This content originally appeared on DEV Community and was authored by Bruno Zani

WSL and WSL2

Make sure that

You have Windows 10 version 1903 or higher, with Build 18362 or higher. If not, update it.
- Check it by using Win+R, command winver
Virtualization is enabled inside of your computer's BIOS

Enable WSL on Windows 10

Execute the commands below, using PowerShell on Admin mode:

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

Open your PowerShell once again and try typing wsl, and if doesn't work, restart your machine

Upgrade to WSL2

Download and install the WSL2 kernel to update
https://wslstorestorage.blob.core.windows.net/wslblob/wsl_update_x64.msi
Set the WSL default version to 2, via Powershell:

wsl --set-default-version 2

(in case of error, ignore it this time)

Linux Distro

Install the Ubuntu distro (or any other you like)

Open your Microsoft Store, search for the Ubuntu App, select the Ubuntu app (which is the latest) and install it
After installed, configure your root user and password

Upgrade WSL version for Ubuntu

List your distro using wsl --list, via Powershell
Set your distro to WSL version 2

wsl --set-version <distro_name> 2

Etc

Access your WSL "space" on Windows through: (Win+R or explorer)

\\wsl$

Find your Windows "space" on Linux:

/mnt/c/

Find your WSL "disk" on Windows:
- in the case of Ubuntu, we have something like this:

C:\Users\<User>\AppData\Local\Packages\CanonicalGroupLimited.Ubuntu...\LocalState

Backup your WSL state:

wsl --export <distro> <output_file>                        # export
wsl --import <distro> <installation_location> <input_file> # import

or even, create a backup of the WSL "disk" file (previous item)

WSL2 uses almost all your machines resources, by default:
- Disk and CPU
- 80% of your available RAM
- 25% of your available memory for Swap
- You can set up limits, by creating a config file (example): C:\Users<User>.wslconfig >

[wsl2] 
options=metadata,umask=22,fmask=11 
memory=8GB 
processors=4 
swap=2GB

Your custom configs are applied after a WSL restart:

wsl --shutdown

Windows Terminal

Windows Terminal is a new feature from Microsoft, improving your experience with terminals in Windows.

Install via Microsoft Store, by searching for Windows Terminal

With Windows Terminal you can:

have multiple terminals opened in separate tabs (instances)
different terminals running along (Ubuntu, git bash, Powershell, etc)
customize by applying themes, configuring colors and shortcuts, etc https://docs.microsoft.com/pt-br/windows/terminal/customize-settings/startup
- change file settings.json by hitting Ctrl+, on Windows Terminal
- or open file from default dir:

C:\Users\<User>\AppData\Local\Packages\Microsoft.WindowsTerminal...\LocalState\settings.json

you can change e.g. your Linux starting directory and default shell, when opening Windows Terminal:

"defaultProfile": "{xxxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx}",
...
{ 
    "guid": "{xxxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx}",
    "name": "Ubuntu-18.04", 
    "startingDirectory" : "//wsl$/Ubuntu-20.04/home/<ubuntu_user>", 
}

Docker

3 ways to use Docker on Windows

Docker Toolbox - bad
- Uses Oracle VirtualBox
- Very bad performance
- Difficult setup and usage
Docker Desktop com Hyper-V - better
- Uses Microsoft Hyper-V instead of VirtualBox
- Requires Windows 10 PRO
- Better performance but a heavy consumer of host resources
- Docker will drop support in the future, as announced
Docker Desktop com WSL2 - recommended *
- Uses Microsoft Virtual Machine Platform
- Integrates with WSL2 and its distros
- Better performance and consumes less resources
- Usage as running on Linux natively

*Download and install Docker Desktop
https://hub.docker.com/editions/community/docker-ce-desktop-windows

Enable Docker on WSL2 distro
- Docker Desktop > Settings > Resources > WSL Integration
> Enable integration with additional distros > Check distro

Play with docker on WSL
- Open WSL and hit docker ps or try out docker run hello-world

WSL Linux GUI

A way to run Linux apps using WSL "builtin GUIs" is on the way, as one of the WSL improvements of Microsoft's roadmap.

While it still unavailable, we can still install a GUI and use RDP (Remote desktop manager), to access the Linux VM.

First of all, update and upgrade your Linux:

sudo apt update && sudo apt -y upgrade

Install (or overwrite) X-RDP:

sudo apt-get purge xrdp
sudo apt install -y xrdp

Install a GUI:

sudo apt install -y xfce4 # check 'gdm3' option
sudo apt install -y xfce4-goodies

XFCE is a lightweight GUI for testing purposes

Create a backup, config access, improve RDP session quality and define session:

sudo cp /etc/xrdp/xrdp.ini /etc/xrdp/xrdp.ini.bak
sudo sed -i 's/3389/3390/g' /etc/xrdp/xrdp.ini
sudo sed -i 's/max_bpp=32/#max_bpp=32\nmax_bpp=128/g' /etc/xrdp/xrdp.ini
sudo sed -i 's/xserverbpp=24/#xserverbpp=24\nxserverbpp=128/g' /etc/xrdp/xrdp.ini
echo xfce4-session > ~/.xsession

Edit XRDP startup script:

sudo nano /etc/xrdp/startwm.sh

Comment these last lines:

# test -x /etc/X11/Xsession && exec /etc/X11/Xsession 
# exec /bin/sh /etc/X11/Xsession

Add these lines:

# xfce
startxfce4

Start RDP session:

sudo /etc/init.d/xrdp start

Access it from your Windows:

Execute command mstsc (Win+R)

localhost:3390

Dev Projects

In my case, I moved all my project sources and repositories to WSL.

There are many softwares that already works integrated with WSL:

like VS Code for example, there are add-ons to work "remotely" with your projects in WSL
though I don't use IntelliJ, I've seen some videos and tutorials about doing it with WSL
on the other hand, there may be softwares that are more complex to integrate with WSL (or even don't)

NODE
In my case, I uninstalled everything from my host and installed Nvm on WSL

ECLIPSE
In this case, I couldn't create my workspace in WSL, so I kept it in my host computer.
I kept also maven installed in my host machine, and installed it also on WSL, but pointing dependencies to my host .m2/repository
However, I migrated my git repositories to WSL, and I'm opening it on my host workspace.
As I'm starting now using WSL, certainly I'm missing a better way to do it, I wonder, keeping both separate should not be the right way to do it, right?
If you can help me out, just drop me a line below. Also, I'll keep it updated as long I improve my dev workspace along with WSL.

See ya.

Source
https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/wsl/install-win10#manual-installation-steps
https://github.com/codeedu/wsl2-docker-quickstart (pt-br)
https://github.com/davidbombal/wsl2/blob/main/ubuntu_gui_youtube

This content originally appeared on DEV Community and was authored by Bruno Zani

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