Install Linux Ubuntu on Windows using WSL

Certain tasks, such as Contribute Ceremony or Contract Deployments, sometimes don't require a cloud server (VPS). Instead, installing a Linux distribution like Ubuntu on Windows can be sufficient

In this Guide, I'll tell you how to Install Linux (Ubuntu distribution) on Windows using WSL

Step 1: Enable WSL

1. Opening Windows Powershell Terminal

2. Run the WSL Installation Command:

wsl --install

3. Restart Your Computer:

After the installation completes, you may need to restart your computer

Step 2: Install Ubuntu

1. Open Microsoft Store:

After restarting, open the Microsoft Store from the Start menu.

2. Search for Ubuntu:

In the Store, type "Ubuntu" in the search bar. You’ll see various versions like Ubuntu 20.04 LTS, Ubuntu 22.04 LTS, etc

3. Select and Install:

Click on the version you want to install, then click the Get or Install button

Step 3: Set Up Ubuntu

1. Launch Ubuntu:

• Once installed, you can launch it directly from the Microsoft Store or by searching for "Ubuntu" in the Start menu
• The first time you launch Ubuntu, it will take a moment to set up. After that, you will be prompted to create a new user account and password

Step 4: Install and Update Packages (aka Drivers)

1. Update and Upgrade default Packages

sudo apt update

sudo apt upgrade

2. Install more important packages

sudo apt install curl iptables build-essential git wget lz4 jq make gcc nano automake autoconf tmux htop nvme-cli pkg-config libssl-dev libleveldb-dev tar clang bsdmainutils ncdu unzip libleveldb-dev  -y

3. Install Docker

sudo apt update -y && sudo apt upgrade -y
for pkg in docker.io docker-doc docker-compose podman-docker containerd runc; do sudo apt-get remove $pkg; done

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install ca-certificates curl gnupg
sudo install -m 0755 -d /etc/apt/keyrings
curl -fsSL https://download.docker.com/linux/ubuntu/gpg | sudo gpg --dearmor -o /etc/apt/keyrings/docker.gpg
sudo chmod a+r /etc/apt/keyrings/docker.gpg

echo \
  "deb [arch="$(dpkg --print-architecture)" signed-by=/etc/apt/keyrings/docker.gpg] https://download.docker.com/linux/ubuntu \
  "$(. /etc/os-release && echo "$VERSION_CODENAME")" stable" | \
  sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/docker.list > /dev/null

sudo apt update -y && sudo apt upgrade -y

sudo apt-get install docker-ce docker-ce-cli containerd.io docker-buildx-plugin docker-compose-plugin

# Docker version
docker --version

Optional: To install more packages you can check my recent Linux guide

Optional: Change user

There are 2 ways to login to ubuntu: 1. You are root (administrator with full permissions), or 2. you are an specific user with specific permissions

You see by entering whoami, I am logged in as user:mirana

If you want to login with root (full permissions):

sudo su

• Now you see I am as root user, but in mirana user main directory
• I need to type cd to move to the main directory of root

To login to a specific user again, Enter this command: su - username

Access Ubuntu directories in Windows explorer

To go to your Ubuntu directory using Windows explorer, Enter this in Windows Explorer Addressbar

\\wsl$

• home: main directory of your specific user
• root: main directory of your root user

If you don't have access to root directory, Enter this command in terminal sudo chmod 755 /root