qmonkey / wsl-tutorial

A tutorial about how to run desktop environment inside Windows Subsystem for Linux

wsl-tutorial

The tutorial will tell you how to run desktop environment inside Windows Subsystem for Linux. And you don't need to build a developement environment with virtual machines any more. :)

wsl2-tutorial

Screenshot

Prerequisites

Your PC must be running a 64-bit version of Windows 10 Anniversary Update build 14393 or later.

To find your PC's CPU architecture and Windows version/build number, open Settings>System>About. Look for the OS Build and System Type fields.

Installation

In order to run Bash on Windows, you will need to manually:

1.Turn-on Developer Mode

2.Enable the “Windows Subsystem for Linux (beta)” feature

After enabling Windows Subsystem for Linux

1.Restart your computer

2.Run bash

After you have accepted the License, the Ubuntu user-mode image will be downloaded and a “Bash on Ubuntu on Windows” shortcut will be added to your start menu.

Install VcXsrv

Install the lastest version of VcXsrv.

Upgrade ubuntu

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get upgrade

Install xfce desktop

sudo apt-get install xfce4-terminal
sudo apt-get install xfce4

Specify the display server

Add DISPLAY=:0.0 to your ~/.bashrc, and don't forget to run source ~/.bashrc. :)

export DISPLAY=:0.0
export LIBGL_ALWAYS_INDIRECT=1

Fix dbus error (Only Ubuntu 14.04) and only if your Windows version is older than 1803

You need to replace

<listen>unix:tmpdir=/tmp</listen>

with

<listen>tcp:host=localhost,port=0</listen>

in /etc/dbus-1/session.conf.

Fix connection refused (Only Ubuntu 14.04) and only if your Windows version is older than 1803

You need to replace

<auth>EXTERNAL</auth>

with

<auth>ANONYMOUS</auth>
<allow_anonymous/>

in /etc/dbus-1/session.conf.

Open display server

Open XLaunch, choose “One large window” or “One large window without titlebar” and set the “display number” to 0. Other settings leave as default and finish the configuration.

Run xfce desktop

Execute the following command inside “Bash on Ubuntu on Windows”.

startxfce4

Fix powerline fonts rendering

Install the lastest version of Hack fonts.

Fix Unicode fonts rendering

sudo apt-get install fonts-noto
sudo apt-get install fonts-noto-hinted
sudo apt-get install fonts-noto-mono
sudo apt-get install fonts-noto-unhinted

Fix Chinese fonts rendering

sudo apt-get install fonts-noto-cjk

Fix mkdir command has wrong permissions

Add the following shell code to your bashrc

if grep -q Microsoft /proc/version; then
    if [ "$(umask)" == '0000' ]; then
        umask 0022
    fi
fi

Install Chinese input method

1.Install fcitx

sudo apt-get install fcitx
sudo apt-get install fcitx-pinyin

2.Add the following command to your bashrc file

export XMODIFIERS=@im=fcitx
export GTK_IM_MODULE=fcitx
export QT_IM_MODULE=fcitx

3.Relogin

Install drop-down terminal

sudo apt-get install guake

How to shutdown wsl

1.Close VcXsrv

2.Exit “Bash on Ubuntu on Windows”

Enjoy your self

Please enjoy your development environment. :)

References

• Microsoft wsl install guide
• Run any Desktop Environment in WSL
• Bash on windows getting dbus and x server working

wsl-tutorial's Issues

/etc/dbus-1/sesson.conf doesn't exist

In the latest wsl (1803) with ubuntu 16.04, sesson.conf can't be located

How to change the resolution?

in xfce the resolutionn is fixed.

`apt-get install` unable to locate font packages

In the font installation step, only sudo apt-get install fonts-noto succeeds.
The following apt-get install commands fail with an "E: Unable to locate package fonts-..." error:

sudo apt-get install fonts-hack-otf
sudo apt-get install fonts-hack-ttf
sudo apt-get install fonts-hack-web
sudo apt-get install fonts-noto-hinted
sudo apt-get install fonts-noto-mono
sudo apt-get install fonts-noto-unhinted
sudo apt-get install fonts-noto-cjk

I noticed that this page says:

This package used to contain the web variants of the Hack font, which are now part of the consolidated fonts-hack package.

