WSL2-with-systemd

Tested on Ubuntu 20.04 and 20.10

Download and import image

Download image from https://cloud-images.ubuntu.com/ and import it on wsl

wsl --import <DISTRO> <TARGETLOCATION> <ROOTFS>

• DISTRO: name you want to call your distro
• TARGETLOCATION: path where the vhdx file should be placed
• ROOTFS: full path of the rootfs image you want to import

Setup

Login and run the wslsetup script

wsl -d <DISTRO>

Start the script with sudo

chmod +x wslsetup.sh
sudo ./wslsetup.sh

Reboot wsl and start your distro. It gets started with the user you created.

WSL --shutdown
wsl -d <DISTRO>

use -u root to login as root

Install desktop environment

Tested desktop environments for ubuntu with X410 as xserver. (https://x410.dev/)

XFCE

sudo apt update && sudo apt -y upgrade
sudo apt install xfce4 xfce4-terminal xfce4-goodies -y

Select lightdm when asked

Create startscript

To reduce terminal output use follwing steps

sudo cat >> /bin/startxfce <<EOF
#!/bin/bash
xfce4-session > /dev/null 2>&1
EOF
sudo chmod +x /bin/startxfce

To start xfce after login use

startxfce

KDE

sudo apt update && sudo apt -y upgrade
sudo apt install kde-standard -y

Select sddm when asked

Create startscript

To reduce terminal output use follwing steps

sudo cat >> /bin/startplasma <<EOF
#!/bin/bash
startplasma-x11 > /dev/null 2>&1
EOF
sudo chmod +x /bin/startplasma

To start xfce after login use

startplasma

Pulseaudio

Under Windows download the pulseaudio zip file. https://www.freedesktop.org/wiki/Software/PulseAudio/Ports/Windows/Support/ and unzip it in the directory you want it to run.

Changes

In the file etc/pulse/default.pa
change line 42

- load-module module-waveout sink_name=output source_name=input
+ load-module module-waveout sink_name=output source_name=input record=0

change line 62

- #load-module module-native-protocol-tcp
+ load-module module-native-protocol-tcp auth-ip-acl=0.0.0.0 auth-anonymous=1

in the file etc/pulse/deamon.conf
change line 39

- ; exit-idle-time = 20
+ exit-idle-time = -1

Pulseaudio task

Add a task to windows to start pulseaudio server on user login

• Open Windows Task Scheduler and create task
• Name: pulseaudio
• Trigger: on user login
• Action: Start program
• Program: <path\to\pulseaudio\bin\pulseaudio.exe>
  • Arguments: -D

Right click on the task and go to properties.
Check Invisible and for Windows 10

Run bin\pulseaudio.exe in terminal to access network rules and accept for both privat and public. Close application and log out and in again and check the status of the task.
Pulseaudio-device should now be available in WSL. The changes to access the pulseaudio-server from wsl are already made in the wslsetup script (export PULSE_SERVER=tcp:$NAMESERVER in bash.bashrc).

Custom Kernel

Get a kernel e.g. from the Official Microsoft Kernel repository https://github.com/microsoft/WSL2-Linux-Kernel

Modify Microsoft/config-wsl for your needs.

sudo apt install build-essential flex bison libssl-dev libelf-dev
make -j4 KCONFIG_CONFIG=Microsoft/config-wsl

After the build copy the vmlinux to a folder in your windows system

mkdir <path/to/kernel/dir/>
cp vmlinux <path/to/kernel/dir/>

Add it to global wsl conf in C:\User\\.wslconfig

[wsl2]
kernel=<DRIVE:\\path\\to\\kernel\\dir\\vmlinux>

Be sure to use "\\" in your path.

Now restart WSL and check the kernel version

wsl --shutdown
wsl -d <DISTRO>
uname -a

USB MOUNT

WSL can mount and use hardware external drives formatted as FAT, ExFAT or NTFS. If Windows changes the external drive letter on a subsequent session, you need to repeat this process.

Create a mount location in WSL and mount the drive with following commands in WSL (assume the drive is shown in Windows as “H:"):

mkdir /mnt/h

mount -t drvfs h: /mnt/h

Issues

systemd-remount-fs.service fails

Add following line to the [Unit] section of the service file located under /lib/systemd/system/systemd-remount-fs.service

ConditionVirtualization=!container