Windows Subsystem for Linux
By Greg Gallardo
WSL
Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL) is probably my favorite addition to Microsoft Windows. I no longer dual boot my laptops or install Cygwin or MSYS. I just use Linux Distributions in WSL. This page contains notes I've taken while working with WSL.
Basics
You can enable WSL with a single command in PowerShell or CMD. Just run as administrator and type:
wsl --install
You can check your WSL Version and Distributions with the --status option
wsl --status
Which will look something like this
C:\Users\gtest>wsl --status
Default Distribution: Ubuntu
Default Version: 2
I've occasionally had to reset WSL. This can be done with the --shutdown command. It reboots immediately after shutting down.
wsl --shutdown
WSL can be update from the command line. with the --update command.
wsl --update
Note: After a recent update I got an error message when trying to run Ubuntu. 
Checking the status gave more information. 
While it says I can update the WSL kernel with wsl --update, it looks like it didn't work. The message suggests enabling 'Receive updates for other Microsoft products when your update Windows'. This can be set in the Settings app by navigating to Windows Update > Advanced Options 
Enabling this and running a system update fixed the problem.
Linux Distributions
WSL lets you run you choice of Linux distros. You can list the distros currently installed on your machine with the --list command:
wsl --list
If youn want to see the current state and version number of your distros add the --verbose option
PS C:\Users\gtest> wsl --list --verbose
NAME STATE VERSION
* openSUSE-Leap-15.5 Running 2
Ubuntu Running 2
The asterisk Most projects I find use Ubuntu, but sometimes you might want to use a different distro. To get a list of distros available online add the The output will look something like this: Like it says, you can install a distro by specifying its name with the If everything is OK, you'll see a new window showing the distro's installer. Follow the instructions specific to your distribution While installing openSUSE on my Windows 11 machine I got error code '0x80073D21' My machine was alredy set to install on C:\ drive, so I'm not entirely sure why it was failing for this code. Some searching led me to this github page. One of the posts suggests toggling the "new apps will save to" setting from C: to D: and back again. I use WSL for my own projects and for work. Sometimes I want to setup an environment on my development machine and make backups of the entire thing and/or run it on an entirely different PC. A backup copy can be created with the Replace To import this The output will look something like this: NOTE: This will completely remove an installation. So make a backup if you don't want to lose important data. First find the name of the distro you want to delete with Next use One of the main advantages over dual booting (or running Linux in a VM) is interoperability is very easy in WSL. You can run windows executables from WSL by specifying the complete name (with extension) of the application You can access the Windows filesystem through If you attach a new windows filesystem (like a USB drive, or mountable encrypted volume) after WSL has started, you can manually mount it. I've been using Unix and Linux for decades, and I generally prefer to use Nix command line tools over their windows counterparts. Run Linux commands from CMD.exe by prefixing with You can pipe outputs, but will need to use You can access WSL filesystem folders in explorer with I sometimes develop networking apps in WSL. You can easily access them from localhost. If you want to use the IP address of the WSL instance, you can. Just look for the 172.x.x.x addresses on your machine.* indicates that Ubuntu is my default distro. You can change the default distro with the `--setdefault command: ``bash wsl --setdefault And the `*` moves to openSUSE.
```bash
C:\Users\gtest> wsl --setdefault openSUSE-Leap-15.5
C:\Users\gtest> wsl --list --verbose
NAME STATE VERSION
* openSUSE-Leap-15.5 Running 2
Ubuntu Running 2
--online option to the --list commandwsl --list --online
PS C:\Users\gtest> wsl --list --online
The following is a list of valid distributions that can be installed.
Install using 'wsl --install -d <Distro>'.
NAME FRIENDLY NAME
Ubuntu Ubuntu
Debian Debian GNU/Linux
kali-linux Kali Linux Rolling
Ubuntu-18.04 Ubuntu 18.04 LTS
Ubuntu-20.04 Ubuntu 20.04 LTS
Ubuntu-22.04 Ubuntu 22.04 LTS
OracleLinux_7_9 Oracle Linux 7.9
OracleLinux_8_7 Oracle Linux 8.7
OracleLinux_9_1 Oracle Linux 9.1
openSUSE-Leap-15.5 openSUSE Leap 15.5
SUSE-Linux-Enterprise-Server-15-SP4 SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 15 SP4
SUSE-Linux-Enterprise-15-SP5 SUSE Linux Enterprise 15 SP5
openSUSE-Tumbleweed openSUSE Tumbleweed
-d option.wsl --install -d openSUSE-Leap-15.5
Error 0x80073D21
A quick search shows this error is not specific to WSL. I saw several hits for XBox Game Pass and other Windows programs. It basically means the application must be installed on the C: drive.
