I'm struggling to understand how exactly WSL works.
The training that I'm doing requires nvm so I can manage my node versions in my project, located in my hard drive that is running with Windows.
So, in order to use nvm I need WSL, but I cannot comprehend where it is located. As far as I understood (and I'm pretty sure that I'm wrong) the WSL that I installed is like a Linux VM, completely independent from my Windows, and I operate it through the Ubuntu Terminal that came with WSL. If that's the case, how can nvm in WSL be useful if my project is in my Windows directory and the WSL controls node versions from my Linux VM?
How do I make nvm useful for my project running from my C:\ drive and how does WSL work with nvm in my Windows?
Thank you!
A few options, but each has advantages and disadvantages:
If your Node/JavaScript files are on your Windows C:\ drive, then you do have the ability to access that from WSL. Windows paths are automatically mounted and accessible in WSL via /mnt/c, /mnt/d, etc.
So if you have your JS source in, for example:
C:\Users\<myusername>\Documents\Projects\JS_class\project1\
Then that would be accessible under Ubuntu in WSL via:
/mnt/Users/<myusername>/Documents/Projects/JS_class/project1/
The disadvantage here is performance, as mentioned in this question.
Alternatively, you can store your project files inside WSL. You can access the WSL path from Windows by using \\wsl$\Ubuntu\home\<yourusername>\ (or similar). You can use this to copy from your existing Windows drive to your WSL distribution.
Advantage: Faster. Disadvantage: Unknown -- You seem to want the files to be in Windows, but I'm not sure why.
Or you can use WSL1 for most Node/JS tasks. See the previously mentioned answer for details on how to convert.
Advantage: Speed
Disadvantage: WSL1 hasn't been updated in a while, and is started to run into some compatibility issues. It's still popular enough and stable enough at the moment for me to continue to recommend it, though.
There's also a Windows version of nvm as well as a replacement project that the repo there mentions. I cannot personally speak for the quality of it, but it does have 23k stars on Github. Note that it is not affiliated with the original (Linux-based) nvm project.
I am trying to use bash on Windows 10, but I'm getting this message when tried to run bash:
Windows Subsystem for Linux has no installed distributions.
Distributions can be installed by visiting the Windows Store:
https://aka.ms/wslstore Press any key to continue...
When I go to that url which opens the Windows Store app, there no sign of any Linux distribution there.
My windows version is(as in my right bottom corner of the screen):
Windows 10 Enterprise Insider Preview. Evaluation copy.Build
16215.rs_prerelease.170603-1840
I follow the instructions in this guide Installation Guide and also was watching this video Editing code and files on Windows Subsystem for Linux on Windows 10 from Scott Hanselman, but they didn't get the message of no installed distribution.
Any Help?
When the Windows Store opened, there was no Distro to choose, then I found this command lxrun /install and worked for me as well.
You will get something like this as an output:
C:\WINDOWS\system32>lxrun /install
Warning: lxrun.exe is only used to configure the legacy Windows Subsystem for Linux distribution.
Distributions can be installed by visiting the Microsoft Store:
https://aka.ms/wslstore
This will install Ubuntu on Windows, distributed by Canonical and licensed under its terms available here:
https://aka.ms/uowterms
Type "y" to continue: y
Downloading from the Microsoft Store... 100%
Extracting filesystem, this will take a few minutes...
Would you like to set the Ubuntu locale to match the Windows locale (en-FI)?
The default locale is en_US.
Type "y" to continue: y
Please create a default UNIX user account. The username does not need to match your Windows username.
For more information visit: https://aka.ms/wslusers
Enter new UNIX username: <you type your login here>
Enter new UNIX password:
Retype new UNIX password:
passwd: password updated successfully
Installation successful!
Documentation is available at: https://aka.ms/wsldocs
I'm getting a similar bug after trying to uninstall and reinstall.
For me I had to open a cmd prompt as administrator and run lxrun /install
I get this when I have recently rebooted. If I wait 5 minutes, the problem fixes itself !
The top answers written for this question are more than enough. I just had trouble following them because lxrun command has been depreceated, so I get the error
'lxrun' is not recognized as an internal or external command, operable
program or batch file.
when I try to run this command with cmd.
