Wsl2 sound support

[w5wa]

Is your feature request related to a problem? Please describe.
The Pulseaudio doesn't natively supported by WSL2 and it difficult to link it to Windows speakers.

Describe the solution you'd like
Add driver support of sound as update

Describe alternatives you've considered
Codes for Pulseaudio to link Windows speaker or export sound of linux to local host ip address.

[Biswa96]

This article may help https://x410.dev/cookbook/wsl/enabling-sound-in-wsl-ubuntu-let-it-sing/

[therealkenc]

Spiritually dupe #237 which is the three-digit landing zone for sound, with ref #486 and #4205. WSL2 can have its own LZ for reasons.

[ameeno]

I found a way that is better than the x410 guide and works with the latest version of pulse on windows 10. installs pulse as a service, and is seamless.

this is the guide.

originally available from https://tomjepp.uk/2015/05/31/streaming-audio-from-linux-to-windows.html but now down:

I found a much newer set of binaries from the X2Go project: http://code.x2go.org/releases/binary-win32/3rd-party/pulse/.

To set up PulseAudio 5.0 on Windows, do the following:

Download pulseaudio-5.0-rev18.zip from http://code.x2go.org/releases/binary-win32/3rd-party/pulse/pulseaudio-5.0-rev18.zip
Extract it and copy the pulse folder to C:\pulse
Create a config.pa file in that folder with these contents:

load-module module-native-protocol-tcp auth-anonymous=1
load-module module-esound-protocol-tcp auth-anonymous=1
load-module module-waveout sink_name=output source_name=input record=0

Test this setup by running: c:\pulse\pulseaudio.exe -F config.pa
On the wsl2 side you must run:

export PULSE_SERVER=tcp:$(grep nameserver /etc/resolv.conf | awk '{print $2}');

play some sound on wsl2 and you will get it working.
You should now be able to get Linux sound playing on your Windows PC.
For a permanent setup, we need to create a Windows service rather than running PulseAudio in a command prompt. I use NSSM to run arbitrary programs as services. Download the latest version of NSSM.

https://nssm.cc/download

Extract it and copy nssm.exe from the win32 folder to c:\pulse.
Run:

 c:\pulse\nssm.exe install PulseAudio

Fill in the following details on the Application tab:
Path: c:\pulse\pulseaudio.exe
Start-up directory: c:\pulse
Arguments: -F c:\pulse\config.pa
On the Details tab, fill in:

Display name: PulseAudio
Now click Install service.

Finally, start the newly installed service - either through Services in Administrative Tools, or by running net start PulseAudio

now you will have a permanent pulseaudio service on windows which is very low ram usage.
for permanent settings on the WSL side, you could put the following in your .bashrc file:

export PULSE_SERVER=tcp:$(grep nameserver /etc/resolv.conf | awk '{print $2}');

That way, all pulseaudio sound will be passed to windows, seamlessly.

btw, my config above allows anonymous connections. you can restrict it to IP of the wsl2 vm if you want but it changes regularly. so there isnt really a way as far as I can tell, to have the IP restrictions in place and secured properly.

I have seen people use methods such as: sed and regex to update /modify the config.pa file to the correct IP address on WSL2 start-up, (that lives on /mnt/c/pulse/config.pa) but you must then stop and start the pulse audio NSSM service in windows. - I do not think that is so easy.

Allowing anonymous connections works fine for so far, and has the added benefit, that any WSL/Hyper-V -VM can just put sound out of my laptop over tcp.

Hope that helps!

@ameeno Oops. That shouldn't 404! I'll put that back!

[ameeno]

@tomjepp hey Tom. Awesome thanks.
your guide was more pulse on windows for network based sound redirection.
But is the best way I have found for having a more modern pulse server permanently on windows.

I adapted it slightly for wsl use and allowed anonymous sound.
Perhaps you could incorporate wsl1/2 usage into your guide?
Pulse as a service + x410 on start-up makes Linux GUI apps almost seamless.

Thanks for the guide initially!

@ameeno I'm afraid I don't use WSL myself so I can't really do this. Feel free to use this guide as a base, however!

[cerebrate]

Seems like the first relevant question here is what, if any, sound support is coming along with the GUI app support we already know is on the roadmap? @craigloewen-msft ?

[Panchie]

@ameeno @tomjepp Thank you both so much for this, works perfectly with Debian Buster + Mopidy on my desktop. Outstanding stuff.

[eamondo2]

So I had attempted to get some of the suggestions from this thread, as well as from others I'd found while doing research and wasn't able to get them working reliably.

This is mostly based on the guide from @ameeno above, but with a few extra bits to get X11 working as well.

Git Page

This is an attempt to collate what ended up working, hopefully it will be of some help.

[ameeno]

@eamondo2 Yea, that sounds good.

Only I use X410 instead of vcxsrv

also my .bashrc vars look like this:

### WSL2 Stuff

export WSL2IP=$(cat /etc/resolv.conf | grep nameserver | awk '{print $2; exit;}')
export DISPLAY="$WSL2IP":0.0
export PULSE_SERVER=tcp:"$WSL2IP"

Which seems to work great

another guide I have adapted slightly is this one:
https://x410.dev/cookbook/wsl/opening-linux-terminal-directly-from-file-explorer/

Changes I have made include:

1. ubuntu1804.exe becomes ubuntu.exe (for normal ubuntu d/l from ms store)

2. All my Exports/functions/vars for wsl2 and .bashrc is actually inside a file called .exports in my home folder.
   my .bashrc file sources /home//.exports
   My Terminal here script sources /home//.exports

3. also I use d:\wsl\ for the vbs script files.

In your case you would need to start the vcxsrv generated file to start your x server.
its really handy to have a true linux terminal wherever you want it!!!! :)

glad to help.

[timriker]

I’ve set in etc/pulse/default.pa this:

load-module module-native-protocol-tcp auth-ip-acl=127.0.0.1;172.16.0.0/12

This will authorize all local connections for WSL1 and the RFC-1918 block 172.16.0.0/12 which is the default space for WSL2.

I would not recommend auth-anonymous=1 as this would allow any remote machine to connect. I use this inside my .bashrc:

if grep -qE "(Microsoft|WSL)" /proc/version &>/dev/null; then
  #WSL1
  export DISPLAY="${DISPLAY:-localhost:0.0}"
  export PULSE_SERVER="${PULSE_SERVER:-tcp:127.0.0.1}"
elif grep -q "microsoft" /proc/version &>/dev/null; then
  # WSL2
  export DISPLAY="$(ip route|awk '/^default/{print $3}'):0.0"
  export PULSE_SERVER="${PULSE_SERVER:-tcp:$(ip route|awk '/^default/{print $3}')}"
fi

Note: I lookup the WSL2 ip using ip route instead of /etc/resolv.conf as I bypass the WSL2 nameserver due to #5806