Which worked for me. I was able to openSUSE after toggling it.Distributing WSL Installations
Exporting WSL
--export command. This will archive your to a .tar file. Open PowerShell as an administrator and runwsl --export Ubuntu C:\path\to\your\backup\Ubuntu.tar
Ubuntu with the name of your WSL distro, and C:\path\to\your\backup\Ubuntu.tar with the path you want to save the backup to. This creates a .tar file containing your WSL file system.Importing WSL
.tar file to a new machine.wsl --import Ubuntu C:\path\to\new\location\Ubuntu C:\path\to
C:\Software2>wsl --import Ubuntu-20.04 .\Ubuntu-20.04 .\ubuntu-20.04.tar
Import in progress, this may take a few minutes.
The operation completed successfully.
C:\Software2>wsl --shutdown
C:\Software2>wsl --list
Windows Subsystem for Linux Distributions:
Ubuntu-20.04 (Default)
Deleting a Distro
--listspaceba@DESKTOP-8BVZ5OT:~$ wsl.exe --list --verbose
NAME STATE VERSION
* Ubuntu Running 2
Debian Running 2
openSUSE-Leap-15.5 Running 2
--unregister followed by the distro's name to delete it.spaceba@DESKTOP-8BVZ5OT:~$ wsl --unregister Debian
Unregistering...
spaceba@DESKTOP-8BVZ5OT:~$ wsl.exe --list --verbose
NAME STATE VERSION
* Ubuntu Running 2
openSUSE-Leap-15.5 Running 2
Interop
Accessing Windows from WSL
mspaint.exe # brings up Paint
explorer.exe . # Opens a File Explorer of the current drive
/mnt/. For example if you wanted to change directories into the C: drive use:cd /mnt/c
sudo mount -t drvfs F: /mnt/f
Accessing WSL from Windows.
wslwsl find . -name "cacert.pem"
wsl for each commandC:\Dev\SGDK>wsl find . -type f -name "*.c" | wsl xargs grep genesis.h 2>/dev/null | wsl head
./11_shooter/src/boot/rom_head.c:#include "genesis.h"
./11_shooter/src/main.c:#include <genesis.h>
./ASM/src/boot/rom_head.c:#include "genesis.h"
./basic/src/boot/rom_head.c:#include "genesis.h"
./basic/src/main.c:#include <genesis.h>
./C_ASM/src/boot/rom_head.c:#include "genesis.h"
./C_ASM/src/main.c:#include <genesis.h>
./FromDesktop/03_manual_tiles/main.c:#include <genesis.h>
./FromDesktop/03_manual_tiles/src/boot/rom_head.c:#include "genesis.h"
./FromDesktop/04_image_tiles/main.c:#include <genesis.h>
\\wsl$\DISTRO_NAME or \\wsl.localhost\DISTRO_NAME 
ip addr | grep 172
inet 172.23.210.235/20 brd 172.23.223.255 scope global eth0
gtest@BOOMSTICK:/mnt/c/Dev$ python3 -m http.server 9000
Serving HTTP on 0.0.0.0 port 9000 (http://0.0.0.0:9000/) ...
127.0.0.1 - - [03/Mar/2024 14:01:06] "GET / HTTP/1.1" 200 -
127.0.0.1 - - [03/Mar/2024 14:01:06] code 404, message File not found
127.0.0.1 - - [03/Mar/2024 14:01:06] "GET /favicon.ico HTTP/1.1" 404 -
172.23.208.1 - - [03/Mar/2024 14:03:14] "GET / HTTP/1.1" 200 -
172.23.208.1 - - [03/Mar/2024 14:03:14] code 404, message File not found
172.23.208.1 - - [03/Mar/2024 14:03:14] "GET /favicon.ico HTTP/1.1" 404 -
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