It has been replaced with wsl command. You can get more info on this issue here - https://github.com/MicrosoftDocs/WSL/issues/425
When you run wsl /install, there is a chance you may still get the error that you had earlier posted in your question. In that case, simply go to the link https://aka.ms/wslstore as you had gone earlier. If you don't see anything coming up, simply search for Ubuntu and install the same. (If you search with the term wsl though, you will get to see other Linux flavors too and then you can download any of your choice)
It seems that the link given in the command doesn't work. Here's the actual link to the microsoft store for Ubuntu.
https://www.microsoft.com/en-nz/store/p/ubuntu/9nblggh4msv6?rtc=1
You have to go to https://aka.ms/wslstore this link and download ubuntu on windows. After that you can use bash on windows.
If you have any problems with running lxrun /install (for example on ltsb Windows version) try manual mode.
First, go to the folder with downloaded .appx file and run following commands (change filename if needed):
Rename-Item ~/Ubuntu.appx ~/Ubuntu.zip
Expand-Archive ~/Ubuntu.zip ~/Ubuntu
After finishing cd into new folder and run ubuntu.exe file. That's it.
If you get this error after installing a distribution using the windows store, and WSL was working previously, you may need to make sure that the LxssManager service is running, since it often stops after a Windows update or a reboot.
Go to services.msc, and search for LxssManager and start it; if it is running already, restart it.
For everyone who is getting
'lxrun' is not recognized as an internal or external command,
operable program or batch file.
or
Windows Subsystem for Linux has no installed distributions.
Distributions can be installed by visiting the Microsoft Store:
https://aka.ms/wslstore
Open microsoft store, install 'Ubuntu' then open the app. This will install ubuntu and later you can use wsl command since lxrun is deprecated
Go to add or remove programs
Install Windows subsystem for Linux
Go to https://aka.ms/wslstore, which will take you to the Microsoft Store
Select and install a Linux distribution
lxrun /install
Works on a Administrator Command Prompt for Windows 10 Professional, Version 1803 Build 17134.165
This installs GNU/Linux by default whereas there is an option to select between:
Ubuntu
openSUSE Leap 42
SUSE Linux Enterprise
Debian GNU/Linux
Kali Linux
If the given link (https://aka.ms/wslstore) works, it openes the windows store for me with an error saying something is wrong on their side and to try again later.
It's actually easier to solve this problem that other solutions listed here. If you run wslconfig /l and if the output is:
Windows Subsystem for Linux Distributions:
Ubuntu (Default)
Just run wslconfig /s Ubuntu to set Ubuntu as default again. It should start working now.
Edit:
I've also found that if this problem occurs on a fresh boot, then you just wait for a few minutes (10 minutes max) and this error automatically disappears.
Edit 2:
I've also found that this error is sometimes also due to the corresponding service not running. Run CMD as administrator and run
net start LxssManager
For running bash on windows ubuntu is required to be installed.
As you've already added bash from programs and features, now you need to install Ubuntu. Contrary to what is seen in most of the installation guides on web, it does not gets installed by running 'bash.exe'.
You can simply go to Microsoft store in search for 'Bash' or 'Ubuntu'and install Ubuntu 18 LTS from there.
After installation you'll be able to use the terminal and all its commands.
Run the bash command in git bash windows. It worked !!
As of 2022, New Linux distributions are available for Windows 10 as well as Windows 11 like Kali Linux and Ubuntu. Both available from Microsoft Store. Someone watching this question now can visit Microsoft Store to Download them..
I had this same issue. But when you go to the windows store you can search for ubuntu and then install the ubuntu app and it works. I think most of the tutorials on the net are from the beta version and have afterwards never been updated.
https://insights.ubuntu.com/2017/07/11/windows-10-loves-ubuntu-loveislove/
Note: This is also old. You do not need to be on the insider builds. I'm not and it worked.
The only thing that worked for me is described here https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/wsl/install-manual#downloading-distros
https://aka.ms/wsl-ubuntu-1804
manually install it or run Add-AppxPackage.\.appx from PowerShell
The link to the store appears to have a region lock in it, resulting in errors for many visitors.
However there are different Ubuntu distributions to be downloaded. See image below, image is however in Dutch but it will show results.
So pick a version you desire and it will result in a working bash.
The actual answer to the question query is: The user exists with Ubuntu already installed. But WSL command does not find anything in CMD.exe "Command Line" "System does not find distribution."
