Support Warp for Linux on WSL (Windows Subsystem for Linux)

[dannyneira]

The issue for users to track and show support for running Warp for Linux on WSL.

To be clear, we are still working on making a native Warp for Windows (exe), which we will post about on #204 later this year so stay tuned!

We have a list of workarounds to issues running Linux here. If none of the workarounds help, please open a new GitHub issue and include logs along with your Linux distro, installation (WSL, Baremetal or VM, x86 or ARM), and the issue you had.

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[cj81499]

@dannyneira I think you meant to link to this issue from your comment on #204, but made a typo (and accidentally linked to #424).

[dannyneira]

@dannyneira I think you meant to link to this issue from your comment on #204, but made a typo (and accidentally linked to #424).

@cj81499 thanks for catching that, fixed!

[JonParton]

Just to share, I've actually had success this morning just installing the linux .deb in an ubuntu WSL2 on windows 11 that allows GUI apps. Install the .deb and then just launch warp from the windows start menu!

Pretty much everything seems to be working really well, you just need to make sure you have Firefox installed to allow you to log in etc and I had to use the copy auth code method rather then being automatically logged in as the referral back to warp didn't function with wsl2 in the way.

It's not a perfect experience as things like maximising the window don't really work and the start menu icon is just linux instead of indicating it is warp, but its already soooo much better then any other terminal experience so far 🙌 Kudos 🤜

p.s. I had happened to be trying Git Butler too and hence knowing to install Firefox etc. Some useful git-butler install instructions that ended up being helpful for warp!

[S1monlol]

Works decently on wsl2, but I can't resize or move the window at all besides clicking the fullscreen button, and once I fullscreen the window, I can't change it back to windowed again.

[WilsonCazarre]

Hi @JonParton. I tried earlier to run on wsl2, but I keep running into this error when trying to launch Warp. Any insight on how to work around it?

[Anidion]

Same issue as @WilsonCazarre, this time on an NVIDIA GPU. Firefox works fine in GUI.

Update: running it with the environment variable WARP_ENABLE_WAYLAND=1 opened the GUI, but now I'm having issues pasting the auth code in to activate, but that's a separate issue.

[WilsonCazarre]

@Anidion I forgot to mention that I'm also using an NVIDIA GPU (GTX 1050) but I think WSL is not detecting that, I'm not sure why.

[iambj]

I ended up with this command:
WARP_ENABLE_WAYLAND=1 MESA_D3D12_DEFAULT_ADAPTER_NAME=NVIDIA warp-terminal, and I get to the login screen but can't paste my token. However, it now detects my RTX 2070 Super. (source for the MESA variable: https://github.com/microsoft/wslg/wiki/GPU-selection-in-WSLg)

On a side note, I know this isn't the same issue, but I've been trying all day to get it to launch in my Ubuntu 20.04 VM (VMWare Player), and it launched with that command. I had tried with X11 and Wayland, and after both didn't work, I switched back to Wayland. On a whim, I tried the environment variable, and Warp launched.

[bedesv]

I've also got it running using WARP_ENABLE_WAYLAND=1 warp-terminal and am having trouble pasting my auth token. The Warp client says "An invalid auth token was entered into the modal. Not the first time? See our troubleshooting docs." I can paste the auth token into other WSL gui apps such as Firefox.

In the WSL terminal I can see that these events occur when I attempt to paste my auth token.

17:09:32 [INFO] dispatching typed action: PasteAuthUrl
17:09:32 [ERROR] Failed to parse AuthRedirectPayload from redirect URL: relative URL without a base

Any ideas on how to successfully login?

[joanalexisc]

I ended up with this command: WARP_ENABLE_WAYLAND=1 MESA_D3D12_DEFAULT_ADAPTER_NAME=NVIDIA warp-terminal, and I get to the login screen but can't paste my token. However, it now detects my RTX 2070 Super. (source for the MESA variable: https://github.com/microsoft/wslg/wiki/GPU-selection-in-WSLg)

On a side note, I know this isn't the same issue, but I've been trying all day to get it to launch in my Ubuntu 20.04 VM (VMWare Player), and it launched with that command. I had tried with X11 and Wayland, and after both didn't work, I switched back to Wayland. On a whim, I tried the environment variable, and Warp launched.

same for me... in the console is throwing this message: Failed to parse AuthRedirectPayload from redirect URL: relative URL without a base

[TechNerd8]

I've also got it running using WARP_ENABLE_WAYLAND=1 warp-terminal and am having trouble pasting my auth token. The Warp client says "An invalid auth token was entered into the modal. Not the first time? See our troubleshooting docs." I can paste the auth token into other WSL gui apps such as Firefox.

