I have .dotfiles in my home in WSL and I would like to use ~/.config/mintty/config as the default mintty config. To do the test I have this minimal config file
BackgroundColour=4,8,230
Term=xterm-256color
FontHeight=42
I start mintty with the following:
%LOCALAPPDATA%\wsltty\bin\mintty.exe --WSL= -~ -
I have this behavior:
Work if placed in %APPDATA%/mintty/config
Do Not Work if placed in %USERPROFILE/.config/mintty/config
Do Not Work if placed in WSL into ~/.config/mintty/config
Do Not Work if placed in WSL into ~/.minttyrc
It seems only the %APPDATA%/mintty/config works in this case so I tried to create without success:
A Windows Symlink to \\wsl$\Ubuntu-18.04\home\user\.config\mintty\config
A Linux symbolic link from /mnt/c/Users/...
According to the MINTTY documentation it should use the following precedence:
~/.minttyrc
~/.config/mintty/config
$APPDATA/mintty/config
/etc/minttyrc
But... It doesn't...
How can I use my config placed in WSL2 into ~/.config/mintty?
Related
I have properly installed and setup WSL2. It works fine.
I also setup X11 forwarding and X server (VcXsrv). I can launch GUI apps such like konsole or gvim or even google-chrome from a bash shell.
Now I want to launch konsole by simply double clicking a short cut on the desktop without launching the bash command mode terminal. How should I do it?
I tried running this in cmd:
> wsl /usr/bin/konsole
and it reports:
qt.qpa.xcb: could not connect to display
qt.qpa.plugin: Could not load the Qt platform plugin "xcb" in "" even though it was found.
This application failed to start because no Qt platform plugin could be initialized. Reinstalling the application may fix this problem.
Available platform plugins are: eglfs, linuxfb, minimal, minimalegl, offscreen, vnc, wayland-egl, wayland, wayland-xcomposite-egl, wayland-xcomposite-glx, xcb.
I'm guessing it is because some X11 forwarding configurations were not properly setup, so I created a k.sh as follows:
#!/usr/bin/bash
export DISPLAY=$(cat /etc/resolv.conf | grep nameserver | awk '{print $2; exit;}'):0.0
export LIBGL_ALWAYS_INDIRECT=1
/usr/bin/konsole &
The first two lines were the X11 settings in my .bashrc, the last line launches konsole.
It works fine under bash environment; but when I ran
wsl k.sh
from windows cmd environment, it silently quitted without launching the konsole.
I'm out of ideas. What should I do to directly launch konsole or other Linux GUI apps under windows without having to getting into bash?
Thanks in advance.
You are asking about two different command-lines, and while the failures in running them via the wsl command have the same root-cause, the underlying failures are likely slightly different.
In both cases, the wsl <command> invocation results in a non-login, non-interactive shell where the command simply "runs and exits".
Since the shell is non-login/non-interactive, your startup files (such as ~/.bashrc and ~/.bash_profile, among others) are not being processed.
When you run:
wsl /usr/bin/konsole
... the DISPLAY variable is not set, since, as you said, you normally set it in your ~/.bashrc.
Try using:
wsl -e bash -lic "/usr/bin/konsole"
That will force bash to run as a login (-l), interactive (-i) shell. The DISPLAY should be set correctly, and it should run konsole.
Note that the quotes probably aren't necessary in this case, but are useful for delineating the commands you are passing to bash. More complicated command-lines can be passed in via the quotes.
As for:
wsl k.sh
That's likely a similar problem. You are doing the right thing by setting DISPLAY in your script, but I notice that you aren't using a fully-qualified path it. This would normally work, of course, if your script is in a directory on the $PATH.
But I'm guessing that you might add that directory to the $PATH in your startup config, which means (again) that it isn't being set in this non-login, non-interactive shell.
As before, try:
wsl -e bash -lic "k.sh"`
You could also use a fully-qualified path, of course.
And, I'm fairly sure you are going to run into an issue with trying to put konsole in the background via the script. When WSL exits, and the bash shell process ends, the child konsole process will terminate as well.
You could get around this with a nohup in the script, but then you also need to redirect the stderr. It's probably easiest just to move the & from the script itself to the command-line. Change your k.sh to:
#!/usr/bin/bash
export DISPLAY=$(cat /etc/resolv.conf | grep nameserver | awk '{print $2; exit;}'):0.0
export LIBGL_ALWAYS_INDIRECT=1
/usr/bin/konsole
Then run it with:
wsl -e bash -lic "k.sh &"`
Finally, a side note that when and if you can upgrade to Windows 11, it will automatically create Windows Start Menu entries for any Linux GUI app you install that creates a .desktop file. You can manually create .desktop files to have WSL create Start menu items for most applications.
