WSL support

WSL convenience commands

After following the setup instructions below, you can use the WSL convenience commands to easily attach devices to a WSL instance and view which distributions devices are attached to.

> usbipd wsl list
BUSID  DEVICE                                      STATE
1-7    USB Input Device                            Not attached
4-4    STMicroelectronics STLink dongle, STMic...  Not attached
5-2    Surface Ethernet Adapter                    Not attached

> usbipd wsl attach --busid 4-4
[sudo] password for user:

> usbipd wsl list
BUSID  DEVICE                                      STATE
1-7    USB Input Device                            Not attached
4-4    STMicroelectronics STLink dongle, STMic...  Attached - Ubuntu
5-2    Surface Ethernet Adapter                    Not attached

Now the device is available in WSL.

$ lsusb
Bus 002 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0003 Linux Foundation 3.0 root hub
Bus 001 Device 002: ID 0483:374b STMicroelectronics ST-LINK/V2.1
Bus 001 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub

wsl detach can be used to stop sharing the device. The device will also automatically stop sharing if it is unplugged or the computer is restarted.

> usbipd wsl detach --busid 4-4

> usbipd wsl list
BUSID  DEVICE                                      STATE
1-7    USB Input Device                            Not attached
4-4    STMicroelectronics STLink dongle, STMic...  Not attached
5-2    Surface Ethernet Adapter                    Not attached

Use the --help to learn more about these convenience commands. In particular, the --distribution and --usbippath options can be useful to customize how the WSL commands are invoked.

Setting up USBIP on WSL 2

Update WSL:

wsl --update

List your distributions.

wsl --list --vebose

Verify that your target distribution is version 2; see WSL documentation for instructions on how to set the WSL version.

Export current distribution to be able to fall back if something goes wrong.

wsl --export <current-distro> <temporary-path>\wsl2-usbip.tar

Import new distribution with current distribution as base.

wsl --import wsl2-usbip <install-path> <temporary-path>\wsl2-usbip.tar

Run new distribution.

wsl --distribution wsl2-usbip --user <user>

Update resources (assuming apt, you may need to use yum or another package manager).

sudo apt update
sudo apt upgrade

Install prerequisites.

sudo apt install build-essential flex bison libssl-dev libelf-dev libncurses-dev autoconf libudev-dev libtool

Clone kernel that matches wsl version. To find the version you can run.

uname -r

The kernel can be found at: https://github.com/microsoft/WSL2-Linux-Kernel

Clone the kernel repo, then checkout the branch/tag that matches your kernel version; run uname -r to find the kernel version.

git clone https://github.com/microsoft/WSL2-Linux-Kernel.git
cd WSL2-Linux-Kernel
git checkout linux-msft-wsl-5.10.43.3

Copy current configuration file.

cp /proc/config.gz config.gz
gunzip config.gz
mv config .config

You may need to set CONFIG_USB=y in .config prior to running menuconfig to get all options enabled for selection.

Run menuconfig to select kernel features to add.

sudo make menuconfig

These are the necessary additional features in menuconfig.
Device Drivers -> USB Support
Device Drivers -> USB Support -> USB announce new devices
Device Drivers -> USB Support -> USB Modem (CDC ACM) support
Device Drivers -> USB Support -> USB/IP
Device Drivers -> USB Support -> USB/IP -> VHCI HCD
Device Drivers -> USB Support -> USB/IP -> Debug messages for USB/IP
Device Drivers -> USB Serial Converter Support
Device Drivers -> USB Serial Converter Support -> USB FTDI Single port Serial Driver

In the following command the number '8' is the number of cores to use; run getconf _NPROCESSORS_ONLN to find the number of cores.

sudo make -j 8 && sudo make modules_install -j 8 && sudo make install -j 8

Build USBIP tools.

cd tools/usb/usbip
sudo ./autogen.sh
sudo ./configure
sudo make install -j 8

Copy tools libraries location so usbip tools can get them.

sudo cp libsrc/.libs/libusbip.so.0 /lib/libusbip.so.0

Install usb.ids so you have names displayed for usb devices.

sudo apt-get install hwdata

From the root of the repo, copy the image.

cp arch/x86/boot/bzImage /mnt/c/Users/<user>/usbip-bzImage

Create a .wslconfig file on /mnt/c/Users/<user>/ and add a reference to the created image with the following.

[wsl2]
kernel=c:\\users\\<user>\\usbip-bzImage

Your WSL distro is now ready to use!