Windows with linux kernel

Comparing WSL 1 and WSL 2

The primary difference and reasons for updating the Windows Subsystem for Linux from WSL 1 to WSL 2 are to:

• increase file system performance,
• support full system call compatibility.

WSL 2 uses the latest and greatest in virtualization technology to run a Linux kernel inside of a lightweight utility virtual machine (VM). However, WSL 2 is not a traditional VM experience.

Comparing features

Feature	WSL 1	WSL 2
Integration between Windows and Linux	вњ…	вњ…
Fast boot times	вњ…	вњ…
Small resource foot print compared to traditional Virtual Machines	вњ…	вњ…
Runs with current versions of VMware and VirtualBox	вњ…	вњ…
Managed VM	вќЊ	вњ…
Full Linux Kernel	вќЊ	вњ…
Full system call compatibility	вќЊ	вњ…
Performance across OS file systems	вњ…	вќЊ

As you can tell from the comparison table above, the WSL 2 architecture outperforms WSL 1 in several ways, with the exception of performance across OS file systems.

WSL 2 is only available in Windows 10, Version 1903, Build 18362 or higher. Check your Windows version by selecting the Windows logo key + R, type winver, select OK. (Or enter the ver command in Windows Command Prompt). You may need to update to the latest Windows version. For builds lower than 18362, WSL is not supported at all.

WSL 2 will work with VMware 15.5.5+ and VirtualBox 6+. Learn more in our FAQs.

What’s new in WSL 2

WSL 2 is a major overhaul of the underlying architecture and uses virtualization technology and a Linux kernel to enable new features. The primary goals of this update are to increase file system performance and add full system call compatibility.

WSL 2 architecture

A traditional VM experience can be slow to boot up, is isolated, consumes a lot of resources, and requires your time to manage it. WSL 2 does not have these attributes.

WSL 2 provides the benefits of WSL 1, including seamless integration between Windows and Linux, fast boot times, a small resource footprint, and requires no VM configuration or management. While WSL 2 does use a VM, it is managed and run behind the scenes, leaving you with the same user experience as WSL 1.

Full Linux kernel

The Linux kernel in WSL 2 is built by Microsoft from the latest stable branch, based on the source available at kernel.org. This kernel has been specially tuned for WSL 2, optimizing for size and performance to provide an amazing Linux experience on Windows. The kernel will be serviced by Windows updates, which means you will get the latest security fixes and kernel improvements without needing to manage it yourself.

The WSL 2 Linux kernel is open source. If you’d like to learn more, check outВ the blog post Shipping a Linux Kernel with Windows written by the team that built it.

Increased file IO performance

File intensive operations likeВ git clone,В npm install,В apt update,В apt upgrade, and more are all noticeably faster with WSL 2.

The actual speed increase will depend on which app you’re running and how it is interacting with the file system. Initial versions of WSL 2 run up to 20x faster compared to WSL 1 when unpacking a zipped tarball, and around 2-5x faster when usingВ git clone,В npm installВ andВ cmakeВ on various projects.

Full system call compatibility

Linux binaries use system calls to perform functions such as accessing files, requesting memory, creating processes, and more. Whereas WSL 1 used a translation layer that was built by the WSL team, WSL 2 includes its own Linux kernel with full system call compatibility. Benefits include:

A whole new set of apps that you can run inside of WSL, such as Docker and more.

Any updates to the Linux kernel are immediately ready for use. (You don’t have to wait for the WSL team to implement updates and add the changes).

Exceptions for using WSL 1 rather than WSL 2

We recommend that you use WSL 2 as it offers faster performance and 100% system call compatibility. However, there are a few specific scenarios where you might prefer using WSL 1. Consider using WSL 1 if:

• Your project files must be stored in the Windows file system. WSL 1 offers faster access to files mounted from Windows.
  • If you will be using your WSL Linux distribution to access project files on the Windows file system, and these files cannot be stored on the Linux file system, you will achieve faster performance across the OS files systems by using WSL 1.
• A project which requires cross-compilation using both Windows and Linux tools on the same files.
  • File performance across the Windows and Linux operating systems is faster in WSL 1 than WSL 2, so if you are using Windows applications to access Linux files, you will currently achieve faster performance with WSL 1.
• Your project needs access to a serial port or USB device.
• WSL 2 does not include support for accessing serial ports. Learn more in the FAQs or in WSL GitHub repo issue on serial support.
• You have strict memory requirements
  • WSL 2’s memory usage grows and shrinks as you use it. When a process frees memory this is automatically returned to Windows. However, as of right now WSL 2 does not yet release cached pages in memory back to Windows until the WSL instance is shut down. If you have long running WSL sessions, or access a very large amount of files, this cache can take up memory on Windows. We are tracking the work to improve this experience on the WSL Github repository issue 4166.

