112 lines
4.5 KiB
Markdown
112 lines
4.5 KiB
Markdown
---
|
|
layout: post
|
|
title: "WSL 2 GNOME Desktop"
|
|
author: Ta180m
|
|
tags: ["Windows", "WSL", "Linux"]
|
|
---
|
|
|
|
*Originally posted as a [gist](https://gist.github.com/Ta180m/e1471413f62e3ed94e72001d42e77e22)*
|
|
|
|
|
|
Think Xfce looks dated? Want a conventional Ubuntu experience? This tutorial will guide you through installing Ubuntu's default desktop environment, GNOME.
|
|
|
|
GNOME is one of the more complex — and that means more difficult to run — desktop environments, so [for](https://www.reddit.com/r/Windows10/comments/8dnyig/using_a_gui_with_wsl_on_windows_10_ubuntu_wsl/) [years](https://www.reddit.com/r/bashonubuntuonwindows/comments/9amqjr/gnome_desktop_using_vcxsrv_cant_make_it_work/) [people](https://askubuntu.com/questions/1169695/gnome-under-ubuntu-18-04-for-windows-wont-run) [couldn't](https://superuser.com/questions/1559755/gnome-desktop-environment-on-ubuntu-wsl-starting-error) [figure](https://www.reddit.com/r/bashonubuntuonwindows/comments/haof3n/cant_run_gnome_in_ubuntu_2004_lts_wsl/) [out](https://www.reddit.com/r/bashonubuntuonwindows/comments/eqwoxy/gnome_and_kde_in_wsl/) [how](https://www.reddit.com/r/bashonubuntuonwindows/comments/8dp2yu/gnome_or_kde_on_wsl/) [to](https://www.reddit.com/r/bashonubuntuonwindows/comments/hh0q9s/gnomesession_wsl2/) [run](https://www.reddit.com/r/bashonubuntuonwindows/comments/b222hp/running_everything_on_gnome/) [it](https://www.reddit.com/r/bashonubuntuonwindows/comments/8yfw8z/gnome_on_windows/) on WSL 2. On [WSL 1](https://github.com/Microsoft/WSL/issues/637) it could only run using very complicated methods that didn't transfer to well WSL 2. Any forlorn attempts to run it on WSL 2 only resulted in a smoldering heap of error messages.
|
|
|
|
__But now you can!__
|
|
|
|
|
|
## Requirements:
|
|
- WSL 2
|
|
- Ubuntu 20.04 (other distros not tested)
|
|
- An X server for Windows, such as [VcXsrv](https://sourceforge.net/projects/vcxsrv/)
|
|
- Basic knowledege on how to run GUI apps with WSL 2 (not required but highly recommended)
|
|
|
|
|
|
## Getting ready
|
|
|
|
You've been regularly updating your distro, haven't you?
|
|
|
|
```sh
|
|
sudo apt update
|
|
sudo apt upgrade
|
|
```
|
|
|
|
Install GNOME: (maybe go eat a snack while it's installing?)
|
|
|
|
```sh
|
|
sudo apt install ubuntu-desktop gnome
|
|
```
|
|
|
|
Open up your `~/.bashrc`:
|
|
|
|
```sh
|
|
nano ~/.bashrc
|
|
```
|
|
|
|
And paste this in at the end and save:
|
|
|
|
```sh
|
|
export DISPLAY=$(cat /etc/resolv.conf | grep nameserver | awk '{print $2}'):0
|
|
export LIBGL_ALWAYS_INDIRECT=1
|
|
```
|
|
|
|
If you try to start GNOME now, you'll get a lot of errors. Something along the lines of this, but a ton more errors:
|
|
|
|
```sh
|
|
Unable to init server: Could not connect: Connection refused
|
|
|
|
(gnome-session-check-accelerated:6054): Gtk-WARNING **: 11:04:51.973: cannot open display: :0
|
|
Unable to init server: Could not connect: Connection refused
|
|
|
|
(gnome-session-check-accelerated:6055): Gtk-WARNING **: 11:04:52.234: cannot open display: :0
|
|
gnome-session-binary[6044]: WARNING: software acceleration check failed: Child process exited with code 1
|
|
gnome-session-binary[6044]: CRITICAL: We failed, but the fail whale is dead. Sorry....
|
|
```
|
|
|
|
The trick is to enable `systemd`: (note that this does break a lot of stuff such as Visual Studio Code Remote)
|
|
|
|
```sh
|
|
git clone https://github.com/DamionGans/ubuntu-wsl2-systemd-script.git
|
|
cd ubuntu-wsl2-systemd-script/
|
|
bash ubuntu-wsl2-systemd-script.sh
|
|
```
|
|
|
|
Now shut down WSL 2: (run this in Windows)
|
|
|
|
```sh
|
|
wsl --shutdown
|
|
```
|
|
|
|
|
|
## Starting GNOME
|
|
|
|
First, fire up your X server on Windows. Make sure you let it through your firewall and disable access control.
|
|
|
|
Now, start up Ubuntu again and start GNOME:
|
|
|
|
```sh
|
|
gnome-session
|
|
```
|
|
|
|
If you don't get any error messages, you should be good. Wait a few seconds for GNOME to start up.
|
|
|
|
<img width="1007" alt="desktop" src="https://user-images.githubusercontent.com/50341827/88995077-68591600-d2af-11ea-91e6-55d528a57dd2.png">
|
|
|
|
Now you have a great GUI desktop and you won't need any intensive virtual machines anymore!
|
|
|
|
Profit?
|
|
|
|
|
|
## Notes
|
|
|
|
- The settings app and app store think you are not connected to the internet yet you can `ping google.com`?
|
|
- You can disable the screensaver with `gsettings set org.gnome.desktop.session idle-delay 0`.
|
|
- You can also try KDE Plamsa using a similar method! Just `sudo apt install kde-plasma-desktop` instead and start it with `startplasma-x11`.
|
|
|
|
|
|
## Troubleshooting
|
|
|
|
If you can't get this to work, try [Xfce](https://github.com/QMonkey/wsl-tutorial/blob/master/README.wsl2.md).
|
|
|
|
If you still can't get it to work, you can ask for help on an online forum such as [r/bashonubuntuonwindows](https://www.reddit.com/r/bashonubuntuonwindows/).
|