WSL2 from Windows Store

Out of preview, this is stable and it has tons of new features: systemd, snap, integrated display, etc
wsl
Published

December 19, 2022

Source of inspiration

From devblogs: The Windows Subsystem for Linux in the Microsoft Store is now generally available on Windows 10 and 11

What’s new in the Store version of WSL?

There are 100s of bug fixes and improvements that you can read through on our release notes page to see all the improvements that we’ve put into the Store version of WSL. In this blog post I’ll highlight some of the significant changes that you might see as a user upgrading to the Store version for the first time.

  • You can opt in for systemd support
  • Windows 10 users can now use Linux GUI apps! This was previously only available to Windows 11 users
  • wsl --install now includes:
    • Direct installation from the Microsoft Store by default
    • --no-launch option to not launch the distro after installing
    • --web-download option which will download the distro through our GitHub releases page rather than through the Microsoft Store
  • wsl --mount now includes:
    • --vhd option to make mounting VHD files easier
    • --name option to make naming the mountpoint easier
  • wsl --import and wsl --export now include:
    • --vhd option to import or export to a VHD directly
  • Added wsl --import-in-place to take an existing .vhdx file and register it as a distro
  • Added wsl --version to print your version information more easily
  • wsl --update now includes:
    • Opening the Microsoft Store page by default
    • --web-download option to allow updates from our GitHub release page
  • Better error printing
  • All of WSLg and the WSL kernel are packaged into the same WSL package, meaning no more extra MSI installs!

Testing these features

systemd

following this article: systemd support

Modify /etc/wsl.conf with

[boot]
systemd=true

And restart wsl image (wsl -t ubuntu-22.04)

Test that it works by running

systemctl list-unit-files --type=service

image.png

I can now use systemctl to manage services such as

sudo systemctl restart autofs.service

snapd

Upgrade snap

sudo apt-get -y upgrade snapd

Check it is running

$ snap list
Name    Version        Rev    Tracking       Publisher   Notes
core20  20220318       1405   latest/stable  canonical✓  base
lxd     5.0.0-b0287c1  22923  5.0/stable/…   canonical✓  -
snapd   2.55.3         15534  latest/stable  canonical✓  snapd

firefox

And install firefox

sudo snap install firefox
# due to a bug when opening settings
# https://answers.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+question/701403https://answers.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+question/701403
sudo apt install xdg-desktop-portal-gtksudo apt install xdg-desktop-portal-gtk

image.png

To allow external websites, import this certificate /usr/local/share/ca-certificates/cert_M_X5C_sase-mob-sslfwd-trust-ca.crt in the certificate manager

image.png

nautilus

And install nautilus

sudo apt install nautilus nautilus-extension-gnome-terminal

image.png

gimp

And install gimp

sudo apt install gimp

Zettlr (markdown editor)

Now that typora is not open sourced anymore, switch to Zettlr

wget https://github.com/Zettlr/Zettlr/releases/download/v2.3.0/Zettlr-2.3.0-amd64.deb
sudo apt-get install libxss1
sudo dpkg -i Zettlr-2.3.0-amd64.deb
Zettlr  --disable-hardware-acceleration

snap-store

I can install like for other softwares

sudo snap install snap-store
# to fix "Unable to download updates, you do not have permission to install software"
sudo apt install --reinstall policykit-1-gnome
sudo apt install --reinstall gnome-software
# to fix "Unable to install <e.g. notepadqq>: authentication was required"
sudo snap remove snap-store
rm -rf ~/snap/snap-store
sudo snap install snap-store
snap run snap-store

