Setup Ubuntu or similar Linux distributions in Windows using WSL

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Skill - Setup Ubuntu or similar Linux distributions in Windows using WSL (Windows Subsystem for Linux)

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In this post we will learn how to setup WSL (Windows Subsystem for Linux) in Windows to run Linux OS or Linux commands directly from Windows

What is WSL

WSL (Windows Subsystem for Linux) is a windows feature that can run Linux environments like Ubuntu inside windows OS without installing separate virtual machines or dual booting

Why use WSL

There can be many use cases like

  • Running the source code or servers in Linux environments
  • Running applications or commands in Windows that are only available for Linux based OS

Install WSL from command line

Note: WSL can be installed from command line only in newer versions of Windows 10 or Windows 11 ( Refer here )

  • Open a command line in administrator mode
  • Run the command wsl --install and restart the computer. This will install WSL along with Ubuntu Linux distribution
  • To install WSL without the default Ubuntu Linux distribution, run the command wsl --install --no-distribution instead

Install WSL in older Windows 10 versions

  • In some older windows 10 versions, WSL installation with wsl --install may not be possible.
  • For such scenarios, refer to the manual installation steps as per the Microsoft documentation here

Install a Linux distribution from command line

  • Get the list of available Linux distributions using the command wsl --list --online or wsl -l -o . A list of available distributions will be displayed.
    For example
The following is a list of valid distributions that can be installed.
Install using 'wsl --install -d <Distro>'.

NAME               FRIENDLY NAME
Ubuntu             Ubuntu
Debian             Debian GNU/Linux
kali-linux         Kali Linux Rolling
SLES-12            SUSE Linux Enterprise Server v12
SLES-15            SUSE Linux Enterprise Server v15
Ubuntu-18.04       Ubuntu 18.04 LTS
Ubuntu-20.04       Ubuntu 20.04 LTS
Ubuntu-22.04       Ubuntu 22.04 LTS
OracleLinux_8_5    Oracle Linux 8.5
OracleLinux_7_9    Oracle Linux 7.9
  • Choose a distribution by the NAME and install using the command wsl --insall -d <NAME>. For example, based on the above output, you can run wsl --insall -d kali-linux to install Kali Linux distribution

Install a Linux distribution from Microsoft store

  • Open Microsoft store app in Windows
  • Search for a Linux distribution like “Ubuntu”, “Kali Linux”, “Debian” etc.
  • Install the Linux distribution from Microsoft store

List out the installed Linux distributions

  • In a command line, run the command wsl --list --verbose or wsl -l -v to see the list of installed WSL distributions and their status

Open a specific WSL distribution

  • First view the list of installed Linux distributions using the command wsl -l -v
  • Then open the desired distribution with the command wsl -d <distroName>, where “distroName” is the name of the installed Linux distribution

Access Windows drives in WSL

  • Open a Linux distribution in command line
  • The Windows operating system drives can be accessed inside the WSL Linux distributions using the /mnt path. For example running the command cd /mnt/c will change the working directory to C drive.

Access WSL files from windows file explorer

  • Open windows file explorer
  • In the left pane, a section named linux will be visible. Click on it to see the folders of the installed WSL Linux distributions in Windows file explorer

Run Linux commands in windows with ‘wsl’ prefix

  • Linux commands can be run in windows command line by just adding the ‘wsl’ prefix
  • For example, we can run the command wsl ls -l to list the files and folders in windows command prompt.
  • Using the pipe operator (|), we can combine both Linux and windows commands to pass output of one command to another. For example, the command dir | wsl grep "xyz" will pass the output of windows command dir to Linux command grep

Shutdown Linux distributions

  • Run the command wsl --shutdown to shutdown all the installed Linux distributions
  • Run the command wsl -t <distroName> to shutdown only a single installed Linux distribution. The installed “distroName” can be obtained by running the command wsl -l

Update WSL

  • WSL kernel can be updated from command line using the command wsl --update . However by WSL will update automatically with windows update

Update a WSL Linux distribution

  • Open the desired Linux distribution from start menu or with the wsl command
  • If a Debian based Linux distribution like Ubuntu is installed, then it can be updated using the command sudo apt update && sudo apt upgrade
  • Now the packages in the Linux distribution will be updated

Uninstall a Linux distribution

  • First view the list of installed Linux distributions using the command wsl -l -v
  • Then run the command wsl --unregister <distroName> where “distroName” is the name of the Linux distribution to be uninstalled
  • Alternatively, a Linux distribution can also be manually uninstalled from “Add or remove programs” section in the System Settings

Video

The video for this post can be found here

References

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Location: Mumbai, Maharashtra, India

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