---
title: "WSL 2 GNOME Desktop"
date: 2020-07-30
description: "Set up a GNOME desktop environment on WSL 2"
type: "post"
tags: ["Windows", "WSL", "Linux"]
---


*Originally posted as a [gist](https://gist.github.com/Ta180m/e1471413f62e3ed94e72001d42e77e22)*


**NOTE:** If you want the ultimate Linux desktop experience, I highly recommend installing Linux as your main OS. I no longer use Windows (except in a VM) so I will not be maintaining this guide anymore.

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

 - 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/).