For reference, in Windows 11 it's easier. To run a GUI application without a terminal window popping up, you just need to call wslg.exe instead of wsl.exe.
So, for example:
target: C:\Windows\System32\wslg.exe konsole
start in: C:\WINDOWS\system32
shortcut key: None
comment: Konsole
This tutorial shows how to install VcXsrv and and edit .bashrc to ensure that the "DISPLAY env var is updated on every restart".
DISPLAY env var needs to be dynamic setting.
I've used it successfully with WSL2 on Windows10 Version 21H2 (OS build 19044.2130) to run Chrome, Edge, and thunar. I'm using the Ubuntu 20.04 Linux distro.
To edit .bashrc follow these instructions.
I am setting up my development environment, so I just installed Windows Subsystem for Linux and it always seems to open a fresh terminal in my Windows home directory - /mnt/c/Users/dl and I'm trying to make it default to the linux home directory - /home/dl.
I checked to see what the home directory is in the Linux subsystem in /etc/passwd and it is correctly set:
dl:x:1000:1000:,,,:/home/dl:/bin/bash
Then I came across this solution, but it doesn't seem to have any affect:
// Set starting directory
"startingDirectory": "\\\\wsl$\\Ubuntu\\home\\dl\\"
I know I can just run cd ~ in my dot files (which is what I'm currently using), but I'm looking for a way where /home/dl is just the default and cd ~ isn't needed. Is this possible?
You should only change the startingDirectory for WSL (Ubuntu in this case) terminal sessions.
Open settings.json via CTRL+SHIFT+,
Make sure you are modifying startingDirectory under profiles/list/name: "Ubuntu"
Example below (the slashes need to be escaped):
....
{
"guid": "{2c4de342-xxx-xxx-xxx-2309a097f518}",
"hidden": false,
"name": "Ubuntu",
"source": "Windows.Terminal.Wsl",
"startingDirectory": "\\\\wsl$\\Ubuntu\\home\\windows_username_in_lower_case"
},
....
Documentation about startingDirectory including default values and expected values.
Inside settings.json you will also find an explanation of the json schema which is here
If you need to know how or where to edit Windows Terminal settings/preferences: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/terminal/get-started
In Windows 10 21H2 or later and Windows 11, it's now much simpler. According to the Microsoft Doc:
On newer versions of Windows, startingDirectory can accept Linux-style paths.
That means you can simply use:
"startingDirectory": "/home/yourusername"
No need for any prefixes for Windows directory structure, nor escaped backslashes. Just plain old Linux forward-slash notation.
This works in both WSL1 and WSL2.
Note: I tried to use "~" and it failed. There may be some way to use {$USERPROFILE}, but haven't tried it.
Changing the home directory with WSL is done the same way as in Linux:
Enter bash
Type the command sudo vim /etc/passwd
Find your account's line, which might look like:
shadyar:x:1000:1000:"",,,:/home/shadyar:/bin/bash
Change the home directory, which above is /home/shadyar, to the new directory, using WSL
note: If you want to set Windows directory as home directory, you need to prepend it with /mnt/, like /mnt/c for C:/, /mnt/d for D:/, etc
Save the file and exit vim by typing :wq and press Enter
Exit bash and re-launch it
To test, use the commands:
cd ~
pwd
The other answers here (especially the latest one from #TomBoland) are great for starting in an arbitrary directory, but the example in your question was to start in your home directory. The easiest way to do that is simply to create or change the "commandline" property to wsl ~. This is an undocumented flag to wsl.exe, and it must be the first argument (e.g. wsl ~ -u root).
Current and Recent Windows Terminal Releases
Since Windows Terminal now has a GUI for Settings, you can just edit your profile to point to wsl ~ in the ->General->Command Line setting.
Older Windows Terminal Releases, or if you want to edit manually
If you are editing your settings.json directly (currently found in %userprofile%\AppData\Local\Packages\MicrosoftWindowsTerminal...\LocalState\settings.json, but this may change) ...
