Re: Running debian on WSL (windows-system-for-linux)
On Thu, Mar 25 2021 at 08:02:32 PM, Dan Hitt <dan.hitt@gmail.com> wrote:
> Does anybody have any experience running debian on a WSL
> (windows-system-for-linux) machine?
>
I use WSL (not the newer WSL2) on a work computer.
> I need to get a machine for family use, but i would also like to be able to
> also use it myself. So i would like to be able to ssh in, back up files
> into it, and do other tasks, maybe even a little programming on it. (A mac
> can handle all of this sort of thing quite easily, but has a huge price
> tag.)
>
I'm assuming you have a reason for not just running debian on the
computer directly.
> At a job a couple of years ago i put WSL on the windows desktop machine
> they gave me, but i was not in a position to be very aggressive about
> remote usage, and, as i understand it, WSL has evolved since then. And,
> even then, WSL was more than just a virtual machine guest.
>
> In particular, i would like to
> (a) be able to remotely access the WSL debian just as if it were debian
> box, including having ssh, rsync, and x windows
As long as you get sshd running in your WSL debian, you will be able to
ssh fine. X forwarding should also work, but I've never tried it
myself.
> (b) occasionally do the same sorts of things from its console
You'll need a Windows X server installed. vcxsrv is open source and
works well for me.
> (c) not have to manually set up and keep alive daemons or special
> services,
A web search will find instructions for configuring WSL daemons to
startup as Windows services. This will be a one-time process.
> (d) as an extra, keep the debian and windows things on separate disks, if
> possible.
No idea how to do this. The debian install will go to a directory in
your %LocalAppData%; I guess you could mount a separate disk to that
path, but I've not tried this.
>
> I'm not looking for a multi-boot situation, as i want to be able to access
> the WSL apparatus while the console is engaged with doing windows
> operations for somebody else (and i guess the converse as well, although
> i'm pretty foggy about sshing into windows).
>
If you set up sshd in your WSL debian, you will end up with a shell in
the debian environment. You can navigate to the Windows filesystem if
you need to. You could also setup an ssh server on Windows if you like.
I hear OpenSSH server is available as a feature to enable in Windows.
> Thanks in advance for any advice or pointers.
--
regards,
kushal
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