4 ms·

Here is a technet thread where Microsoft's brightest (including yours truly) discuss how to do this using a vxserver. https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/t5/win

Here is a technet thread where Microsoft's brightest (including yours truly) discuss how to do this using a vxserver. https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/t5/windows-dev-appconsult/running-wsl-gui-apps-on-windows-10/ba-p/1493242 https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/t5/windows-dev-appconsul...

dhimes 6y ago
That's how I do it- mostly to run urxvt. Off-Topic: I'm setting up a new machine, and wondering whether I should use WSL 1 or 2 (or both?). Is there a clear path forward for these systems? WSL 1 has served me pretty well. Most of the inter-filesystem interaction amounts to using rsync to back up directories. Otherwise it's just sshing into servers. I use virtualbox for off-line development.
- rishav_sharan 6y ago
  > That's how I do it- mostly to run urxvt. > Off-Topic: I'm setting up a new machine, and wondering whether I should use WSL 1 or 2 (or both?). Is there a clear path forward for these systems? WSL 1 has served me pretty well. Most of the inter-filesystem interaction amounts to using rsync to back up directories. Otherwise it's just sshing into servers. I use virtualbox for off-line development. I would recommend wsl2 for sure.
  - darkstarsys 6y ago
    Well, except for the timekeeping problem (there are workarounds but they're annoying) and the significant networking issues (no bidirectional port forwarding so "localhost:8080" doesn't work with server in WSL and DISPLAY=:0.0 doesn't work with server on Windows).
    - nacs 6y ago
      Also if you connect to a VPN (like your corporate VPN using Cisco Anyconnect), you lose connectivity within WSL2... WSL is nice to have and a million times better than DOS/Powershell but it's not at Linux/Mac terminal level yet.
      - 1_player 6y ago
        Depends on the nature of the VPN. I can connect fine through my work OpenVPN, but it's not a full tunnel, just pushes a couple routes and split DNS, both of which are accessible on the WSL2 VM.
      - easton 6y ago
        I don’t have that problem with WSL2 and Cisco AnyConnect. Maybe something’s up with your company’s configuration?
      - pjmlp 6y ago
        Having used UNIX since Xenix was introduced to me in 1993, I rather keep using Powershell, thanks.
  - josteink 6y ago
    Maybe I did something wrong, but for me getting a local X-server running, with X-forwarding from WSL1 was dead easy and something I used on a day to day basis. Getting the same working with WSL2 was a pain in the ass, and I eventually gave up. So if you like X-forwarding... I personally would recommend sticking to WSL1, unless that gives you other issues.
    - nickjj 6y ago
      > Getting the same working with WSL2 was a pain in the ass, and I eventually gave up. Overall it works the same as WSL 1, you just need to change DISPLAY=:0 to DISPLAY="$(/sbin/ip route | awk '/default/ { print $3 }'):0" Here's a snippet from my bashrc that handles both WSL 1 and WSL 2: https://github.com/nickjj/dotfiles/blob/385007837ab787a2be2e2f29577d899550d8e3f5/.bashrc#L59-L75 https://github.com/nickjj/dotfiles/blob/385007837ab787a2be2e...
      - dhimes 6y ago
        Thanks for that.
      - ljm 6y ago
        You can also read the IP from etc/resolv conf.
    - madeofpalk 6y ago
      Is "X-forwarding" being able to see and interact with linux GUI apps running inside WSL on Windows? I do this to run Cypress interactively within WSL2. I have no idea what I did (i just blindly follow some guide on a no-name blog), but I got it all working fairly effortlessly. The only slightly annoying thing is having to start the server on windows if i restart my pc, but otherwise it was pretty easy.

dhimes 6y ago

That's how I do it- mostly to run urxvt. Off-Topic: I'm setting up a new machine, and wondering whether I should use WSL 1 or 2 (or both?). Is there a clear path forward for these systems? WSL 1 has served me pretty well. Most of the inter-filesystem interaction amounts to using rsync to back up directories. Otherwise it's just sshing into servers. I use virtualbox for off-line development.

rishav_sharan 6y ago
> That's how I do it- mostly to run urxvt. > Off-Topic: I'm setting up a new machine, and wondering whether I should use WSL 1 or 2 (or both?). Is there a clear path forward for these systems? WSL 1 has served me pretty well. Most of the inter-filesystem interaction amounts to using rsync to back up directories. Otherwise it's just sshing into servers. I use virtualbox for off-line development. I would recommend wsl2 for sure.
- darkstarsys 6y ago
  Well, except for the timekeeping problem (there are workarounds but they're annoying) and the significant networking issues (no bidirectional port forwarding so "localhost:8080" doesn't work with server in WSL and DISPLAY=:0.0 doesn't work with server on Windows).
  - nacs 6y ago
    Also if you connect to a VPN (like your corporate VPN using Cisco Anyconnect), you lose connectivity within WSL2... WSL is nice to have and a million times better than DOS/Powershell but it's not at Linux/Mac terminal level yet.
    - 1_player 6y ago
      Depends on the nature of the VPN. I can connect fine through my work OpenVPN, but it's not a full tunnel, just pushes a couple routes and split DNS, both of which are accessible on the WSL2 VM.
    - easton 6y ago
      I don’t have that problem with WSL2 and Cisco AnyConnect. Maybe something’s up with your company’s configuration?
    - pjmlp 6y ago
      Having used UNIX since Xenix was introduced to me in 1993, I rather keep using Powershell, thanks.
- josteink 6y ago
  Maybe I did something wrong, but for me getting a local X-server running, with X-forwarding from WSL1 was dead easy and something I used on a day to day basis. Getting the same working with WSL2 was a pain in the ass, and I eventually gave up. So if you like X-forwarding... I personally would recommend sticking to WSL1, unless that gives you other issues.
  - nickjj 6y ago
    > Getting the same working with WSL2 was a pain in the ass, and I eventually gave up. Overall it works the same as WSL 1, you just need to change DISPLAY=:0 to DISPLAY="$(/sbin/ip route | awk '/default/ { print $3 }'):0" Here's a snippet from my bashrc that handles both WSL 1 and WSL 2: https://github.com/nickjj/dotfiles/blob/385007837ab787a2be2e2f29577d899550d8e3f5/.bashrc#L59-L75 https://github.com/nickjj/dotfiles/blob/385007837ab787a2be2e...
    - dhimes 6y ago
      Thanks for that.
    - ljm 6y ago
      You can also read the IP from etc/resolv conf.
  - madeofpalk 6y ago
    Is "X-forwarding" being able to see and interact with linux GUI apps running inside WSL on Windows? I do this to run Cypress interactively within WSL2. I have no idea what I did (i just blindly follow some guide on a no-name blog), but I got it all working fairly effortlessly. The only slightly annoying thing is having to start the server on windows if i restart my pc, but otherwise it was pretty easy.