Remove the "source" attribute and replace it with "commandline":
"guid": "{2d5ef231-38b7-51cf-b940-2309a097f644}",
"hidden": false,
"name": "Ubuntu",
//"source": "Windows.Terminal.Wsl",
"commandline": "wsl ~",
"startingDirectory": "//wsl$/Ubuntu/",
"tabTitle": "Ubuntu"
Also, for the fun of it, here's an alternative (hacky) way to open WSL to ~/$HOME (without hardcoding as with the other answers). This is absolutely not needed since it's much easier to use wsl ~, but:
wsl -e sh -c 'cd $HOME; exec $SHELL'
This starts up sh, changes the directory to $HOME, and then exec's your $SHELL to replace the sh.
Should you use Windows Terminal with WSL, then the simplest solution is to configure the starting directory via the Settings menu:
and then:
startingDirectory Should be a windows path, not a nix path. Try D:\Folder\SubFolder instead
refer this link,worked for me
github
I tried many things here and none worked but I finally found a workaround.
After opening your ubuntu, you can set the default path by editing your .bashrc file.
I personally wanted to change it from the default /home/${my_username} to my current user directory (like command prompt C:/users/${my_username}), so I just ran this in my Ubuntu terminal
echo 'cd "../../mnt/c/users/${my_username}"' >> $HOME/.bashrc
Step 1: Open windows command prompt and type "bash"
or open Linux app directly .
Step 2: Type a route which is something like this : /mnt/c/Users/HP/..(You can enter your desired directory here).
For example : /mnt/c/Users/HP/Documents , and by this you will get inside Documents.
For WSL2 Ubuntu the syntax should now match the following example in the json:
"guid": "{2d5ef231-38b7-51cf-b940-2309a097f644}",
"hidden": false,
"name": "Ubuntu",
"source": "Windows.Terminal.Wsl",
"startingDirectory": "//wsl$/Ubuntu/",
"tabTitle": "Ubuntu"
To start in /: "startingDirectory": "//wsl$/Ubuntu/",
To start in /root: "startingDirectory": "//wsl$/Ubuntu/root/",
To start in /home: "startingDirectory": "//wsl$/Ubuntu/home/",
No need to do any of that, just open up the profile for Ubuntu under settings, then update the Command line to add the following option
C:\Windows\system32\wsl.exe -d Ubuntu --cd ~
I recently moved my wsl directory to another drive due to low storage in C: drive. As per the answer provided in this StackOverflow post, I used lxrunoffline tool and moved my Ubuntu distribution to another drive (E:\wsl in my case). As soon as the distribution was moved successfully, I ran wsl to test and it worked like a charm.
Everything went fine until one day I accidentally renamed the E:\wsl folder to something else. Well, as expected, wsl didn't work. Then, I reverted back to the name wsl and expected it to work but to my surprise, it didn't find any installed distribution after that even though it's installed... 😕
E:> wsl
Windows Subsystem for Linux has no installed distributions.
Distributions can be installed by visiting the Microsoft Store:
https://aka.ms/wslstore
Is there any way to revert back to the old directory or make wsl point to a manual location?
EDIT: I don't want to reset Ubuntu as I want to retain the installed packages and preferences...
Well, I finally found a solution to this problem. 😊
This is as simple as registering the distribution using lxrunoffline tool using the rg or register command.
E:\LxRunOffline\LxRunOffline-v3.3.3>lxrunoffline rg
[ERROR] the option '-d' is required but missing
Options:
-n arg Name of the distribution
-d arg The directory containing the distribution.
-c arg The config file to use. This argument is optional.
After running the register command, I was able to start wsl as usual. But that would log you in as a "root" user and would thus start in "/root" directory. I ran the following command to start wsl as different user (this is for Ubuntu):
ubuntu config --default-user <user-name>
I first installed a Ubuntu linux subsystem with the windows store.
I then installed the hyper terminal for windows like explained in this tutorial : https://medium.com/#ssharizal/hyper-js-oh-my-zsh-as-ubuntu-on-windows-wsl-terminal-8bf577cdbd97
Like it is written in the tutorial I put C:\\Windows\\System32\\bash.exe in the hyper configuration file.
However, afterwards, I installed another linux subsystem, Wlinux.
So now I have two subsytems located here
Wlinux : C:\Users\martinpc\AppData\Local\Packages\WhitewaterFoundryLtd.Co....
Ubuntu : C:\Users\martinpc\AppData\Local\Packages\CanonicalGroupLimited.UbuntuonWindows_7...
However, when I open the hyper terminal, It seem like I can only access the files of the ubuntu distrib and not the Wlinux. Therefore, I would like to know how I can point Hyper to Wlinux and not Ubuntu anymore. Thank you for your answer.
