How to run Arch Linux on WSL

This guide assumes that Windows 10 is up to date and that your system is already able to run linux using WSL.

See https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/wsl/install-win10

Install

1. Install LxRunOffline

   https://github.com/DDoSolitary/LxRunOffline

2. Download distro - You should grab the most up to date version

   https://github.com/DDoSolitary/LxRunOffline/wiki

3. Install distro (update paths and distro version)

   LxRunOffline.exe i -n ArchLinux -d **Install Location**\ArchLinux -f '**DOWNLOADLOCATION**\archlinux-bootstrap-2020.08.01-x86_64.tar.gz' -s  -r root.x86_64`
   

4. Verify the wsl version for your distro

   wsl --list --verbose
   

   -Set the wsl version if it is incorrect

   wsl --set-version ArchLinux 2
   

5. Boot into ArchLinux

   • Restart windows terminal and it will be an Option

6. Set Password

   passwd root
   

7. Set up keys - If it fails run it again

   pacman-key --init
   pacman-key --populate
   

8. Close and Reopen Arch

9. Set up an initial mirror, pacman and initial tools

   echo 'Server = http://mirrors.advancedhosters.com/archlinux/$repo/os/$arch' >> /etc/pacman.d/mirrorlist
   pacman -Sy
   pacman -S reflector
   reflector --country 'United States' --age 24 --sort rate --save /etc/pacman.d/mirrorlist
   pacman -S base-devel
   pacman -S nano
   

10. Set locals

    nano /etc/locale.gen
    

    • uncomment the local you want such as en_US.UTF-8 UTF-8
    • ctrl-x to exit and save

    locale-gen
    

11. Update the system

    pacman -Syyu
    

12. Setup Fakeroot if using WSl 1 - Update version is newer ones exist

    cd ~
    pacman -S wget
    mkdir sources
    cd sources
    wget http://ftp.debian.org/debian/pool/main/f/fakeroot/fakeroot_1.24.orig.tar.gz
    tar xvf fakeroot_1.24.orig.tar.gz
    cd fakeroot-1.24/
    
    ./bootstrap
    
    ./configure --prefix=/usr \
    	--libdir=/usr/lib/libfakeroot \
    	--disable-static \
    	--with-ipc=tcp
    
    make
    make install
    echo '/usr/lib/libfakeroot' > /etc/ld.so.conf.d/fakeroot.conf
    install -Dm644 README /usr/share/doc/fakeroot/README
    

13. Set up user

    useradd -m **username**
    passwd **username**
    nano /etc/sudoers
    

    • Add your user in this section.

       ## User privilege specification
       root ALL=(ALL) ALL
       **username** ALL=(ALL) ALL
      

14. Exit Arch

15. Change linux user in powershell

    LxRunOffline.exe su -n ArchLinux -v 10001
    

16. Start arch and you have a workign system

Fixes

1. If you have issues with windows file permissions remount the drive

   cd ~
   sudo umount /mnt/c
   sudo mount -t drvfs C: /mnt/c -o metadata
   

Optional

1. Set up ZSH and spaceship theme

   sudo pacman -S git
   sudo pacman -S zsh
   zsh
   sh -c "$(curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/robbyrussell/oh-my-zsh/master/tools/install.sh)"
   git clone https://github.com/denysdovhan/spaceship-prompt.git "$ZSH_CUSTOM/themes/spaceship-prompt"
   ln -s "$ZSH_CUSTOM/themes/spaceship-prompt/spaceship.zsh-theme" "$ZSH_CUSTOM/themes/spaceship.zsh-theme"
   

   • Set ZSH_THEME="spaceship" in your .zshrc.

   nano .zshrc
   

   • Set Options to disable docker check on zsh if using wsl 1 https://github.com/denysdovhan/spaceship-prompt/blob/master/docs/Options.md

2. config nano colors

   mkdir ~/.config
   mkdir ~/.config/nano
   cp /etc/nanorc ~/.config/nano/nanorc
   nano ~/.config/nano/nanorc
   

   • uncomment include "/usr/share/nano/*.nanorc

Uninstall

LxRunOffline.exe ui -n ArchLinux