WSLInstall
Install any GNU/Linux distribution userspace in Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL) with compressed RootFS tarballs
Build
Clone this GitHub repository with this link https://github.com/Biswa96/WSLInstall.git . Use MSBuild (or mingw-w64) to make executable file from project file(.vcxproj). Or use the makefile in WslFunctions
folder. The project file only provides x64-Release version.
How to use
WslInstall: Installs GNU/Linux distributions
- First make a folder where you want to install that distribution, that may be any partition of internal drives only. External drives are not supported now.
- Place both
WslInstall.exe
and{distribution}.tar.gz
files in that same folder. - Open command prompt in that folder and type the command like this:
WslInstall.exe <distro_name> <distribution.tar.gz>
. Always put a space between the two command arguments like between <distro_name> and <distribution.tar.gz>. - After some seconds, that distribution will be installed. Confirm it with
wslconfig.exe /list /all
command. Also you may see arootfs
folder in that directory where you want to install.
WsAttrb: Add NTFS extended attributes
With WslAttrb you can add DRVFS metadata without mounting Windows partitions in WSL. Also it tries to fix if you accidentally edit/move Linux root files from Windows. You have to use absolute file path. For example, if you installed distro in C:\foo\bar
and you want to fix /bin/bash
then you have to use this command: WslAttrb.exe -s C:\foo\bar\rootfs\bin\bash
.
The command options are:
Usage: WslAttrb.exe [-] [option] [filepath]
Configure LXSS attributes in WSL with user permission
Options:
-a: <path> add DRVFS metadata i.e. UID, GID, MODE.
-c: <source> <destination> copy attributes from <source> to <destination>.
-g: <path> get attributes.
-s: <path> set attributes or fix the file.
How does it work
-
WslInstall: In the source code, the main function imports the
WslRegisterDistribution
function fromwslapi.dll
file. Then it passes the provided two commandline arguments indistroName
and intarGzFilename
string parameters of that function respectively and the imported function installs that distribution. See details of WSL Functions and WSL_DISTRIBUTION_FLAGS. -
WslAttrb: This adds
LXATTRB
extended attribute to fix the WSL files to be visible in Linux world. Also this configures three other DRVFS extended attributes viz.$LXUID
,$LXGID
and$LXMOD
simultaneously.
This is only for testing purposes. See list of distributions that can be added in WSL and how to make RootFS tar.gz for further details. More features will come in future
Other repositories
License
This project is licensed under GNU General Public License v3 or higher. See LICENSE for more details. You are free to study, change, modify the source code and make your own version and publish that.