[WSL 2] Attaching an USB device

I want to attach an USB device (iPhone) with WSL, how to accomplish that? USB device is connected with Windows host. I'm using kernel 4.19.104 and enabled USB support manually by compiling it from source.

Any suggestions regarding above mentioned issues?

[sirredbeard]

WSL 2 operates in a lightweight VM and does not have USB pass-through access.

Even if enabled in the Linux kernel, that is still simply inside the VM.

This is a duplicate of #689.

[Biswa96]

Even if enabled in the Linux kernel, that is still simply inside the VM.

Nope, it "was" somehow possible. See this pull request microsoft/WSL2-Linux-Kernel#45. I tried it once but the compiled kernel did not boot WSL2 VM, maybe I did something wrong.

WSL 2 operates in a lightweight VM and does not have USB pass-through access.

Even if enabled in the Linux kernel, that is still simply inside the VM.

This is a duplicate of #689.

@sirredbeard so for now there’s no way to attach USB devices into WSL?

[sirredbeard]

Generally yes.

There are hacks that use USB over IP but they aren't supported and YMMV.

Even if enabled in the Linux kernel, that is still simply inside the VM.

Nope, it "was" somehow possible. See this pull request microsoft/WSL2-Linux-Kernel#45. I tried it once but the compiled kernel did not boot WSL2 VM, maybe I did something wrong.

Also tried by me. But usbip can’t attach usb devices with WSL. I’m already having a long discussion here- cezanne/usbip-win#149

Generally yes.

There are hacks that use USB over IP but they aren't supported and YMMV.

Bad news.

My issue is solved with USB/IP tool from this repo: https://github.com/cezanne/usbip-win
I have compiled kernel 4.19.104 with USB modules and now I can attach USB devices with WSL using USB/IP.
My solution goes like this: cezanne/usbip-win#149 (comment)

[Marietto2008]

I tried to attach the kinect,using usbip and this is what happened :

root@DESKTOP-N9UN2H3:~/Desktop# sudo ./libfreenect2/build/bin/Protonect
Version: 0.2.0
Environment variables: LOGFILE=<protonect.log>
Usage: ./libfreenect2/build/bin/Protonect [-gpu=] [gl | cl | clkde | cuda | cudakde | cpu] []
[-noviewer] [-norgb | -nodepth] [-help] [-version]
[-frames ]
To pause and unpause: pkill -USR1 Protonect
[Info] [Freenect2Impl] enumerating devices...
[Info] [Freenect2Impl] 2 usb devices connected
[Info] [Freenect2Impl] found 0 devices
no device connected!

[flokixdev]

@sirredbeard Any news about the support in default build?

[mtrojnar]

My issue is solved with USB/IP tool from this repo: https://github.com/cezanne/usbip-win
I have compiled kernel 4.19.104 [...]

I'm glad it worked for you, but I personally do not think that USB support in WSL2 should require recompiling a custom Linux kernel and installing a prerelease of a Windows kernel driver. This feature should just work out of the box.

I wanted to follow up with this and see if there has been any news of this feature coming by default?

[Balderick]

After getting Steam for Linux installed in Ubuntu On Windows, i am interested in this feature request or limitation of WSL2 as well.

Could not help thinking of VirtualHere but have only used android server with non linux clients (mostly remote cloud gaming VMs like Paperspace and Shadow running windows or windows server) and can see VirtualHere has CLI for linux clients at https://www.virtualhere.com/node/955.

Yeah YMMV but am sure a custom kernel and VH can help out for many end user case scenarios in WSL.