In the WSL terminal I can see that these events occur when I attempt to paste my auth token.

17:09:32 [INFO] dispatching typed action: PasteAuthUrl
17:09:32 [ERROR] Failed to parse AuthRedirectPayload from redirect URL: relative URL without a base

Any ideas on how to successfully login?

Looks like there are a few of us with this issue now. I'm in the same boat. I tried copying and pasting only specific sections of the full token length, but nothing has worked so far. Seems the parsing instructions aren't aligning with what the auth link actually spits out. I'll see if I can find where the faulty instructions are, unless one of the devs beats me to it (or identifies another issue I'm not considering).

[bedesv]

I’m away from my computer atm but I saw a few threads in the Warp Discord channel about both people successfully running Warp in WSL and other ways to pass the auth token into Warp. Haven’t got anything working yet

[eglove]

It's been awhile since I used warp because I don't use Linux. It is my favorite terminal though.

WSL support isn't terribly important. WSL virtual memory is too slow for things like simple web servers. So there's not much I'd ever use it for.

Definitely looking forward to the native windows support though. I'd love to get back to warp.

[bedesv]

@eglove I think the interest in Warp on WSL now is mostly Windows users wanting to use Warp now - at least that’s why I’m interested. I doubt that it’ll be a long term thing.

[dangenendt]

It's been awhile since I used warp because I don't use Linux. It is my favorite terminal though.

WSL support isn't terribly important. WSL virtual memory is too slow for things like simple web servers. So there's not much I'd ever use it for.

Definitely looking forward to the native windows support though. I'd love to get back to warp.

What?! Did you already used WSL2?! I'm just using everything within wsl without any memory issues.
Docker (20 containers up and running), phpstorm, vscode + running bun dev server. Never had any issues with "slow memory"

[TechNerd8]

I was able to find a workaround for the login issue! The "mimeapps.list" file was not getting updated with the custom x-scheme-handler entry for "warp://" files/URLs, so I added "x-scheme-handler/warp=dev.warp.Warp.desktop" to the end of that file (for me, located at ~/.config/mimeapps.list). Then, I updated the WSL's .desktop file database with the command "update-desktop-database", and finally I had to open a second WSL command line tab to use this command: "xdg-open [PASTE AUTH URL HERE]" on the command line once I got the auth url after logging in. Make sure you surround your URL with double quotes, and then go check your Warp terminal-- you should be successfully logged in!

(Not sure if it matters, but I just realized one of the first things I tried was to replace the "%U" with "%u" in the dev.warp.Warp.desktop file, and I forgot to change it back, so that may or may not have contributed to my success.)

[hra42]

I got it working now!

[dangenendt]

Just to share, I've actually had success this morning just installing the linux .deb in an ubuntu WSL2 on windows 11 that allows GUI apps. Install the .deb and then just launch warp from the windows start menu!

Pretty much everything seems to be working really well, you just need to make sure you have Firefox installed to allow you to log in etc and I had to use the copy auth code method rather then being automatically logged in as the referral back to warp didn't function with wsl2 in the way.

It's not a perfect experience as things like maximising the window don't really work and the start menu icon is just linux instead of indicating it is warp, but its already soooo much better then any other terminal experience so far 🙌 Kudos 🤜

p.s. I had happened to be trying Git Butler too and hence knowing to install Firefox etc. Some useful git-butler install instructions that ended up being helpful for warp!

This way i also got it working. Thats pretty Easy.

• Install .deb package in wsl
• Open up windows host start menu
• type in "warp"
• start
  😆

But as some other already mentioned, there are issues with window resizing and login-auth-token pasting stuff... I worked around it and now i can play around 😍
Thanks!

[bedesv]

I couldn't get the login working using @TechNerd8 method. Running the xdg-open command in a new terminal just opened a new Warp instance rather than logging in my open one.

I did find another workaround by using an AutoHotkey script to type in my auth token. Create a .ahk file with the script below, then open it in AutoHotkey. Then click in the auth token field and press Ctrl + 5, the token will be typed in. Finally, press enter and you will be logged in. You can then delete the .ahk file if desired.

^5::
    Send,warp://auth/<rest of token...>
return

[JacobArrow]

@dangenendt

This way i also got it working. Thats pretty Easy.

• Install .deb package in wsl
• Open up windows host start menu
• type in "warp"
• start
  😆

But as some other already mentioned, there are issues with window resizing and login-auth-token pasting stuff... I worked around it and now i can play around 😍 Thanks!

I also just tried this, but whenever I launch the app, it just crashes immediately...

