ArchWSL

For me, the simplest procedure to install the Distro was to

Download the latest Arch.zip file from the project’s release page
Extract it to a folder where your user has unrestricted read/write permissions (so ideally stay away from Program Files, etc.)
Run the included Arch.exe
Change the root password
Terminal window
```
passwd
```
Add the wheel group to the allowed sudo users
Terminal window
```
echo "%wheel ALL=(ALL) ALL" > /etc/sudoers.d/wheel
```
Choose a username for your new user
Terminal window
```
export username={username}
```
and add this new user to the wheel group
Terminal window
```
useradd -m -G wheel -s /bin/bash $username
```
Change the new user’s password
Terminal window
```
passwd $username
```
Exit the WSL environment
Terminal window
```
exit
```
Set the new user as the default one
Terminal window
```
Arch.exe config --default-user {username}
```
Reboot the PC or alternatively restart LxssManager with
Terminal window
```
net stop lxssmanager
net start lxssmanager
```
After that reenter WSL with
Terminal window
```
Arch.exe
```

Setup the pacman keyring

sudo pacman-key --init
sudo pacman-key --populate
sudo pacman -Sy archlinux-keyring

Update the base system
Terminal window
```
sudo pacman -Su
```

You can update your mirrorlist with your nearest mirrors.

Backup your original mirrorlist.

sudo cp /etc/pacman.d/mirrorlist /etc/pacman.d/mirrorlist.backup

Generate a mirrorlist and save it to /etc/pacman.d/mirrorlist

curl -s "https://archlinux.org/mirrorlist/?country=DE&protocol=http&protocol=https&ip_version=4&use_mirror_status=on" \
| sudo tee /etc/pacman.d/mirrorlist

Uncomment desired lines in /etc/pacman.d/mirrorlist and move them to the top

Alternatively you can automatically pick the 5 best mirrors and save them, although you need the pacman-contrib package installed for the rankmirrors command.

sudo pacman -Syu pacman-contrib
curl -s "https://archlinux.org/mirrorlist/?country=DE&protocol=http&protocol=https&ip_version=4&use_mirror_status=on" \
| sed -e 's/^#Server/Server/' -e '/^#/d' \
| rankmirrors -n 5 - \
| sudo tee /etc/pacman.d/mirrorlist

Just Works^TM?

As I’m sitting behind a corporate http proxy, I initially had no access to the internet.

This can be confirmed by running

curl https://archlinux.org

To make WSL proxy-aware, I needed to

Add the exports to the ~/.bashrc with

export http_proxy=http://<hostname>:<port>
export https_proxy=$http_proxy
export ftp_proxy=$http_proxy

Source it
Terminal window
```
source ~/.bashrc
```
Allow sudo to pass these environment variables through by setting the env_keep property in /etc/sudoers.d/proxy
/etc/sudoers.d/proxy
```
Defaults env_keep += "http_proxy https_proxy ftp_proxy"
```

Rerunning the curl-command should now produce a response and pacman should update and upgrade just fine:

sudo pacman -Syyuu

ArchWSL

Just WorksTM?

Just Works^TM?