Consider trying the VS Code Remote WSL Extension to enable you to store your project files on the Linux file system, using Linux command line tools, but also using VS Code on Windows to author, edit, debug, or run your project in an internet browser without any of the performance slow-downs associated with working across the Linux and Windows file systems. Learn more.

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Release Notes for Windows Subsystem for Linux kernel

We’ve added support for WSL 2 distributions, which use a full Linux kernel. This Linux kernel is open source, with its source code available at the WSL2-Linux-Kernel repository. This Linux kernel is delivered to your machine via Microsoft Update, and follows a separate release schedule to the Windows Subsystem for Linux which is delivered as part of the Windows image.

5.10.60.1

Release Date: Prerelease 2021/10/05

• Release rolling-lts/wsl/5.10.60.1
• Update to upstream stable kernel release 5.10.60
• Enable virtio-pmem with support for PCI BAR-relative addresses
• Enable vPCI support under Hyper-V for arm64
• Enable io_uring support
• Enable USB over IP support
• Enable paravirtualized spinlock support for x86_64
• Refresh dxgkrnl driver to pick up bug fixes and code cleanups
• Enable NFS client support for NFSv4.1
• Enable USB kernel configuration options for interacting with an Arduino over USB
• Provide a WSL2-specific README.md

5.10.43.3

Release Date: Prerelease 2021/07/12

• Version rolling-lts/wsl/5.10.43.3
• Update to upstream stable kernel release 5.10.43
• Improved dxgkrnl driver
• New revision of arm64 Linux on Hyper-V series (v9)
• Always use the Hyper-V hypercall interface on arm64 guests to support running on all versions of Windows

5.10.16.3

Release Date: 2021/07/20 ( Prerelease 2021/04/16 )

• Fixes GH 5324
• Adds support for LUKS encrypted disks using wsl —mount

Release Date: Prerelease 2021/02/22

Release Date: 2021/01/21

5.4.51-microsoft-standard

Release Date: Prerelease — 2020/10/22

4.19.128-microsoft-standard

Release Date: 2020/09/15

• This is a stable release of 4.19.128
• Fix dxgkrnl driver IOCTL memory corruption

4.19.121-microsoft-standard

Release Date: Prerelease

• Drivers: hv: vmbus: hook up dxgkrnl
• Added support for GPU Compute

4.19.104-microsoft-standard

Release Date: 2020/06/09

• Update WSL config for 4.19.104

4.19.84-microsoft-standard

Release Date: 2019/12/11

• This is the 4.19.84 stable release

—>

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Shipping a Linux Kernel with Windows

Beginning with Windows Insiders builds this Summer, we will include an in-house custom-built Linux kernel to underpin the newest version of the Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL). This marks the first time that the Linux kernel will be included as a component in Windows. This is an exciting day for all of us on the Linux team at Microsoft and we are thrilled to be able to tell you a little bit about it.

Tuned for WSL

The term “Linux” is often used to refer both to the Linux kernel as well as the GNU userspace. As with WSL1, WSL2 will not provide any userspace binaries. Instead, the Microsoft kernel will interface with a userspace selected by the user. This will generally come through installation via the Windows store but can also be “sideloaded” through the creation of a custom distribution package. The only exception to this rule is a small init script that is injected to bootstrap the startup process, forming the connections between Windows and Linux that make WSL so magical.

The kernel itself will initially be based on version 4.19, the latest long-term stable release of Linux. The kernel will be rebased at the designation of new long-term stable releases to ensure that the WSL kernel always has the latest Linux goodness.

In addition to the LTS source from Kernel.org, a number of local patches are being applied. These patches tune the resulting binary for use in WSL2 by improving launch times, reducing the memory footprint and curating a minimal set of supported devices. The result is a small, lightweight kernel that is purpose built for WSL2 to be a drop-in replacement for the emulation architecture featured in the design of WSL1.

Code goes upstream

Microsoft employs a growing number of Linux contributors who have brought industry leading Linux knowhow into the company. For years now, these Linux developers have enabled Microsoft to support new platform features in the wide number of distributions provided in the Azure Marketplace.

An important philosophy of Linux at Microsoft is that all changes go upstream. Maintaining downstream patches adds complexity and is not standard practice in the open source community. In leveraging Linux, we are making a commitment to be good citizens and contribute back the changes that we make.

However, during development it is necessary to work with local patches that enable new features or address issues in upstream. In these cases, we either create, or find patches that fulfill our product requirements and then work with the community to get that code integrated as soon as possible. To protect the stability of the LTS branches, some patches – such as for new features – might only be included in future versions of the kernel, and not be back-ported to the current LTS version.

When the WSL kernel source becomes available it will consist of links to a set of patches in addition to the long-term stable source. Over time, we hope this list will shrink as patches make it upstream and grow as we add new local patches to support new WSL features.

