Automated creation of WSL 2 Development Machine

Welcome to the WSL Tooling repository. The aim of this project is to supply you with the ability to automatically install a fully working WSL 2 development environment just by invoking a powershell script even without the wsl --install flag.

I have fully reworked and updated the whole installation. Once your Windows is capable of running WSL 2 instances, the Ubuntu LTS WSL 2 installation is fully automatic.

Preparation

This repository must be cloned on your local disk.

Enable Windows Subsystem for Linux

This step is only required if WSL support was never activated before on your Windows machine

Open a powershell with administrative privileges and execute this script to enable WSL and VM platform on your machine. It might be necessary to adjust the security policy (see first commnd below) because the Powershell scripts are not digitally signed (https:/go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=135170):

# Optional: Set Security to Bypass
Set-ExecutionPolicy -Scope Process -ExecutionPolicy Bypass
# Enable WSL
.\enableWSL.ps1

This will take a couple of minutes. If it was not enabled before, you need to reboot Windows.

A restart is required if any of the two above features have not been installed before.

Set WSL default version to 2

Set the default WSL version to 2. Open a powershell with administrative privileges:

.\installWSL2.ps1

Distribution Installation

Download and Install Ubuntu LTS (20.04)

If not already done, open a new powershell with administrative privileges and install Ubuntu LTS. You need to provide four arguments. If you don't specify them on command line, then the script will ask:

• <wslName>: Provide a name for the WSL that is goind to be created (e.g. devbox)
• <wslInstallationPath>: The directory where the vhdx disk of the new WSL is stored
• <username>: the name of the user that is used when WSL distro is launched without -u
• <installAllSoftware>: Use true|false. Tell if all software packages (see Available Software) shall be installed or if false only a fully updated system with configured user is supplied For example, the command can look as follows:

.\installUbuntuLTS.ps1 devbox D:\WSL2\devbox kai true

Available Software Package

If don't want to install all packages during initial WSL creation, you can install them one buy one. They are available here ./scripts. These are currently available

• Ubuntu Base Package (git, virt-manager, firefox, dbus-x11, x11-apps, make, unzip) (scripts/install/installBasePackages.sh)
• OpenVSCode Server (scripts/install/installOpenVSCodeServer.sh). It is started automatically when you start and log into the WSL on port 3000.
• docker & compose V2 (scripts/install/installDocker.sh)
• OpenJDK 11 (scripts/install/installOpenjdk.sh)
• Apache Maven (scripts/install/installMaven.sh)
• Gradle (scripts/install/installGradle.sh)
• n (node manager), Nodejs, npm & Typescript (scripts/install/installNodejs.sh
• Rust and Cargo (scripts/install/installRust.sh)
• Deno (scripts/install/installDeno.sh)
• Google Chrome (scripts/install/installChrome.sh)
• KVM & Qemu (scripts/install/installKvm.sh)

Firefox and other tools can be installed directly with Ubuntu's package manager apt. Some of the above scripts also use apt and apply additional configuration.

Removal

Not available yet, but with a fast internet connection and fast SSD you have the WSL recreated in approx. five minutes. 😎

Usage

X-Server

Once Windows 11 including WSLg is generally available this will become superfluous.

I recommend to use VcXsrv (also available via chocolatey) to connect to user interfaces launched from WSL on display 0. The WSL linux setup configures everything properly. Use the following Powershell script to launch (it assume vcxsrv is installed at default location C:\Program Files\VcXsrv\vcxsrv.exe):

.\scripts\xserver\xerver.ps1

Certificates

Copy any certificates you require under /usr/local/share/ca-certificates/ and the run the command:

sudo update-ca-certificates

Experiments

Convert Docker to WSL2

I have created a CentOS 7 based Dockerfile that serves as a demonstrator. You can convert the container image to a WSL with to quick commands. For instructions look here).

Misc

• My Terminal recommendation in 2021 clearly is Microsoft Terminal
• Overview of WSL commands and launch configurations
• For Development wiht Visual Studio Code use the Remote - WSL extension

Constructive feedback is appreciated!

Have fun!

Kai