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Windows' 📂 %USERPROFILE%

.wslconfig

This configuration requires WSL 2.0.5+ in combination with Windows 11 23H2.

  • Enables mirrored networking-mode, DNS tunneling and Hyper-V firewall support
  • Sets automatic memory reclamation to gradual
  • Enables sparse VHDXs for new WSL2-instances
    • In case of an existing WLS-instance: wsl --manage <distro> --set-sparse true

For more details on these options, see: https://devblogs.microsoft.com/commandline/windows-subsystem-for-linux-september-2023-update/.

Caveats

Hyper-V firewall

Without Hyper-V firewall support (the only option available pre-2.0.0), the SharedAccess-service on the Windows-side needs to be allowed through Simplewall for WSL2 to have (unrestricted) network access. The (post-2.0.0) firewall support offers a far superior solution which doesn't require this blanket exception.

mirrored Networking-mode

Enabling mirrored networking-mode will cause ports to be shared between Windows and WSL2 which might cause issues with certain services (e.g. sshd). Disable either one, or move one to a different port – optionally use experimental.ignoredPorts to exclude the port on the WSL2-side (making that service only available inside WSL2 itself).

With regards to sshd, it's probably wisest to disable/remove the service altogether on WSL2 as I never use it there anyway... I do have the OpenSSH SSH Service enabled on the Windows-side so I can ProxyJump through it to workaround some OpenVPN-related issues in WSL2.

Sparse VHDX

After enabling the sparse VHDX functionality, the reported Size of the VHDX-file in Windows doesn't change. Instead, look at Size on disk (in the "Properties"-tab) to see the actual impact. Sparse VHDX appears to be implemented as part of SSD trim, so it won't work if the disk image is stored on a mechanical drive...

On the Linux-side, you might need to trim the drive and/or enable trim-support to actually release unused disk space:

sudo fstrim -v /

On Ubuntu 22.04, the weekly timer running trim (fstrim.timer) is disabled when running inside an container (ie, WSL2). To enable it for WSL2, run sudo systemctl edit fstrim.timer and add the following override:

[Unit]
ConditionVirtualization=
ConditionVirtualization=wsl

.wslgconfig

WSLg automatically creates application shortcuts in Windows' Start Menu based upon .desktop-files. By default, it looks for these files in system-wide locations (e.g. /usr/share/applications, and /var/lib/snapd/desktop/applications for snaps).

The updated WSLg configuration makes it also look in ~/.local/share/applications/. Files there get priority over the system-wide definitions.

To modify to a .desktop-entry, copy it into the user-specific location and make changes there. To stop WSLg from creating a shortcut, add NoDisplay=true to the file in question.

Changes (appear) to be picked up almost immediately by WSLg/Windows...

SSH

Install OpenSSH for Windows32:

winget install Microsoft.OpenSSH.Beta

Subsequently copy 📄 ~/.ssh/config and 📄 .ssh/id_rsa_yubikey.pub from Ubuntu into Windows' 📂 %USERPROFILE%\.ssh folder – alternatively, use the Windows-specific copy of the SSH configuration kept in OneDrive.

See 📄 yubikey/README.md for more details.

ProxyJump

To workaround some OpenVPN-related issues in WSL2, use ProxyJump to jump through localhost (ie, the OpenSSH server running on Windows) to a target machine inside the OpenVPN accessible network:

ssh -J localhost [target-machine]

For this to work, ensure your SSH-key is added to 📄 %PROGRAMDATA%\ssh\administrators_authorized_keys – as that is where Windows' OpenSSH server looks for them... See https://superuser.com/a/1651276 for more details.

Move WSL2's VHDX-files

By default, WSL2's VHDX-files are stored somewhere in %APPDATA%. To move them (to another drive), do something along the lines of:

wsl --shutdown
wsl --export Ubuntu D:\Temp\ubuntu.vhdx --vhd
wsl --unregister Ubuntu
wsl --import Ubuntu D:\wslStore\Ubuntu D:\Temp\ubuntu.vhdx --version 2 --vhd

❗ N.B. First update 📄 /etc/wsl.conf as otherwise the default user gets lost (and Ubuntu will use root instead).