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Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL)

Notes for setting up WSL.

WSL 2​

Make sure you're running WSL 2. Open a powershell and run

$ amsaied> wsl -l -v
  NAME                   STATE           VERSION
* Ubuntu                 Running         1

To upgrade Ubuntu to WSL 2 run

$ wsl --set-version Ubuntu 2

You can confirm it by running wsl -l -v again. To make WSL 2 your default architecture run

wsl --set-default-version 2

Git integration​

Use the Git Credential Manager to handle authentication - even if you have 2FA, Azure Active Directory or SSH requirements. Just run the following command and you're good to go.

$ git config --global credential.helper "/mnt/c/Program\ Files/Git/mingw64/libexec/git-core/git-credential-manager.exe"

Oh-My-ZSH​

$ apt install zsh
$ sh -c "$(curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/ohmyzsh/ohmyzsh/master/tools/install.sh)"

Get Python​

$ sudo apt update && sudo apt upgrade
$ sudo apt install python3 python3-pip ipython

Get miniconda​

wget https://repo.continuum.io/miniconda/Miniconda3-latest-Linux-x86_64.sh -O ~/miniconda.sh
bash ~/miniconda.sh -b -p ~/miniconda 
rm ~/miniconda.sh

Add miniconda to your path in the .zshrc by adding

export PATH=~/miniconda/bin:$PATH

SSH into WSL​

My set up involves two machines (work and laptop). I occasionally (often!) find myself working on one, but needing some changes I made on the other. A useful solution is to SSH into the other machine and push the changes. Here's how to set that up with WSL.

Step 1 - Edit the SSH Daemon

Reinstall OpenSSH:

sudo dpkg-reconfigure openssh-server

Edit the ssh deamon config:

sudo nano /etc/ssh/sshd_config

and make the following changes:

  • Set Port 2222 (or at least, change it from port 22).
  • PasswordAuthentication yes

(The corresponding lines may already exist and need editing, or may be commented out.)

Step 2 - Open port in Windows Firewall

Following this guide.

Open up port 2222 (or whatever port you set in the ssh daemon config) in the Windows firewall:

  • Press Windows Key > Search WF.msc > Inbound Rules > Add New Rule
  • New Rule > Port > TCP > Specific local ports: 2222 > Allow connections > When does the rule apply?: Check all boxes

windows-firewall

Step 3 - Restart the SSH Server 

sudo service ssh --full-restart

Note. If you meet the error

sshd: no hostkeys available -- exiting.

you need to generate ssh keypair in \etc\ssh:

cd /etc/ssh
ssh-keygen -A

(Now I attempted to run sudo service ssh --full-restart. It did not complete succesfully, but the problem was resolved. Not sure if this partially completed step was needed...)

Step 4 - Get your IP address

Run

ip address show

Look for the eth0 section in the output and find the IP address. Something like this

...
4: eth0: <BROADCAST,MULTICAST,UP,LOWER_UP> mtu 1500 qdisc mq state UP group default qlen 1000
    link/ether 00:15:5d:23:ee:e3 brd ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff
    inet 172.22.23.249/20 brd 172.22.31.255 scope global eth0
       valid_lft forever preferred_lft forever
    inet6 fe80::215:5dff:fe23:eee3/64 scope link
       valid_lft forever preferred_lft forever
...