[nemolivier]

Just adding the fact that it run on WSL2 arch on framework laptop 13. Running it with WARP_ENABLE_WAYLAND=1 warp-terminal worked here.
Same issue as the others with resizing.
Also, font of the interface are really small, can't find a way to change them.

[ljtruong]

I got warp terminal working on windows 11 using the suggested install. This uses window 11's GUI apps. reading

1. Download warp .deb install from warp website
   https://app.warp.dev/download?package=deb
2. Install within WSL

sudo -i dpkg warp-terminal_<latest_version>_amd64.deb

3. Then in windows start menu search for warp terminal

Notes: don't maximise window otherwise you might face resizing issues
Other issues:

• unable to copy and paste

update: I can copy and paste using ctrl + shift + v

[hra42]

funny enought: WARP_ENABLE_WAYLAND=0 warp-terminal works too :D

[dangenendt]

@dangenendt

This way i also got it working. Thats pretty Easy.

• Install .deb package in wsl
• Open up windows host start menu
• type in "warp"
• start
  😆

But as some other already mentioned, there are issues with window resizing and login-auth-token pasting stuff... I worked around it and now i can play around 😍 Thanks!

I also just tried this, but whenever I launch the app, it just crashes immediately...

Hmm... my wsl is probably differently configured. Do you have installed all x11 dependencies?
In addition to that, on my host i have a running vcxserver. To get vcxserver working you need to set an env var "DISPLAY" in your terminal-config (eg. ~/.zshrc)
# set DISPLAY variable to the IP automatically assigned to WSL2
export DISPLAY=$(awk '/^nameserver/ {print $2; exit;}' </etc/resolv.conf):0.0

[Welding-Torch]

It works! And that too with no setup 🎉
All I ran was sudo dpkg -i warp-terminal_<latest_version>_amd64.deb and boom! It's installed.

[Welding-Torch]

unable to copy and paste

@ljtruong Uh, copy and paste works. I didn't change any settings, it just works out of the box. Maybe try again?

[khushnoodasif]

1. Still having issues with copy and paste.
2. I am not able to open Warp via the shortcut in Windows start menu.

@echo off
wsl -d Ubuntu WARP_ENABLE_WAYLAND=1 MESA_D3D12_DEFAULT_ADAPTER_NAME=NVIDIA warp-terminal

Create a .bat file and edit via notepad and add the above code snippet and should be able to open warp with one click.

[vorporeal]

@matifali if you try installing the packages in the above comment, mind doing so one at a time and letting me know which package fixed the issue (if any)?

[matifali]

@SubhamSubhasisPatra @vorporeal Looks like all packages are already installed.

sudo apt update && sudo apt install -y fontconfig libegl1 libwayland-egl1 libxcursor1 libxkbcommon-x11-0
Hit:1 http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu noble-security InRelease
Ign:2 https://releases.warp.dev/linux/deb stable InRelease
Hit:3 http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu noble InRelease
Hit:4 http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu noble-updates InRelease
Hit:5 https://releases.warp.dev/linux/deb stable Release
Hit:7 http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu noble-backports InRelease
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree... Done
Reading state information... Done
8 packages can be upgraded. Run 'apt list --upgradable' to see them.
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree... Done
Reading state information... Done
fontconfig is already the newest version (2.15.0-1.1ubuntu2).
libegl1 is already the newest version (1.7.0-1build1).
libegl1 set to manually installed.
libwayland-egl1 is already the newest version (1.22.0-2.1build1).
libxcursor1 is already the newest version (1:1.2.1-1build1).
libxkbcommon-x11-0 is already the newest version (1.6.0-1build1).
0 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 0 to remove and 8 not upgraded.

warp-terminal
08:24:28 [INFO] Spawning terminal server process...
thread 'main' panicked at /home/runner/work/warp-internal/warp-internal/ui/src/windowing/winit/app.rs:156:14:
should be able to create event loop: Os(OsError { line: 80, file: "/home/runner/.cargo/registry/src/index.crates.io-6f17d22bba15001f/winit-0.29.15/src/platform_impl/linux/wayland/event_loop/mod.rs", error: WaylandError(Connection(NoCompositor)) })
note: run with `RUST_BACKTRACE=1` environment variable to display a backtrace
08:24:28 [INFO] Received empty message; assuming the connection has been closed.

[vorporeal]

Hm. Make sure you have wslg installed: https://github.com/microsoft/wslg

It provided the components necessary to run graphical applications within WSL.

[matifali]

@vorporeal it is. I can launch other GUI apps like gedit and nautilus just fine.the problem is with only warp-terminal

[vorporeal]

@matifali what's the value of the WAYLAND_DISPLAY environment variable?