but it failed at installing anything

image.png

investigations

Org.freedesktop.fwupd: Timeout was reached

image.png

This is the trace when starting snap-store

12:54:21:0924 Gs  plugin fwupd took 25.0 seconds to do setup
12:54:47:0573 Gs  can't reliably fixup error code 20 in domain g-dbus-error-quark
12:54:47:0574 Gs  can't reliably fixup error code 20 in domain g-dbus-error-quark
12:54:47:0574 Gs  not handling error failed for action refresh: Error calling StartServiceByName for org.freedesktop.fwupd: Failed to activate service 'org.freedesktop.fwupd': timed out (service_start_timeout=25000ms)
12:54:47:0574 Gs  not handling error failed for action get-updates-historical: Error calling StartServiceByName for org.freedesktop.fwupd: Failed to activate service 'org.freedesktop.fwupd': timed out (service_start_timeout=25000ms)
12:54:47:0622 Gs  not handling error no-security for action refresh: Failed to obtain authentication.
12:54:47:0671 Gs  adding wildcard app */*/*/org.gnome.Builder.desktop/* to plugin cache
12:54:47:0671 Gs  adding wildcard app */*/*/org.gnome.Calculator.desktop/* to plugin cache
12:54:47:0671 Gs  adding wildcard app */*/*/org.gnome.clocks.desktop/* to plugin cache
12:54:47:0671 Gs  adding wildcard app */*/*/org.gnome.Dictionary.desktop/* to plugin cache
12:54:47:0671 Gs  adding wildcard app */*/*/org.gnome.Documents.desktop/* to plugin cache
12:54:47:0671 Gs  adding wildcard app */*/*/org.gnome.Evince/* to plugin cache
12:54:47:0671 Gs  adding wildcard app */*/*/org.gnome.gedit.desktop/* to plugin cache
12:54:47:0671 Gs  adding wildcard app */*/*/org.gnome.Maps.desktop/* to plugin cache
12:54:47:0671 Gs  adding wildcard app */*/*/org.gnome.Weather/* to plugin cache
12:54:47:0677 Gs  Only 0 apps for recent list, hiding
12:55:13:0039 Gs  can't reliably fixup error code 20 in domain g-dbus-error-quark
sudo systemctl status fwupd.service
○ fwupd.service - Firmware update daemon
     Loaded: loaded (/lib/systemd/system/fwupd.service; static)
     Active: inactive (dead)
       Docs: https://fwupd.org/

Dec 20 09:05:50 L001LPF3RKAR5 systemd[1]: Condition check resulted in Firmware update daemon being skipped.
Dec 20 09:06:16 L001LPF3RKAR5 systemd[1]: Condition check resulted in Firmware update daemon being skipped.
Dec 20 09:06:44 L001LPF3RKAR5 systemd[1]: Condition check resulted in Firmware update daemon being skipped.
Dec 20 12:11:54 L001LPF3RKAR5 systemd[1]: Condition check resulted in Firmware update daemon being skipped.
Dec 20 12:12:20 L001LPF3RKAR5 systemd[1]: Condition check resulted in Firmware update daemon being skipped.
Dec 20 12:12:45 L001LPF3RKAR5 systemd[1]: Condition check resulted in Firmware update daemon being skipped.
Dec 20 13:53:56 L001LPF3RKAR5 systemd[1]: Condition check resulted in Firmware update daemon being skipped.
Dec 20 13:54:22 L001LPF3RKAR5 systemd[1]: Condition check resulted in Firmware update daemon being skipped.
Dec 20 13:54:48 L001LPF3RKAR5 systemd[1]: Condition check resulted in Firmware update daemon being skipped.
Dec 20 14:00:02 L001LPF3RKAR5 systemd[1]: Condition check resulted in Firmware update daemon being skipped.

dropbox

This one is the official one but it fails

sudo apt install nautilus-dropbox
dropbox start -i

another one

rm -rf ~/.dropbox-dist ~/.dropbox
wget -q -O ~/dropbox https://www.dropbox.com/download?dl=packages/dropbox.py
chmod a+x ~/dropbox
DISPLAY='' dropbox start -i

but still no luck

image.png

Desktop

Woulld like to test https://askubuntu.com/questions/1442663/cannot-start-gnome-session-after-enabling-systemd-on-latest-wsl2:

There 2 ways: - configure and access from XRDP - direct configuration

Will try on a fresh new image

rc.local

It would allow services to be created and run at boot time: https://www.cyberciti.biz/faq/how-to-enable-rc-local-shell-script-on-systemd-while-booting-linux-system/

not tested yet.

Problems

[FIXED] ERROR: CreateProcessParseCommon

When starting image after wsl update, I have the following error:

<3>WSL (8) ERROR: CreateProcessParseCommon:782: Failed to translate \\wsl.localhost\ubuntu-22.04\home\guillaume

I am not the only one, I have posted in this issue from WSL github repo.

A solution given in the thread is to update the way to call vpnkit (in .profile)

wsl.exe -d wsl-vpnkit --cd /app service wsl-vpnkit status >/dev/null || wsl.exe -d wsl-vpnkit --cd /app service wsl-vpnkit start

Cannot install from snap-store

image.png
14:12:09:0637 Gs  not handling error no-security for action refresh: Failed to obtain authentication.
14:12:09:0638 Gs  not handling error not-supported for action get-updates-historical: The name org.freedesktop.fwupd was not provided by any .service files

WSL some icons in taskbar for linux applications are defaulting to Tux

https://github.com/microsoft/wslg/issues/944

image.png

[FIXED] Starting GUI apps takes longer with new version

https://github.com/microsoft/wslg/issues/1030

Launching sublime-text is crashing WSL

https://github.com/microsoft/wslg/issues/1051

image.png