tl;dr
- Enable WSL feature using
Enable-WindowsOptionalFeature -Online -FeatureName Microsoft-Windows-Subsystem-Linux
- Reboot PC
- Get the latest Fedora Remix *.appxbundle file from here https://github.com/WhitewaterFoundry/Fedora-Remix-for-WSL/releases/latest/
- Run the following command, ensuring the use the correct path for your downloads folder.
Add-AppxPackage C:\Users\$env:USERNAME\Downloads\Fedora-Remix-*.appxbundle
What is this for?
Windows Subsystem for Linux (I always feel they got this name the wrong way around) is a way to create a lightweight Linux environment within your Windows OS. Although you wont get a full GUI you will get a Linux shell where you can run all your favourite Linux tools. I commonly use this for things like Ansible and OpenSSL.
System Setup:
Operating System:
Windows 10 1909
Linux Subsystem Version:
Fedora Remix for WSL 33.1.1 Final
Getting down to business…
To start we need to run PowerShell as administrator.
We can run the following command
Enable-WindowsOptionalFeature -Online -FeatureName Microsoft-Windows-Subsystem-Linux
This will look like this as it runs.
Once this is run we will need to restart the computer before continuing.
Once rebooted we need to download the lastest *.appxbundle file from here https://github.com/WhitewaterFoundry/Fedora-Remix-for-WSL/releases/latest/.
Once downloaded we can then relaunch PowerShell (as administrator) and start the install using the below command. Take note however that I have removed some of the file name and put a “*”, this it to ensure no matter what version is downloaded it will should install. This might not work so well if you have multiple versions in your Downloads folder.
Add-AppxPackage C:\Users\$env:USERNAME\Downloads\Fedora-Remix-*.appxbundle
The output should then look something like this
Once completed we should then be able to open “Fedora Remix for WSL” from the start menu; just like any other program. This will then take a few minutes to unpack the file system.
After this it will ask you to create a username and set a password.
I am not going to go into a 101 guide for Linux or fedora here but i will quickly show you how to get to your home directory on the windows host. To do this just type the following command. If you were to then run a command like “ls” you will see the contents of this directory.
cd ~/winhome