How do I install WSL?

UpdatedJanuary 11, 2024

I am Jyotiprakash, a deeply driven computer systems engineer, software developer, teacher, and philosopher. With a decade of professional experience, I have contributed to various cutting-edge software products in network security, mobile apps, and healthcare software at renowned companies like Oracle, Yahoo, and Epic. My academic journey has taken me to prestigious institutions such as the University of Wisconsin-Madison and BITS Pilani in India, where I consistently ranked among the top of my class.

At my core, I am a computer enthusiast with a profound interest in understanding the intricacies of computer programming. My skills are not limited to application programming in Java; I have also delved deeply into computer hardware, learning about various architectures, low-level assembly programming, Linux kernel implementation, and writing device drivers. The contributions of Linus Torvalds, Ken Thompson, and Dennis Ritchie—who revolutionized the computer industry—inspire me. I believe that real contributions to computer science are made by mastering all levels of abstraction and understanding systems inside out.

In addition to my professional pursuits, I am passionate about teaching and sharing knowledge. I have spent two years as a teaching assistant at UW Madison, where I taught complex concepts in operating systems, computer graphics, and data structures to both graduate and undergraduate students. Currently, I am an assistant professor at KIIT, Bhubaneswar, where I continue to teach computer science to undergraduate and graduate students. I am also working on writing a few free books on systems programming, as I believe in freely sharing knowledge to empower others.

Comments

Join the discussion

No comments yet. Be the first to comment.

More from this blog

Computer Arithmetic: From Fast Adders to Floating-Point

Arithmetic is the beating heart of every processor. Whether your machine is rendering 3-D graphics, training a neural network, or simply incrementing a loop counter, the ALU (Arithmetic Logic Unit) is doing the heavy lifting. In this deep-dive, I wan...

Feb 12, 202629 min read

The Complete Memory Hierarchy: From Semiconductor RAM to Virtual Memory

The performance gap between processors and main memory has been widening for decades. Modern processors can execute billions of instructions per second, but accessing data from main memory takes hundreds of processor cycles. This disparity creates a ...

Jan 7, 202670 min read

The Ultimate Spring Boot Guide: From Fundamentals to Production-Ready REST APIs

Introduction Welcome to the most comprehensive Spring Boot guide you'll find! This isn't just another tutorial that skims the surface. We're going to dive deep into every concept, explain every annotation, walk through every line of code, and underst...

Dec 26, 2025125 min read

Understanding Functions, Memory, and Pointers in C: A Complete Guide

Part 1: Functions and the Call Stack Before we can understand pointers and memory management in C, we need to understand how functions work and what happens behind the scenes when your program runs. This foundation will make everything else click int...

Dec 16, 202583 min read

Datapath and Control

The Basic Processing Unit is the brain of every computer. It fetches instructions from memory, decodes them, and executes the operations they specify. Whether you're running a simple addition or a complex algorithm, every operation flows through this...

Dec 10, 202534 min read

Jyotiprakash's Blog

251 posts

I'm Jyotiprakash, a software dev and professor at KIIT, with expertise in system programming.

For the Windows group of operating systems, the Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL) serves as a compatibility layer that allows Linux binary executables to execute natively. Said another way, it spares customers the hassles of a dual-boot or traditional virtual machine by enabling them to install and operate a GNU/Linux environment straight on Windows.

With the help of WSL, users can select and run a GNU/Linux distribution from the Microsoft Store thanks to a kernel interface that was created by Microsoft and is compatible with Linux (it does not contain any Linux kernel code). This implies that you may execute Linux command-line programs, such as tools, utilities, and programming languages that are generally included in a Linux distribution, as well as Bash shell scripts.

WSL comes in two versions:

WSL 1: The first iteration of WSL is a user-mode session manager service that manages the Linux instance and implements a kernel interface that is compatible with Linux. It enables the Linux binaries to execute on Windows by translating Linux system calls to Windows system calls.

WSL 2: A real Linux kernel operates in a lightweight virtual machine environment in this more recent iteration of WSL. In comparison to WSL 1, it offers enhanced system call compatibility, performance gains, and native support for Docker container operations.

Developers who need to use Linux-based tools and apps on Windows computers without requiring a separate Linux workstation or server may find WSL especially helpful. It's also useful for running servers or software that's only reliable or available on Linux platforms, learning Linux or Unix commands, and for educational purposes.

You can use the following comprehensive instructions to install the Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL):

Open PowerShell as Administrator:
- Search for PowerShell in your Start menu, right-click on it, and select "Run as administrator".

Enable the WSL Feature:

In the PowerShell window, type the following command and press Enter:

  dism.exe /online /enable-feature /featurename:Microsoft-Windows-Subsystem-Linux /all /norestart

Enable Virtual Machine Feature:
- For WSL 2, you also need to enable the Virtual Machine Platform feature. In the same PowerShell window, type the following command and press Enter:
```
  dism.exe /online /enable-feature /featurename:VirtualMachinePlatform /all /norestart
```
Download the Linux Kernel Update Package:
- For WSL 2, you need to download and install the latest WSL 2 Linux kernel update package from Microsoft. You can find this package on the official Microsoft WSL installation page.
Set WSL 2 as the Default Version:
- Once the Linux kernel update package is installed, open PowerShell as administrator again and run the following command to set WSL 2 as the default version when installing a new Linux distribution:
```
  wsl --set-default-version 2
```
Install a Linux Distribution:
- Open the Microsoft Store and search for your preferred Linux distribution (e.g., Ubuntu, Debian, Fedora, etc.).
- Select the distribution and click "Get" or "Install" to download and install it.
Initialize the Linux Distribution:
- Once the Linux distribution is installed, launch it from the Start menu by searching by its name. For example, if you installed Ubuntu, search for "Ubuntu" and you should see it.
- The first time you launch a newly installed Linux distribution, a console window will open, and you'll need to wait for files to decompress and be stored on your machine. Then, you'll need to create a user account and password for your new Linux distribution.
Update and Upgrade (Optional but Recommended):
- It's a good practice to update and upgrade your Linux distribution's packages. You can do this by running the following commands in your Linux console:
```
  sudo apt update && sudo apt upgrade
```
Verify Installation:
- To verify that WSL 2 is installed and running, you can use the following command in PowerShell:
```
  wsl --list --verbose
```
- This will list all installed Linux distributions and show which WSL version each is using.
Install dev tools:

To be able to use gcc (for C development) do this:
```
sudo apt update && sudo apt install build-essential
```

Command Palette

Comments

More from this blog