 1 or 2. Check your version with these tips: https://linuxhint.com/check-wsl-version/

Reference:

• Xserver setting: https://stackoverflow.com/questions/67608349/running-linux-gui-applications-vis-wsl2
• Related package: https://askubuntu.com/questions/993225/whats-the-easiest-way-to-run-gui-apps-on-windows-subsystem-for-linux-as-of-2018

M1.2. Settings in Windows

• Install VcXsrv from https://sourceforge.net/projects/vcxsrv/
• Click the XLaunch on desktop
• Select “disabling access control”
  • in order to resolve error: “Authorization required, but no authorization protocol specified.”
  • https://stackoverflow.com/questions/67608349/running-linux-gui-applications-vis-wsl2

Method-2

Method allows basic GUI usage. Method-2 uses an additional utility to ensure X server continue working after host sleeps or alter network setting.

M2.1. Settings in Linux terminal

Similar to method-1 we install required package. But we set port to

export DISPLAY=:0

Next, download and run wsld

M2.2. Setting in Windows

Similar to method-1. In addition, download and run wsldhost.ext –daemon with admin privilege.

All these can be done on system boot with shell or batch script.

Use GPU and CUDA

Host requirement

• Windows 11 or Windows 10 build 19044.1263
  • check Windows build info by Run “winver”
• Get proper Windows build from https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/ai/directml/gpu-cuda-in-wsl
  • Can either upgrade to Windows 11 or download iso for installation
• Install WSL supporting driver from https://developer.nvidia.com/cuda/wsl

Linux setting

• Do not install GPU driver in Linux
• Install only pure CUDA package, for example:

  apt-get install -y cuda-toolkit-11-4
  

Migrate: import & export

In windows CMD

wsl --export Ubuntu-20.04 tmp.tar
wsl --unregister Ubuntu-20.04 
wsl --import Ubuntu-20.04 <PATH_TO_STORE_VM> tmp.tar 

WSL config

• Set WSL by editing /etc/wsl.config
  • https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/wsl/wsl-config#user

    [network]
    hostname = WSL          # in case manually setting machine name
    generateHosts = false   # in case manually setting machine name
    [user]
    default = <USERNAME>
    

Manually set DNS in /etc/resolv.conf

sudo rm /etc/resolv.conf
sudo bash -c 'echo "nameserver 8.8.8.8" > /etc/resolv.conf'
sudo bash -c 'echo "generateResolvConf = false" >> /etc/wsl.conf'
sudo chattr +i /etc/resolv.conf                                    # prevent overwrite

---

Mount Physical Disk

Run PowerShell as administrator:

 GET-CimInstance -query "SELECT * from Win32_DiskDrive"    # now the device path 
 wsl --mount \\.\PHYSICALDRIVE2 --bare                     # mount
 wsl --unmount \\.\PHYSICALDRIVE2                          # unmount 

In WSL:

lsblk                                                      # see mounted disk 
mount /dev/sdc1/ /mnt/wsldisk2                             # mount sdc's sdc1 to '/mnt/wsldisk2' folder

In case formatting is needed

sudo mkfs.ntfs -f /dev/sdc1/

32-bit i386 manually setting

Ubuntu 20 running in WSL seems weakly supports i386 packages.

1. search needed packages from https://packages.ubuntu.com/search?keywords=search
2. download .deb from i386 category
3. extract by

   dpkg -x <DEB_FILE_NAME> <DESTINATION_DIRECTORY>
   

4. add /lib/i386-linux-gnu/ too LD_LIBRARY_PATH. \*.deb may have different organization under DESTINATION_DIRECTORY, add them to LD_LIBRARY_PATH accordingly

Play audio

A few highlight

• Setup PulseAudio: https://research.wmz.ninja/articles/2017/11/setting-up-wsl-with-graphics-and-audio.html
  • host setting might be different. I start PulseAudio service in host.
  • compile & install

    in src/pulsecore/mutex-posix.c
    #ifdef HAVE_CONFIG_H
    #include <config.h>
    #endif
    #undef HAVE_PTHREAD_PRIO_INHERIT       // add this line 
    

    After installing

    export PULSE_SERVER=tcp:localhost       # your host IP
    

• Setup cmus: https://cmus.github.io/
  • no need to set AUDIODRIVER env var after intall cmus
• Something might close wsl sound on boot in Windows 11 Pro. Toogle the volume of “No Name” application in Xbox game panel to enable it after boot.

resize VHDX

• Requires Windows 11 Pro or server.
  • in “Windows features on and off,” enable Hyper-V
• Host side:

  # in Windows power shell 
  Resize-VHD -Path <YOUR_VIRTUAL_DISK> -SizeBytes <NUM>   # can append MB or GB to specify unit 
  

• in WSL, use conventional unix command to adjust parition size

  sudo resize2fs /dev/sdc    # assume the disk is mounted at /dev/sdc, by default it fits partition to disk size 
  

mount vhdx

 wsl --mount --vhd E:\wsldisk2.vhdx  # in powershell 

In case access denied, repeat following

• wsl –shutdown
• wsl –unmount \?\E:\wsldisk2.vhdx
• try remove USB device (if your vhdx is located at USB device)
  • in case it cannot eject “safely”, repeat these step till your device can

In case system hang during using large software, or installing large software, simplify your PATH by removing unessential 9p filesystem paths.