First of all, bash.exe has been deprecated. You should use wsl.exe in command lines. Check your installed distributions in WSL with wslconfig.exe /list /all command. Alternatively, for Windows 10 version 1903 and above, wsl.exe --list --all command can be used. Choose the distribution that you want to connect with HyperJS Terminal emulator. Open up Hyper.js configuration with Ctrl + , or open %UserProfile%\.hyper.js in any text editor. Edit the shell configuration from these two named values:
shell: 'C:\\Windows\\System32\\wsl.exe',
shellArgs: ['--distribution', 'Your-Distro-Name'],
Alternatively, you can use wslconfig.exe /setdefault <DistributionName> command to change default distribution. With this step, you can skip the shellArgs line in .hyper.js configuration file.
The Question
I'm trying to enable X11 forwarding through the PyCharm SSH Terminal which can be executed via
"Tools -> Start SSH session..."
Unfortunately, It seems there is no way of specifying the flags like I would do in my shell for enabling the X11 Forwarding:
ssh -X user#remotehost
Do you know some clever way of achieving this?
Current dirty solution
The only dirty hack I found is to open an external ssh connection with X11 forwarding and than manually update the environment variable DISPLAY.
For example I can run on my external ssh session:
vincenzo#remotehost:$ echo $DISPLAY
localhost:10.0
And than set on my PyCharm terminal:
export DISPLAY=localhost:10.0
or update the DISPLAY variable in the Run/Debug Configuration, if I want to run the program from the GUI.
However, I really don't like this solution of using an external ssh terminal and manually update the DISPLAY variable and I'm sure there's a better way of achieving this!
Any help would be much appreciated.
P.s. Making an alias like:
alias ssh='ssh -X'
in my .bashrc doesn't force PyCharm to enable X11 forwarding.
So I was able to patch up jsch and test this out and it worked great.
Using X11 forwarding
You will need to do the following to use X11 forwarding in PyCharm:
- Install an X Server if you don't already have one. On Windows this might be the VcXsrv project, on Mac OS X the XQuartz project.
- Download or compile the jsch package. See instructions for compilation below.
- Backup jsch-0.1.54.jar in your pycharm's lib folder and replace it with the patched version. Start Pycharm with a remote environment and make sure to remove any instances of the DISPLAY environment variable you might have set in the run/debug configuration.
Compilation
Here is what you need to do on a Mac OS or Linux system with Maven installed.
wget http://sourceforge.net/projects/jsch/files/jsch/0.1.54/jsch-0.1.54.zip/download
unzip download
cd jsch-0.1.54
sed -e 's|x11_forwarding=false|x11_forwarding=true|g' -e 's|xforwading=false|xforwading=true|g' -i src/main/java/com/jcraft/jsch/*.java
sed -e 's|<version>0.1.53</version>|<version>0.1.54</version>|g' -i pom.xml
mvn clean package
This will create jsch-0.1.54.jar in target folder.
Update 2020:
I found a very easy solution. It may be due to the updated PyCharm version (2020.1).
Ensure that X11Forwarding is enabled on server: In /etc/ssh/sshd_config set
X11Forwarding yes
X11DisplayOffset 10
X11UseLocalhost no
On client (MacOS for me): In ~/.ssh/config set
ForwardX11 yes
In PyCharm deselect Include system environment variables. This resolves the issue that the DISPLAY variable gets set to the system variable.
EDIT: As seen in the below image it works. For example I used the PyTorch implementation of DeepLab and visualize sample images from PASCAL VOC:
X11 forwarding was implemented in 2021.1 for all IntelliJ-based IDEs. If it still doesn't work, please consider creating a new issue at youtrack.jetbrains.com.
By the way, the piece of advice about patching jsch won't work for any IDE newer than 2019.1.
In parallel, open MobaXTerm and connect while X11 forwarding checkbox is enabled. Now PyCharm will forward the display through MobaXTerm X11 server.
This until PyCharm add this 'simple' feature.
Also, set DISPLAY environment variable in PyCharm run configuration like this:
DISPLAY=localhost:10.0
(the right hand side should be obtained with the command echo $DISPLAY in the server side)
Update 2022: for PyCharm newer than 2022.1: Plotting in SciView works by only setting ForwardX11 yes in .ssh/config (my laptop OS is ubuntu 22.04). I did not set any other parameters either on the server or local side.