Security

The WSL kernel will be built using Microsoft’s world-class CI/CD systems and serviced through Windows Update in an operation transparent to the user. The kernel will stay up to date with the newest features and fixes in the latest stable branch of Linux. To ensure the provenance of our sources we mirror repositories locally. We continually monitor Linux security mailing lists and partner with several CVE database companies to help ensure that our kernel has the most recent fixes and mitigations.

One of the great things about Linux is its stable and backwards compatible system call interface. This will enable us to ship the latest stable branch of the Linux kernel to all versions of WSL2. We will rebase the kernel when a new LTS is established and when we have sufficiently validated it.

Open Source

The kernel provided for WSL2 will be fully open source! When WSL2 is released in Windows Insider builds, instructions for creating your own WSL kernel will be made available on Github. We will work with developers interested in contributing to help get changes upstream. Check back in a few weeks for more information.

Thanks!

This is the culmination of years of effort from the Linux Systems Group as well as multiple other teams across Microsoft. We are excited to be able to share the result and look forward to the new and interesting ways in which you will use WSL. If you are interested in positions at Microsoft working with Linux check out this job listing.

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Установка WSL

Предварительные требования

Вам следует использовать Windows 10 версии 2004 и выше (сборка 19041 и выше) или Windows 11.

Чтобы проверить версию и номер сборки Windows, нажмите клавиши WINDOWS+R, введите winver и щелкните ОК. Вы можете выполнить обновление до последней версии Windows в меню параметров или с помощью помощника по Центру обновления Windows.

Если вы используете более раннюю сборку или не хотите использовать команду для установки и вам нужны пошаговые инструкции, см. статью Действия по установке WSL вручную для старых версий .

Установка

Теперь вы можете установить все необходимое для запуска подсистемы Windows для Linux (WSL), введя эту команду в PowerShell или командной строке Windows, а затем перезапустив компьютер.

Эта команда позволяет включить необходимые дополнительные компоненты, скачать последнюю версию ядра Linux, установить WSL 2 в качестве компонента по умолчанию и установить дистрибутив Linux (по умолчанию Ubuntu; инструкции по установке другого дистрибутива см. ниже) .

При первом запуске недавно установленного дистрибутива Linux откроется окно консоли. Вам будет предложено подождать, пока файлы будут распакованы и сохранены на компьютере. Все будущие запуски должны занимать меньше секунды.

Изменение установленного дистрибутива Linux по умолчанию

По умолчанию в качестве устанавливаемого дистрибутива Linux используется Ubuntu. Для этого используйте флаг -d .

• Чтобы изменить установленный дистрибутив, введите wsl —install -d . Замените именем дистрибутива, который хотите установить.
• Чтобы просмотреть список доступных дистрибутивов Linux, доступных для скачивания через Интернет-магазин, введите wsl —list —online или wsl -l -o .
• Чтобы установить дополнительные дистрибутивы Linux после исходной установки, можно также использовать команду wsl —install -d .

Если вы хотите установить дополнительные дистрибутивы из командной строки Linux или Bash (а не из PowerShell или командной строки), используйте .exe в команде wsl.exe —install -d . Чтобы получить список доступных дистрибутивов, используйте wsl.exe -l -o .

Если во время установки возникла проблема, см. раздел Установка руководства по устранению неполадок.

Настройка сведений о пользователе Linux

После установки WSL необходимо создать учетную запись пользователя и пароль для установленного дистрибутива Linux. Дополнительные сведения см. в статье Рекомендации по настройке среды разработки WSL.

Советы и рекомендации

Мы рекомендуем использовать наше пошаговое руководство Рекомендации по настройке среды разработки WSL. В нем описано, как настроить имя пользователя и пароль для установленных дистрибутивов Linux, использовать основные команды WSL, установить и настроить Терминал Windows, настроить управление версиями Git, отредактировать код и выполнить отладку с помощью удаленного сервера VS Code. Кроме того, в руководстве приведены рекомендации по хранению файлов, настройке базы данных, подключению внешнего диска, настройке ускорения GPU и пр.

Хотите испытать новейшие предварительные версии функций WSL?

Чтобы поработать с самыми последними функциями или обновлениями для WSL, присоединитесь к Программе предварительной оценки Windows. Когда вы присоединитесь к участникам Программы предварительной оценки Windows, вы сможете выбрать канал для получения предварительных сборок в меню параметров Windows и будете автоматически получать предварительные версии функций и обновления для WSL, связанные с этой сборкой. Можно выбрать одно из следующих значений.

• Канал разработчика: последние обновления, но низкая стабильность.
• Бета-канал: идеально подходит для ранних последователей; более надежные сборки, чем в канале разработки.
• Канал предварительного выпуска: предварительные версии исправлений и основных функций следующей версии Windows непосредственно перед предоставлением их общедоступной версии.

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