How to work with WSL?

[jtpavlock]

Does anyone have any success or tips for using this package when running Emacs in WSL? It doesn't appear to work out of the box.

[LesleyLai]

Yeah, this is such a nice package and I hope there is a way it can work with WSL GUI Emacs. I can still download from the URL, but there is no way to drag-and-drop local images.

[wang1zhen]

Also, the package is brilliant, but the org-download-clipboard is not working in wsl. Actually, it worked in Windows 10 with system screenshot tool, but after I upgraded to windows 11, org-download-clipboard generates a 0KB blank file from my system screenshot tool.

[liangzid]

I have the same problem, I use win10 + wsl2 + mobaxterm, and there is no way to drag or clip images.

[liangzid]

And I have find a solution with the help of windows Powershell, this is the solution function for replacing org-download-clipboard:

(defun my-yank-image-from-win-clipboard-through-powershell()
  "to simplify the logic, use c:/Users/Public as temporary directoy, and move it into current directoy"
  (interactive)
  (let* ((powershell "/mnt/c/Windows/System32/WindowsPowerShell/v1.0/powershell.exe")
         (file-name (format-time-string "screenshot_%Y%m%d_%H%M%S.png"))
         ;; (file-path-powershell (concat "c:/Users/\$env:USERNAME/" file-name))
         (file-path-wsl (concat "./images/" file-name))
         )
    ;; (shell-command (concat powershell " -command \"(Get-Clipboard -Format Image).Save(\\\"C:/Users/\\$env:USERNAME/" file-name "\\\")\""))
    (shell-command (concat powershell " -command \"(Get-Clipboard -Format Image).Save(\\\"C:/Users/Public/" file-name "\\\")\""))
    (rename-file (concat "/mnt/c/Users/Public/" file-name) file-path-wsl)
    (insert (concat "[[file:" file-path-wsl "]]"))
    (message "insert DONE.")
    ))

[Awannaphasch2016]

And I have find a solution with the help of windows Powershell, this is the solution function for replacing org-download-clipboard:

(defun my-yank-image-from-win-clipboard-through-powershell()
  "to simplify the logic, use c:/Users/Public as temporary directoy, and move it into current directoy"
  (interactive)
  (let* ((powershell "/mnt/c/Windows/System32/WindowsPowerShell/v1.0/powershell.exe")
         (file-name (format-time-string "screenshot_%Y%m%d_%H%M%S.png"))
         ;; (file-path-powershell (concat "c:/Users/\$env:USERNAME/" file-name))
         (file-path-wsl (concat "./images/" file-name))
         )
    ;; (shell-command (concat powershell " -command \"(Get-Clipboard -Format Image).Save(\\\"C:/Users/\\$env:USERNAME/" file-name "\\\")\""))
    (shell-command (concat powershell " -command \"(Get-Clipboard -Format Image).Save(\\\"C:/Users/Public/" file-name "\\\")\""))
    (rename-file (concat "/mnt/c/Users/Public/" file-name) file-path-wsl)
    (insert (concat "[[file:" file-path-wsl "]]"))
    (message "insert DONE.")
    ))

I have 0 knowledge about powershell, but from reading and experimenting, I found that the powershell command that you use doesn't save image and it also doesn't produce any error. I use 5.1 version. Can you help me formulate powershell command that would work on 5.1 version?

[sdoyle88]

I stumbled upon this as I was looking for a similar solution, and this function will work on WSL2 (I am running Ubuntu 20.04). Ensure that the pathing is right, particularly to the powershell command (/mnt/c/Windows/System32/...), the file-path-wsl concat path, and the shell and rename commands.

For example, I changed my file-path-wsl to be "~/GDrive/emacs/org-download-images/".

The powershell .exe hosted in System32 under v1.0 is Powershell 5.1 on Windows systems. Powershell 6+ is Powershell core and usually stored under Program Files. Also, the Get-Clipboard cmdlet in Powershell6+ doesnt support the Image format (yet), just Raw data, so you would want to utilize powershell 5.1 (as mentioned in the code above) if you want a built in cmdlet that can do that conversion.

[fkgruber]

I wanted to continue using org-download so I just changed the org-download-screenshot-method:

(use-package org-download
  :after org
  :bind
  (:map org-mode-map
        (
         ("C-M-S-Y" . org-download-screenshot)
         )
  )
  :custom
  (org-download-screenshot-method "powershell.exe -Command \"(Get-Clipboard -Format image).Save('$(wslpath -w %s)')\"")
  )

[fkgruber]

any way to be able to use drag and drop?