Install mininet in wsl

Table of contents

• Overview
• Environment Check
• Build Kernel
• Install Mininet

Overview

To make mininet run normally in wsl, you need to

• build an openvswitch enabled kernel
• install mininet and its components.

Environment Check

If any of the bolded parts is inconsistent, I strongly recommend against using this tutorial.

In cmd, run

# Update your WSL version to the latest version.
wsl --update
# Check the version information about WSL and its components.
wsl -v

This tutorial runs with the following environment

• WSL version： 1.2.5.0
• kernel version： 5.15.90.1
• WSLg version： 1.0.51
• MSRDC version： 1.2.3770
• Direct3D version： 1.608.2-61064218
• DXCore version： 10.0.25131.1002-220531-1700.rs-onecore-base2-hyp
• Windows version： 10.0.19045.3448

In wsl, run

# Print all system information
uname -a
# Print all districution information
lsb_release -a

This tutorial runs with the following enviornment

• Linux LAPTOP 5.15.90.1-microsoft-standard-WSL2 #1 SMP Fri Jan 27 02:56:13 UTC 2023 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux

• No LSB modules are available.

• Distributor ID: Ubuntu

• Description: Ubuntu 22.04.2 LTS

• Release: 22.04

• Codename: jammy

Still in wsl, run

cat /etc/wsl.conf

You should get

• [boot]
• systemd=true

Build Kernel

1. Install essential tools to build the kernel. In wsl, run

sudo apt update
sudo apt upgrade
sudo apt install make autoconf build-essential flex bison bc dwarves libncurses-dev libssl-dev libelf-dev libtool

2. Download the source of kernel. Go to the releases of the Linux kernel used in WSL2. Download the release that matches your kernel version, which is in the output of wsl -v.

# Choose any working directory
cd ~
# Downlaod the kernel source using the link from github.
wget https://github.com/microsoft/WSL2-Linux-Kernel/archive/refs/tags/linux-msft-wsl-<your kernel version>.tar.gz
# Unzip tarball
tar -xf linux-msft-<your kernel version>.tar.gz
# Change directory
cd WSL2-Linux-Kernel-linux-msft-wsl-<your kernel version>

3. Configure kernel

# Copy the current kernel configuration
zcat /proc/config.gz > .config
# Configure in a special user interface
make menuconfig

Read the instructions at the top of the screen. You can use ← and → to switch among select, Exit, Help, Save, Load. You can use ↑ and ↓ to switch among features. You need to include/modularize the following features. [=y] means includes (pressing <Y>) and [=m] means modularizes (pressing <M>).

• Symol: OPENVSWITCH [=m]

  • Name: Open vSwitch
  • Location:
  • -> Networking support (NET [=y])
    • -> Networking options

• Symol: NET_SCH_HTB [=y]

  • Name: Hierarchical Token Bucket (HTB)
  • Location:
  • -> Networking support (NET [=y])
    • -> Networking options
      • -> QoS and/or fair queueing (NET_SCHED [=y])

• Symol: NET_SCH_TBF [=y]

  • Name: Token Bucket Filter (TBF)
  • Location:
  • -> Networking support (NET [=y])
    • -> Networking options
      • -> QoS and/or fair queueing (NET_SCHED [=y])

• Symol: NET_SCH_NETEM [=y]

  • Name: Network emulator (NETEM)
  • Location:
  • -> Networking support (NET [=y])
    • -> Networking options
      • -> QoS and/or fair queueing (NET_SCHED [=y])

4. Build kernel

Check the number of available CPU cores/threads

nproc

Make, where <N> should be the result of nproc

make -j<N>

Install modules

make modules_install

Copy the kernel to Windows, replace <username> with your user name in Windows.

cp arch/x86/boot/bzImage /mnt/c/users/<username>/mn-bzImage

Clean

cd ..
rm -rf WSL2-Linux-Kernel-linux-msft-wsl-<your kernel version>

After you complete this tutorial, you can also delete the tarball.

5. Configure wsl to use the new kernel

Now you need to switch back to Windows. First shutdown the wsl

# Run this in cmd
wsl --shutdown

Create a file .wslconfig in your %UserProfile% directory. Write the following into the file. Replace <username> with your user name in Windows.

[wsl2]
kernel=c:\\users\\<username>\\mn-bzImage

Install Mininet

Open your wsl. Run

# Install mininet and its components
sudo apt install mininet openvswitch-switch openvswitch-testcontroller
# Disable automatic startup of the controller to resolve an issue
systemctl disable openvswitch-testcontroller

Finished

Remember to delete the tarball of kernel source.

References

https://zenn.dev/takai404/articles/9c96d5d1bcc9d0