You need to start the below WSL command from Windows Start Menu. And then the old Linux System will show up on WSL in the command line as found.
If this doesn't work for you? Just start up PowerShell with Administrator and:
WSL --help
WSL "only this command, will start the Linux default distro selected"
You can then start up using this command with CMD.exe Administrator in Windows:
lxrunoffline l "This will now list all your distros"
With an option to remove old distros copied to Windows folders are with perhaps Ubuntu18.04 such way that you will have to use Linux to remove older folders, do not try to copy or edit files in a distro with Windows Apps. You risk integrity problems as well as many errors followed by huge processing time. Use folder /mnt to find your drive with Linux and use commands there to further finish your work as perhaps copying the home directory into a new distro.
My solution to move "not copy" my distro then was: "to give space for C:"
lxrunoffline m -n Ubuntu-18.04 -d d:\wslinstalled\Ubuntu-18.04 "remember folder names"
"Remember folder name such as Ubuntu-18.04 for a specific movement. Unless you will overwrite everything on that folder name with also the lxrunoffline files and you risk losing older copies if you use one folder name. You might end up with a strange name to your project if you just use one directory."
Lxrunoffline has several other commands if you need help just run:
lxrunoffline
like beginner_ said in his answer you need to go to the store and look for the distros you want to install.
Please see the following link to understand what has changed and what you can excpect or what distros you can look for(the list is outdated so just try to find an updated list or just try your luck).
I am running on my machine without the developer mode Ubuntu, OpenSuse and Kali.
Access to Microsoft Store is blocked by my company. For me following worked in PowerShell (admin) -
lxrun /install
Go to cmd, and then run the following command:
lxrun /install
Typing lxrun /install in elevated command prompt works....
The solution to the error "WSL 2 installation is incomplete",
Execute the following steps:
wsl --install -d Ubuntu ## lxrun is no more, its now replaced with wsl,
enter image description here
wsl
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I'm setting up an Ubuntu guest under Windows using VirtualBox for a colleague to provide him with a Linux-based development environment for a node.js application.
This colleague of mine can't or doesn't want to SSH into the VM and work in emacs or vim; he's a Sublime Text guy. So I have set up the project tree in a VirtualBox shared folder so he can access it from Windows (to edit) and the Linux VM (to build/test).
Unfortunately, npm install fails with file system errors. The problem seems to be extremely long path names resulting from deeply nested node_modules dependencies. I'm guessing we're hitting a Windows limit on filename length. The npm install works just fine in a regular (non-shared) directory in the VM.
Does anyone have ideas about how to deal with this problem? One idea I had was to somehow alias or link $MY_PROJECT/node_modules to another, non-shared location, but I can't figure out how to do that.
Update: I'm going to try this hack: https://www.virtualbox.org/ticket/11976.
Update 2: Ended up using samba, which is probably what I should have done in the first place.
One option is to use one of the multiple ways for sublime to edit remote files over ssh, covered in some detail here
How to use Sublime over SSH
Another is try using the native windows version of node and have your colleague develop locally directly under windows.
This question already has answers here:
Using Git on Windows
(5 answers)
Closed 5 years ago.
I have a Windows 7 machine, and I want to install git on it in order to do Rails development.
I've heard that it's better to work with git on Linux, so I installed Ubuntu. The problem with Ubuntu is that I have to restart the computer each time I want to switch between Windows and Linux.
Is that possible to run Ubuntu as Windows application (like any other program) ?
Could you recomend any other options ?
I want it to be installed on the hard drive rather than USB stick or something else.
msysgit on Windows is the standard for using Git on Windows, and now, it is almost as good as running git on Linux. For the learning phase, especially if you are moving from SVN and TortoiseSVN, use TortoiseGit. But git is best used ( and enjoyed!) from the command line. So try to use the command line and understand the git concepts.
Well, TortoiseGit has been working fine for me. It's a native Windows application, adding Git features to the Windows Explorer's context menu: https://tortoisegit.org/
Apart from the Windows app (if you want to keep running your 'nux stuff), VirtualBox offers something called the "seamless mode" which enables you to use programs running on your virtual machine kind of seamlessly on your native desktop without the hassle of the other OS around it.
Yes its possible. You can install Ubuntu on a virtual machine such as Vmware Workstation or Paralels Desktop or VirtualBox(free). The you can use it almost like an application. Or use msygit