Common-WSL-Fixes

Before you do anything else - many of the common fixes will be found here in this ultra-secret microsoft documentation. https://github.com/MicrosoftDocs/wsl/blob/master/WSL/wsl-config.md
Everything in this guide is related to quality-of-life, hyper-v shenanigans, vmware, and some simple processes you'll need.

• Enable WSL2
• Quickly Trigger Hyper-V Off
• Disable wslg System-Wide
• Move a Linux Installation
• Docker Vendor Completions
• Dealing with Xservers in wslg (failed to launch xsession, etc)
• Expose virtualization extensions in virt-manager/gnome-boxes
• Exposing nested-virtualization extensions
• Limiting the vm's resources
• VMWare Player Being Annoying
• Cpu Tests
• Linux Benchmarks
• Export Installed Packages in Windows (winget)

Enable WSL2

• dism.exe /online /enable-feature /featurename:VirtualMachinePlatform /all /norestart
• wsl --set-default-version 2
• wsl --set-version # Preferably Ubuntu. Debian is less feature-rich

Quickly Trigger Hyper-V Off

This makes a secondary boot-entry so you can switch in like 2 seconds, vs going into the Windows Features and remembering which ones to trigger.

It's worth doing this, promise.

// Run powershell as Admin. (different commands for cmd)  
bcdedit --% /copy {current} /d "No Hyper V"  
bcdedit --% /set  {OUTPUT ID FROM TERMINAL} hypervisorlaunchtype off  
// Reboot  

Disable wslg System-Wide

Append to C:\Users<USER>.wslconfig

[wsl2] 
guiApplications=false

wsl.exe --shutdown

I have noticed some serious background cpu-smashing by wslg, so it's best to disable it unless you specifically need something. Remember that this a wayland layer so expect weirdness and breakage if you have it enabled.

Move a Linux Installation

• list distro and version
  wsl -l -v

• OOM This exports to stdio, and requires a lot of memory to compress to a .tar. In my case, it looped infinitely. wsl --export Ubuntu-20.04 - | wsl --import Moved-Ubuntu-20.04 M:\wsl -

Finally I ended up just mounting the linux container in a new distro installation because I'm guessing nixpkg/nix broke the exporting in some way. The return was 'undefined error' so that's my best guess. This lead to a lot of lost time, so if you encounter this, just mount ~/ in a new container and migrate. The .tar took roughly 5-10 mins for a 13 gb vhdx, import failed after 5, and I tried importing 4 times.

• Without stdio
  wsl --export Ubuntu C:\Path\Truebuntu.tar
  wsl --import <C:\Path\to\export>

  • Import
    wsl -- import <Installation Path - M:\wsl\Truebuntu> C:\Path\To\Tar

• MS Docs
  https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/wsl/use-custom-distro

• First solution / OOM
  https://stackoverflow.com/questions/62533122/how-to-move-a-windows-10-wsl-2-linux-distribution-to-another-location

• Cleanup
  Not until you are sure, buddy.
  wsl --unregister Ubuntu

• If you're logging in as root instead of a user by default. Append to /etc/wsl.conf

[user]  
default=YourUserName  
 

Docker Vendor Completions

If your terminal is outputting '/usr/share/zsh/vendor-completions/_docker not found' or similar each time you launch a terminal

• Open Docker Desktop
• Preferences > Resources > WSL Integration
• Untick 'Enable integration with my default WSL distro'
• Restart WSL and it should be fixed 'wsl.exe --shutdown'
• Question the ambiguity of that setting, and why it hasn't been rephrased or annotated.

Dealing with Xservers in wslg (failed to launch xsession, etc)

• Consider using gwsl if you need 'stability'*
• If you're unable to launch something, remember that it uses wayland as the display server, so you can alternatively use Xnest or Xephyr to nest an xserver within Wayland.
• wsl handles certain environment variables in a very unfriendly way. Check the error logs in ~/ and make sure ~/.profile wasn't set to do something strange. Also check your .bashrc or alternative for $DISPLAY being modified.

Expose virtualization extensions in virt-manager/gnome-boxes

This also applies to Hyper-V in some cases, but I'm not sure how. There is a powershell line you can google to trigger it for Hyper-V.

Exposing nested-virtualization extensions

[wsl2] nestedVirtualization=True # I've seen reference to this, but untested. idk
guiApplications=True # wslg enabled
kernel=C:\Users\\bzImage # You may need to compile a kernel for this.

Limiting wsl's resources

[wsl2]  
memory=7GB # Limits VM memory in WSL 2 to 4 GB  
processors=2 # Makes the WSL 2 VM use two virtual processors /etc/wsl.conf  
# Or alternatively C:\Users\<YOU>\.wslconfig to enable globally  

Logging in as root instead of user upon wsl --import

open /etc/wsl.conf

[user]
default = username

Restart wsl (wsl --shutdown) and login should be repaired.

VMWare Player Being Annoying

VMware Player is actually configurable in a lot of ways, but they go out of their way to act like it isn't.

Open an Elevated Text Editor and cd to --
"C:\ProgramData\VMware\VMware Workstation\settings.ini"

 Copy and paste these

ulm.disableMitigations = "TRUE" # Sidechannel Mitigations
printers.enabled = "FALSE"
vmplayer.showChrome = "FALSE" 
# I believe this makes that annoying full-screen bar die --and they act like it's a 'premium' feature lol.  
pref.vmplayer.fullscreen.nobar = "TRUE" # But there is something weird about it that I can't recall so this option may be on a 'per' vm basis  
  
If you encounter terrible disk performance, consider enabling 'Windows Hypervisor Platform'.  
  Upon installation, VMware prompts you to enable it, but it isn't required *per-se*. 
  This can lead to some weirdness I've noticed, but it's all poorly documented.  

Cpu Tests

Check CPU Features/Capabilities

egrep '^flags.*(vmx|svm)' /proc/cpuinfo

Linux Benchmarks

Single Threaded

sudo apt-get install sysbench
sysbench --test=cpu --cpu-max-prime=20000 run

Multi-Threaded

  sudo apt install stress-ng
stress-ng --cpu-method which
stress-ng --cpu 2 --cpu-method matrixprod  --metrics-brief --perf -t 60

Export Installed Packages in Windows (winget)

If you format consistently, don't like to deal with cumbersome installers, or just need portability - you need to be using winget. It allows you to save a huge amount of time by letting you install and search software from the cli. It is also safer because the repositories are more trustworthy than googling installers clumsily.

• winget export filename # Export current Packages
• winget import filename # Restore Previous Packages
• Keep in mind that this improves securtity, but also limits it to the user's environment to accomplish that. So if you have multiple users on your setup, the other users will also have to import the package list to have the same access rights systemwide.

To Do

• Generate new Table of Contents
• Additions for Windows Subsystem for Android
• General Clean Up
• Consolidate [wsl2] .conf sections.
• Lint for consistency