How to Setup Ubuntu WSL in Windows Server 2019

Wednesday, August 03, 2022

Tags:

WSL
Windows

Categories:

AWS

2 minute read

Enable WSL

Run PowerShell as a Administrator (i.e. Look for “PowerShell” in windows menu and right click and click on “Run as Administrator”)
In the PowerShell type wsl
If it displays a command not found then execute the following command otherwise skip to the next section
```
  Enable-WindowsOptionalFeature -Online -FeatureName Microsoft-Windows-Subsystem-Linux
```

Install Ubuntu WSL

Download the Ubuntu app bundle from https://aka.ms/wslubuntu
In the PowerShell change directory to the folder where the above file downloaded e.g. `cd ~\Downloads

Install the package using the following command

  Add-AppxPackage .\<downloaded-appxbundle-name>.appxbundle

Make sure there are no errors for the above command
Search Ubuntu in the in Windows Menu
Click “Ubuntu”
It will ask for a username/password enter the username of your choice (it is the root (i.e. admin) password for the ubuntu)
Pin the Ubuntu in the taskbar by right-clicking the Ubuntu window icon in the taskbar click “Pin to taskbar” to access it from the taskbar in future

VS Code Extention

If you are using VS Code IDE then you can install the VS Code extension for WSL by following the steps below

Install the extension “Remote - WSL” by Microsoft
Follow the steps provided in this extension

References:

Steps: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/wsl/install-on-server
Ubuntu bundles: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/wsl/install-manual#downloading-distributions
VS Code Remove WSL extension: https://code.visualstudio.com/docs/remote/wsl-tutorial

WSL/WSL2 can be installed straight forward on Windows 11 or Windows Server 2022 using Store, refer the following: