WSL

In this part, we’re mainly concerned about WSL 2 itself, or in more precise terms the WSL kernel.

As we will install a different distro than the default (Ubuntu) in a second anyway, we won’t bother about that particula part of Microsoft’s official documentation.

Enable the Windows Feature

Note

It seems as if you don’t longer need to manually enable the Windows Feature manually/yourself, as this comment suggests.

I’ll still leave the following info intact, because we all know what beautiful, reliable and stable pieces of software Microsoft Windows and the Microsoft Store are… _{sarcasm.delete();}

You might want to enable the Windows Subsystem for Linux Windows feature. You can either try opening your Windows Search and searching for Turn Windows features on or off, or you can dig your way through the Control Panel.

Caution

For WSLg to work properly, you need to make sure you’re running Windows 11, or the minimum required version of Windows 10 (Version 2004 or higher / Build 19041 or higher).

Install / Update WSL

Note

Microsoft recommends installing the Distro from the Microsoft store, but also specifies the commands below in their official documentation.

In my experience, depending on your installation, or whether or not your Microsoft Store has shot itself in the foot yet, the installation is a little incoherent.

When in doubt, use the official Microsoft installation documentation.

To install WSL from a cmd.exe-prompt or PowerShell run

wsl.exe --install --no-distribution

with elevated privileges, or if you’ve already installed WSL in the past, run

wsl.exe --update

also from an elevated prompt.

JustWorks^TM?

Note

This should only be neccessary if your Windows is locked down, the Microsoft Store is disabled, or similar.

As it turns out, if you’re in a pretty restricting corporate setting, the Windows environment is somewhat … let’s say botched. The only way I was able to install WSL successfully, is by using the manual installation method.

1. Download the latest WSL release (the .msixbundle)

2. Install it by running

   Add-AppxPackage Microsoft.WSL_{version}_{arch}.msixbundle

3. Proceed with the ArchWSL chapter.

Tip

If wsl --update doesn’t work (in addition to wsl --install [...]), you might need to repeat this ordeal, when you want to update WSL.