ArchWSL2

Archlinux on WSL2 (Windows 10 FCU or later) based on wsldl.

Features and important information

ArchWSL2 may not properly load the Intel WSL driver by default which makes it impossible to use the D3D12 driver on Intel graphics cards. This is because the Intel WSL driver files link against libraries that do not exist in Archlinux. You can manually fix this issue using ldd to see which libraries they are linked, eg: ldd /usr/lib/wsl/drivers/iigd_dch_d.inf_amd64_49b17bc90a910771/*.so, and then try installing the libraries marked not found from the Archlinux package repository. If the corresponding library file is not found in the package repository, it may be that the version suffix of the library file is different, such as libedit.so.0.0.68 and libedit.so.2. In such a case, you can try to create a symlink.

ArchWSL2 has the following features during the installation stage.

• Increase virtual disk size from the default 256GB
• Create a new user and set the user as default
• ArchWSL2 Supports systemd natively if you are running wsl v0.67.6 (more details here) and above. For earlier versions of wsl, systemd is supported using diddledani's one-script-wsl2-systemd. This is done automatically during initial setup.
• ArchWSL2 includes a wsl.conf file which only has section headers. Users can use this file to configure the distro to their liking. You can read more about wsl.conf and its configuration settings here.

Requirements

• For x64 systems: Version 1903 or higher, with Build 18362 or higher.
• For ARM64 systems: Version 2004 or higher, with Build 19041 or higher.
• Builds lower than 18362 do not support WSL 2.
• If you are running Windows 10 version 2004 or higher, you can install all components required to run wsl2 with a single command. This will install ubuntu by default. More details are available here.

   wsl.exe --install

• If you are running Windows 10 lower then version 2004, follow the steps below. For more details, check this microsoft document.
  • Enable Windows Subsystem for Linux feature.

   dism.exe /online /enable-feature /featurename:Microsoft-Windows-Subsystem-Linux /all /norestart

  • Enable Virtual Machine feature

   dism.exe /online /enable-feature /featurename:VirtualMachinePlatform /all /norestart

  • Download and install the latest Linux kernel update package from here.

How to install

• Make sure all the steps mentioned under "Requirements" are completed.
• Download installer zip
• Extract all files in zip file to same directory
• Set version 2 as default. Note that this step is required only for manual installation.

  wsl --set-default-version 2
  

• Run Arch.exe to extract rootfs and register to WSL

Note: Exe filename is using the instance name to register. If you rename it you can register with a diffrent name and have multiple installs.

How to setup

ArchWSL2 will ask you to create a new user during its first run. If you choose to create a new user during the first run, the steps below are not required unless you want to create additional users.

Open Arch.exe and run the following commands.

passwd
useradd -m -g users -G wheel -s /bin/bash <username>
echo "%wheel ALL=(ALL) ALL" >/etc/sudoers.d/wheel
passwd <username>
exit

You can set the user you created as default user using 2 methods.

Open Arch.exe, run the following command (replace username with the actual username you created).

sed -i '/\[user\]/a default = username' /etc/wsl.conf

Shutdown and restart the distro (this step is important).

(or)

Execute the command below in a windows cmd terminal from the directory where Arch.exe is installed.

>Arch.exe config --default-user <username>

How to use installed instance

exe usage

Usage :
    <no args>
      - Open a new shell with your default settings.

    run <command line>
      - Run the given command line in that instance. Inherit current directory.

    runp <command line (includes windows path)>
      - Run the given command line in that instance after converting its path.

    config [setting [value]]
      - `--default-user <user>`: Set the default user of this instance to <user>.
      - `--default-uid <uid>`: Set the default user uid of this instance to <uid>.
      - `--append-path <true|false>`: Switch of Append Windows PATH to $PATH
      - `--mount-drive <true|false>`: Switch of Mount drives
      - `--default-term <default|wt|flute>`: Set default type of terminal window.

    get [setting]
      - `--default-uid`: Get the default user uid in this instance.
      - `--append-path`: Get true/false status of Append Windows PATH to $PATH.
      - `--mount-drive`: Get true/false status of Mount drives.
      - `--wsl-version`: Get the version os the WSL (1/2) of this instance.
      - `--default-term`: Get Default Terminal type of this instance launcher.
      - `--lxguid`: Get WSL GUID key for this instance.

    backup [contents]
      - `--tar`: Output backup.tar to the current directory.
      - `--reg`: Output settings registry file to the current directory.
	  - `--tgz`: Output backup.tar.gz to the current directory.
      - `--vhdx`: Output backup.ext4.vhdx to the current directory.
      - `--vhdxgz`: Output backup.ext4.vhdx.gz to the current directory.

    clean
      - Uninstall that instance.

    help
      - Print this usage message.

Run exe

>{InstanceName}.exe
[root@PC-NAME user]#

Run with command line

>{InstanceName}.exe run uname -r
4.4.0-43-Microsoft

Run with command line using path translation

>{InstanceName}.exe runp echo C:\Windows\System32\cmd.exe
/mnt/c/Windows/System32/cmd.exe

Change default user(id command required)

>{InstanceName}.exe config --default-user user

>{InstanceName}.exe
[user@PC-NAME dir]$

Set "Windows Terminal" as default terminal

>{InstanceName}.exe config --default-term wt

How to update

Updating Archlinux doesn't require you to download and install a newer release everytime. Usually all it takes is to run the command below to update the instance.

$sudo pacman -Syu

Sometimes updates may fail to install. You can try the command below in such a situation.

$sudo pacman -Syyuu

You may need to install a newer release if additional features have been added/removed from the installer.

How to uninstall instance

>Arch.exe clean

How to backup instance

export to backup.tar.gz

>Arch.exe backup --tgz

export to backup.ext4.vhdx.gz

>Arch.exe backup --vhdxgz

How to restore instance

There are 2 ways to do it.

Rename the backup to rootfs.tar.gz and run Arch.exe

(or)

.tar(.gz)

>Arch.exe install backup.tar.gz

.ext4.vhdx(.gz)

>Arch.exe install backup.ext4.vhdx.gz

You may need to run the command below in some circumstances.

>Arch.exe --default-uid 1000

How to build from source

prerequisites

Docker, tar, zip, unzip, bsdtar need to be installed.

git clone git@gitlab.com:sileshn/ArchWSL2.git
cd ArchWSL2
make

Copy the ArchWSL2.zip file to a safe location and run the command below to clean.

make clean

How to run docker in ArchWSL2 without using docker desktop

Install docker.

sudo pacman -S docker

Follow this blog post for further details on how to setup. Alternatively, if using systemd, use the commands below to setup and reboot.

sudo systemctl start docker.service
sudo systemctl enable docker.service
sudo usermod -aG docker $USER