[matifali]

@matifali what's the value of the WAYLAND_DISPLAY environment variable?

@vorporeal

echo $WAYLAND_DISPLAY
wayland-0

[vlisovych]

Hey @matifali,
I'm getting the same error on wsl2, ubuntu 24.04, win 11.
However, warp works with sudo:
sudo warp-terminal

[matifali]

@vlisovych Wow. Yes, it's working with sudo; why, though?

[vorporeal]

@matifali @vlisovych What's the output of running find /run /mnt/wslg -name "wayland-0" 2>/dev/null | xargs ls -la? I'm guessing that there's some sort of permission issue with the Wayland socket file, which is preventing Warp from accessing it unless you run Warp as root.

A couple issues on the WSL side that might be relevant:

• Cannot launch gui apps with 2.0.12 microsoft/wslg#1156
• Cannot use GUI apps/tools as Wayland socket doesn't exist in XDG_RUNTIME_DIR microsoft/WSL#11261
• WSL login nukes systemd/dbus user session / contents of /run/user/1000 microsoft/WSL#10205

[matifali]

@vorporeal

find /run /mnt/wslg -name "wayland-0" 2>/dev/null | xargs ls -la
srwxrwxrwx 1 atif atif 0 May  9 21:02 /mnt/wslg/runtime-dir/wayland-0

[Stelminator]

@matifali @vorporeal
I think this might be with the permissions on /mnt/wslg/runtime-dir/, I got different results on my 23.10 install vs. 24.04. 23.10 had my user/group as owner, and 24.04 had ubuntu/lxd, which might be hiding it from my user on 24.04, even if the socket itself has the right permissions.

ls -lad /mnt/wslg/runtime-dir/

[vorporeal]

@Stelminator yeah that seems plausible. Is your user a member of the lxd group? If not, try adding that group membership and see if that fixes the issue. (Note: you might need to shut down wsl and start it again for the group membership change to take effect)

[vorporeal]

Yeah I think this is the relevant issue on the WSL side: microsoft/WSL#11542

[matifali]

For me this gives,

ls -lad /mnt/wslg/runtime-dir/
drwx------ 4 atif atif 120 May  9 21:02 /mnt/wslg/runtime-dir/

Looks like permissions are correct.

[jo-pillar]

Hi, When installed on WSL Ubuntu, I see that even though I have Google chrome installed in WSL and variable set to export BROWSER=google-chrome. warp still opening the Signin in the Desktop browser and not the Ubuntu WSL browser. I think because of that "Take me to wrap" does not work after successful login, so unable to login. Any suggestions on how to login with the WSL browser (Other tools like aws for SSO login is able to open the browser without any issues).

I met the same problem in #4910 and another guy also met the same problem on comment under #4903

[volkancakil]

This is linux support not WSL support, headline pretty misleding
Btw you can use any linux GUI apps in WSL already if you have WSLg and supported X server (wayland etc) installed.
So i didnt get what kind of support you providing for WSL side

[nunix]

This is linux support not WSL support, headline pretty misleding Btw you can use any linux GUI apps in WSL already if you have WSLg and supported X server (wayland etc) installed. So i didnt get what kind of support you providing for WSL side

hmm, not that simple. As the WSL distros are mainly based on "server" rootfs, you lack a ton of libraries and other settings (cgroup2 is still a "hack", in case your app relies on it --> containerd/docker/others)

So providing "support on WSL2" is ensuring the app fully runs as intended (there is/was some copy/paste issues, resizing the window not supported, etc...)

I do not work for Warp, just a WSL afficionado that has experienced the same recurring issues in other apps.

[east4ming]

@vlisovych Wow. Yes, it's working with sudo; why, though?

The problem may be caused by Ubuntu 24.04 + WSL2. WSL2's wslg is bound to user id 1000 by default, in previous versions of Ubuntu, 1000 was the user we created, but in ubuntu 24.04, id=1000 is the user ubuntu. The user we created could be 1002...

This is the default result of my ubuntu 24.04 installation via the MS Store:

❯ ls -lad /mnt/wslg/runtime-dir/
Permissions Size User   Date Modified Name
drwx------     - ubuntu 13 Jul 19:14   /mnt/wslg/runtime-dir

❯ cat /etc/passwd
ubuntu:x:1000:1001:Ubuntu:/home/ubuntu:/bin/bash
casey:x:1002:1002:Casey TSui:/home/casey:/usr/bin/zsh

The solution, I think, can be found here. https://canonical-ubuntu-wsl.readthedocs-hosted.com/en/latest/tutorials/cloud-init/ . In short, set your userid to 1000.

