WSL Environment Bootstrapping

Feb 2, 2021 attempt to quickly bootstrap a linux environment for use with windows WSL2

Method

1. Follow the instructions for installing WSL2
2. Install Windows Terminal and Ubuntu 20.04 from the windows store
3. Load up an Ubuntu window in the windows Terminal
4. Go and make the Network speed improvment:](microsoft/WSL#4901):
   1. Windows search for "View network connections"
   2. Find the vEthernet (WSL) one and click properties then the configure button
   3. Advanced tab: disable "Large Send Offload Version 2" for both ipv4 and ipv6
5. Now , in the Windows Terminal Ubuntu Run this:

sh -c "$(wget https://raw.githubusercontent.com/MattReimer/environment/master/bootstrap.sh -O -)"

It will take a while and there will be prompts. When you drop into the oh-my-zsh prompt and it hangs type 'exit' and press enter to finish the install

6. copy your ssh keys and other config from appropriate places

cp -fr /mnt/c/Users/MyName/.ssh ~/.ssh
# your id_rsa files need stronger permissions
chmod 600 ~/.ssh/id_rsa*
# then any other config files you may need
cp -fr /mnt/c/path/to/.aws ~/.aws
cp -fr /mnt/c/path/to/.riverscapes ~/.riverscapes

Now switch to VSCode

1. Make sure you have the Remote-WSL extension installed.
2. Look for the little green menubar icon in the bottom left of the window.
3. Connect to a New Remote-WSL: New Window Using Distro.
4. You may have to choose zsh as your default terminal

Optional:

1. In Docker --> Settings --> Resources --> WSL Integrations Check the box to allow Docker access from inside your WSL integration

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How do I?

NB: All wsl commands should be run in powershell

1. See what versions of WSL I have running?

wsl --list --verbose

2. Shutdown all my WSL2

wsl --shutdown

2. Delete my WSL and start over? WARNING!!! Unrecoverable!!!!

 wsl --unregister Ubuntu-20.04

Now when you click on the ubuntu item in your start menu it will give you a new install

3. Limit the RAM my WSL uses

Create a file in your windows user root C:\Users\MYACCT\.wslconfig and paste in the following (this also enables a swap space. DO NOT PUT THE SWAP ON AN SSD. Just ignore that line if you don't want a swap):

[wsl2]
memory=6GB
swalFile=E:\\wsl2-swal.vhdx

3. I deleted files in WSL but my C:\ doesn't show any change:

This one's a bit tricky because the folder to look in shifts around. You need to match the pattern below

# this is the folder that contains the VM file. You will need to search for it a little
cd $env:LOCALAPPDATA\Packages\CanonicalGroupLimited.Ubuntu20.04onWindows_79rhkp1fndgsc\LocalState
wsl --shutdown
optimize-vhd -Path .\ext4.vhdx -Mode full

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Resources

• https://nickjanetakis.com/blog/3-gotchas-with-wsl-2-around-disk-space-memory-usage-and-performance
• https://gist.github.com/noygal/6b7b1796a92d70e24e35f94b53722219
• https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/wsl/install-win10#install-your-linux-distribution-of-choice