MX-Linux Distro for WSL2 in Windows 11

[skallal]

So I also did the WSL2 challenge. I followed this topic and installed MX Linux 23 on WSL2 on Windows 10. I'm not a stranger to WSL. In fact I'd been playing around with it for awhile now which led me to dedicating a legacy machine specifically to MX Linux 23.

I'd tried to get a full desktop working on WSL and simply couldn't get it working until yesterday. Unlike the OP who started with Kali Linux on WSL, I used Debian as my starting point and built up the image for MX Linux 21. Once I got version 21 working I went ahead and upgraded to version 23. Right now it's bare bones without many apps installed. My plans are to try it for cross platform development. Certain dev tools like VS Code integrate seamlessly between Windows and a WSL instance. But that's another topic altogether. Also it feels sluggish compared to my MX Linux 23 on bare metal. But it has less memory. Still need to upgrade the kernel.

My only issue is the OP was starting with version 21 and not trying 23 at the outset. I copied background wallpaper from 21 into 23. There are probably lots of other little differences between an upgraded version 23 and a fresh 23. But now the deed is done.

Desktop3.jpg

[Adrian]

I started from MX23 without problems.

There are only minor issues that can be fixed for example

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dbus-uuidgen | sudo tee /var/lib/dbus/machine-id
ln -s /var/lib/dbus/machine-id /etc/machine-id

The only major issue remaining for me is the GUI apps (pkexec issue) not running from menu.

[skallal]

Forgot to mention one important difference. The OP mentions 127.0.0.1:3390 as the URL for RDP. I have to use 172.26.103.118:3390 instead. Discovered it by accident. 172.26.103.118 is the IP address used by other WSL instances (I have several). It always shows up in the ifconfig from the terminal. Not sure why the OP uses 127.0.0.1:3390. Maybe I didn't read his posts correctly.

[Adrian]

Not sure how networking works with WLS but I was able to do on a computer only "localhost" (and I didn't change the port from 3389 to 3390, I think RDP tries to connect automatically to the default port) I assume there's some forwarding performed somewhere.

[Adrian]

What do you know... pkexec works fine if I switch to systemd. I installed systemd-sysv, and added:

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[boot]
systemd=true

/etc/wsl.conf
Now everything works perfectly. It's possible some services were not start with sysvinit, not sure.

[skallal]

What do you know... pkexec works fine if I switch to systemd. I installed systemd-sysv, and added:

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[boot]
systemd=true

/etc/wsl.conf
Now everything works perfectly. It's possible some services were not start with sysvinit, not sure.

I need to retract my earlier success statement. Apparently it works with xrdp but only if I reboot Windows and then go into RDP. But if I exit the RDP session if won't work.

The only thing that works is my instance where MX 21 was upgraded to 23. I tried a fresh install with 23 and not able to get RDP working. Sigh!!!

Back to my bare metal installation of MX 23...

[Adrian]

Did you start xrdp again? It might not start automatically, actually that was one of the issue that made me switch it to systemd.
Just try

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sudo /etc/init.d/xrdp start

before trying to connect.

[mmikeinsantarosa]

Did anyone here need docker installed with wsl? It is called out in a link in the initial post. - mike