[isaiah2004]

if anyone is wondering the ubuntu LTS(22.04.3) wsl version lags a bit but works flawlessly otherwise.

[tm65]

Works on WSL2, Ubuntu 22.04.3 LTS on Win11 after

sudo apt install -y firefox wslu

without that step it was stuck of the telemetry step.
I think it's probably just the WSL utilities needed, which provided the UI components necessary to launch the sign up/sign in popup. It was Edge (default on my machine) that was launched to sign in. After signing in to Github, Take me back to Warp didn't complete the loop. Look for the tiny 'copy' link on that icon to get the auth code, it is NOT found in the Authorized apps page for Warp in your github profile, go figure.

[rwaltenberg]

I have it working here but the keyboard layout seems messed around. My layout is BR ABNT2 and I have it set with setxkbmap -model abnt2 -layout br -variant abnt2. My Gitkraken is working through WSL2 with the correct layout but Warp seems to think I'm using a US keyboard.

[da-moon]

I was able to get it to work on my arch install. The issue might have been due to a problem with mesa . Follow the instructions here to rebuild mesa from source

After fixing that, I was able to launch warp terminal with WGPU_BACKEND=vulkan warp-terminal command

• You can update your desktop file and have it launch warp with WGPU_BACKEND=vulkan with the following snippet

sudo sed -i.bak -e 's/^Exec=warp-terminal %U$/Exec=env WGPU_BACKEND=vulkan warp-terminal %U/' "/usr/share/applications/dev.warp.Warp.desktop"

• wslg version

 λ cat /mnt/wslg/versions.txt
WSLg ( x86_64 ): 1.0.61+Branch.main.Sha.54f177d201aecda01347f952e01777c75480fc74
Built at: Tue Apr 2 20:52:28 UTC 2024
Mariner: VERSION="2.0.20240112"
DirectX-Headers:
mesa:
pulseaudio: 6f045ff0dca233a939a2aba815f84d177e294122
FreeRDP: c4030980b29322a9cb2190711a5fadeeeb8b6a33
weston: f227edd681479ec3cb2290a25d84d2d3462aebfa

• WSL Version

❯ wsl --version
WSL version: 2.2.4.0
Kernel version: 5.15.153.1-2
WSLg version: 1.0.61
MSRDC version: 1.2.5326
Direct3D version: 1.611.1-81528511
DXCore version: 10.0.26091.1-240325-1447.ge-release
Windows version: 10.0.26120.1350

• Windows Info

❯ Get-ComputerInfo | Select-Object OsName, OsVersion, WindowsVersion, OsBuildNumber

OsName                   OsVersion  WindowsVersion OsBuildNumber
------                   ---------  -------------- -------------
Microsoft Windows 11 Pro 10.0.26120 2009           26120

[richloh]

What worked for me is just running wsl as command right after starting the wave client in Windows. This immediately changed the shell from powershell to my default wsl distro. With the -d parameter i could have also started any other distro.

So this might be an easy to develop solution to add WSL support for windows users: Just add a configuration setting which default shell should be used, and then run that as first command. I guess the windows terminal program does it in a similar way.

[asuras-coding]

I had the issue that warp starts once from windows wsl, but restarting it would fail with the following message (until I restarted windows):
19:55:19 [INFO] Spawning terminal server process... thread 'main' panicked at /home/runner/work/warp-internal/warp-internal/ui/src/windowing/winit/app.rs:162:14: should be able to create event loop: Os(OsError { line: 81, file: "/home/runner/.cargo/git/checkouts/winit-3c8ffa8180ed95ae/fd5ff18/src/platform_impl/linux/wayland/event_loop/mod.rs", error: WaylandError(Connection(NoCompositor)) }) note: run with RUST_BACKTRACE=1 environment variable to display a backtrace 19:55:19 [INFO] Running terminal server... 19:55:19 [INFO] Received empty message; assuming the connection has been closed.

However, I found out that I can fix it by unsetting WAYLAND_DISPLAY variable like so
export WAYLAND_DISPLAY=

Note: I use ubuntu wsl with zsh as default

[daom89]

Ok this way function for me (win11+wsl2+ubuntu 24.04) go to the folder:

C:\Users\YOUR_USERNAME\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\Ubuntu. Right click on "Warp (Ubuntu)" and select properties and change:

"C:\Program Files\WSL\wslg.exe" -d Ubuntu --cd "~" -- warp-terminal

to

"C:\Program Files\WSL\wslg.exe" -d Ubuntu -u LINUX_USERNAME --cd "~" -- export WAYLAND_DISPLAY=; warp-terminal

Save and run app icon👍 .

(Don't forget change YOUR_USERNAME and LINUX_USERNAME for your data)