This package is a dummy transitional package. It can be safely removed.

The other fonts-hack-* packages are also described as dummy transitional packages that can be safely removed.

However, sudo apt-get install fonts-hack also fails with an "E: Unable to locate package fonts-hack" error.

xrdb: Can't open display

Following wsl2-tutorial - using ArchLinux instead of Ubuntu - I get the following error when I try to run startxfce4:

$ startxfce4
/usr/sbin/startxfce4: X server already running on display 192.168.96.1:0
xrdb: Connection timed out
xrdb: Can't open display '192.168.96.1:0'
Failed to connect to bus: No such file or directory
dbus-update-activation-environment: error: unable to connect to D-Bus: Using X11 for dbus-daemon autolaunch was disabled at compile time, set your DBUS_SESSION_BUS_ADDRESS instead
Unable to init server: Could not connect: Connection refused
xfce4-session: Cannot open display: .
Type 'xfce4-session --help' for usage.

$ env | grep -i dbus returns an empty result.

So I run $ export $(dbus-launch) and then:

$ env | grep -i dbus
DBUS_SESSION_BUS_PID=6069
DBUS_SESSION_BUS_ADDRESS=unix:abstract=/tmp/dbus-LGwJ05xky5,guid=5d62e22c1553514e0ab605f65ef24f39

With that I got rid of the unable to connect to D-Bus error, but then I got another one:

$ startxfce4
/usr/sbin/startxfce4: X server already running on display 192.168.96.1:0
xrdb: Connection timed out
xrdb: Can't open display '192.168.96.1:0'
Failed to import environment: Process org.freedesktop.systemd1 exited with status 1
Unable to init server: Could not connect: Connection refused
xfce4-session: Cannot open display: .
Type 'xfce4-session --help' for usage.

Some other info:

$ systemctl --user status
Failed to read server status: Process org.freedesktop.systemd1 exited with status 1

$ systemctl --user show-environment
Failed to get environment: Process org.freedesktop.systemd1 exited with status 1

$ systemctl status -l --no-pager user@$(id -u).service
System has not been booted with systemd as init system (PID 1). Can't operate.
Failed to connect to bus: Host is down

Any idea where the problem could be and how I can fix it?

/etc/dbus-1/session.conf file does not exist

I tried following your tutorial

just wanted to mention the path to the dbus config has been changed to '/usr/share/dbus-1/session.conf'
source

I also wanted to suggest to relocate the paths of the to-edit files to before what needs to be changed
e.g "In file /usr/share/dbus-1/session.conf, replace x with y"
just UX things
nice tutorial anyways

how to add sogoupinyin input method?

In xfce desktop envrionment, I can't setup a chinese input method such as sougou, do you have any suggestions? I have followed your instructions, but it seems not working.

Under the new Ubuntu 18.04, /etc/dbus-1/session.conf no longer exists

Hi,
I installed the new Ubuntu 18.04 from the Windows Store today. WSL works fine for me, and I followed your tutorial until it got to the point where I needed to edit dbus config. However, I can not find /etc/dbus-1/session.conf. There are instead two directories: session.d, which is empty, and system.d, which has a bunch of unrelated files. Performing a cat * | grep -i listen and cat * | grep -i auth turned up nothing. My graphical setup still works well, I can still run gedit and xeyes, but I keep getting complaints about dbus and connection refused. Any help appreciated.

Thanks,
Arjun

xrdp Can't open display.

kamey@DESKTOP-NN9F1DD:~$ startxfce4 /usr/bin/startxfce4: X server already running on display :0.0 xrdb: Connection refused xrdb: Can't open display ':0.0' Unable to init server: Could not connect: Connection refused xfce4-session: Cannot open display: . Type 'xfce4-session --help' for usage.

Does anyone know what is the problem?

GitHub Releases

Hey, I have this repository on watch so I just noticed you pushed information for WSL2, which is great, thanks for that work!

I wonder if you would be willing to start doing GitHub Releases with major changes to content so that people could select "Watch Releases" and get a notification when you do so? Creating a new release is simple through the GitHub web UI.