Setup Windows Subsystem for Linux for Development

Scripts in this repo automate the setup of Linux on Windows Subsystem for Linux. The primary purpose is to have everything set up and ready for development. Currently, the scripts only work with Ubuntu.

Installation

We have to do a few steps before actually running these scrips.

Windows Terminal

The default terminal app in Windows is painful. Therefore, it is recommended to install Windows Terminal and execute all the below commands in it. (Another decent alternative is MobaXterm which comes with its own X11 server.)

Install Linux on WSL

You need to install Ubuntu on WSL. But, before installing, make sure that you will use WSL 2 instead of WSL 1. You can do that by opening a PowerShell terminal (preferably inside Windows Terminal) and running wsl --set-default-version 2:

PS C:\> wsl --set-default-version 2
For information on key differences with WSL 2 please visit https://aka.ms/wsl2
The operation completed successfully.

This, as you have guessed, sets the default version to 2.

Now, go ahead and install the latest and greatest version of Ubuntu. You can use Microsoft's guide. After you are done, come back and continue from here.

Using PowerShell, shut down WSL by wsl --shutdown and then update it by wsl --update:

PS C:\> wsl --shutdown
PS C:\> wsl --update
Checking for updates.
The most recent version of Windows Subsystem for Linux is already installed.

Now, checking the version of WSL should output something like this:

PS C:\> wsl --version
WSL version: 1.1.3.0
Kernel version: 5.15.90.1
WSLg version: 1.0.49
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: 10.0.19045.2728

You can also see the list of installed distributions by running wsl --list --verbose --all:

PS C:\> wsl --list --verbose --all
  NAME      STATE           VERSION
* Ubuntu    Stopped         2

It is important that the version is 2.

Use this Repo in Ubuntu

Finally, open an Ubuntu terminal. (Again, preferably in Windows Terminal.) Go to a directory where you want this repo to be saved. You can also just stay in your home directory. The following command will clone this repository and start the installation and setup:

git clone --quiet https://github.com/pereszlenyi/wsl.git && ./wsl/install.sh

It will ask your password one or two times because some of the steps are run as root. When you run for the first time, it will output:

$ git clone --quiet https://github.com/pereszlenyi/wsl.git && ./wsl/install.sh
=== Setting up your Linux system ===

=== Installing Ansible ===
[sudo] password for pereszlenyi:

Later, it will ask for your name and email which will be used to configure Git. If everything goes well, you will see the following line printed.

=== Install was SUCCESSFUL ===

If this was the first time running the script, it will likely ask you to restart WSL:

=== Install was SUCCESSFUL ===

You have to shut down and restart WSL for the changes to take effect.
After restarting, you can run this install script again by executing 'run_install_script'.
Do you want to shut down WSL now? [yes/no]:

Do so, then after restart, run the install script again by executing run_install_script. This will complete the installation.

Features

Below is a list of what the above steps do for your system.

Systemwide Changes

• Your Ubuntu APT and snap packages are updated to the latest version. In fact, you can use run_install_script later to update Ubuntu.
• A bunch of software are installed, such as Firefox, Google Chrome, Geany, Meld, etc.
  • If you select to install containerization technologies, then Docker Engine, kubectl, and Azure CLI will also be installed.
  • If you select to install Java development tools, then IntelliJ IDEA Community Edition and Azul JDK will also be installed.
• Unattended upgrades for all installed packages are configured.
• The hostname is set in /etc/wsl.conf to show the Ubuntu release number.

Changes for the User

• An SSH key is created for GitHub, GitLab, or Bitbucket and also for signing Git commits.
• The SSH client is configured and SSH key fingerprints of GitHub, GitLab, and Bitbucket are added to known_hosts.
• GPG is set up and Ubuntu's key is imported.
• Git is configured.
• The Bash prompt is configured to show the exit status of the last command and the current Git branch, if we are in a Git repository.
• Useful aliases and scripts are provided.
• Configurations are set for some of the installed applications, e.g., for Geany.
• If you select to install containerization technologies, then Helm will be installed locally and it will be verified that the user can run Docker commands.
• If you select to install Java development tools, then Maven will also be installed locally.