azurezeng / wsl-arch-rootfs

Automatic build minimal Arch Linux WSL2 rootfs, using pacstrap

Arch Linux RootFS

This repository contains the automatic build script of minimal Arch Linux on WSL2 RootFS, provided by Azure Zeng.

This repo will build RootFS automatically at 07:24 AM UTC on every 1st day of the month.

⚠️ WARNING:

Please read this readme carefully before using this RootFS.

1. Please read this README thoroughly before using any RootFS archives provided by this repository.

2. Arch Linux on WSL installation is UNSUPPORTED BY OFFICIAL according to the official code of conduct. Before reporting problems to Arch Linux official, please ensure that the problems are REPRODUCIBLE in SUPPORTED Arch Linux installations.

3. As mentioned above, you should be familiar with Arch Linux in SUPPORTED installations.

4. The RootFS file provided in this repository is only intended to be installed in WSL2. WSL1 is not supported as Microsoft strongly advises using WSL2 now. If you are seeking Arch Linux on WSL1, ArchWSL provided by yuk7 might help.

Installation

Download the latest rootfs.tar.gz in the Repository Releases.

Then import RootFS by using wsl --import <Distro> <InstallLocation> <FileName>.

For example:

wsl --import Arch C:\Users\azurezeng\WSL\Arch rootfs.tar.gz

You can use the RootFS with yuk7's wsldl together to get more convenient installation. The manual of wsldl can be found at here.

After importing, remember to do pacman-key --init and pacman-key --populate immediately, otherwise pacman may not work.

Then, remember to do pacman -Syu to update all packages to the latest as soon as possible.

Hints

1. Rename the file name of wsldl to customize your distro's name.

2. You can place <distro-name>.exe and rootfs.tar.gz in the same directory, then double-click <distro-name>.exe to complete distro import.

UPDATE: rootfs-with-wsldl.zip contains both rootfs.tar.gz and wsldl.exe (renamed to Arch.exe). I would like to express sincere thanks to yuk7!

Contents in this RootFS

For detailed auto-build process, please visit build-rootfs.yml.

Summary:

• Pre-installed packages: base curl wget vim nano sudo texinfo man-db man-pages

• /etc/pacman.d/mirrorlist: Updated from https://archlinux.org/mirrorlist/all/, and all mirrorlist sites are enabled by default.

• /etc/pacman.conf: Enabled Color and ParallelDownloads options by default.

• /etc/locale.gen: Enabled en_US.UTF-8 UTF-8 by default. Then used locale-gen to generate localization files.

• /etc/sudoers.d/wheel: Enabled %wheel ALL=(ALL:ALL) ALL, which means users in wheel group will be able to use sudo by default.

• Removed auto-generated /etc/pacman.d/gnupg for security reason (since 7/20/2024).

• /tmp is mounted as tmpfs by adding this mount option to /etc/fstab. This behavior is same as default Arch Linux installation.

Some tips

1. After importing/installing the RootFS, it is advised to do pacman -Syu as early as possible, to ensure everything the latest.

2. Install mesa mesa-utils to get WSL GPU acceleration.

3. Intel graphics user may experience some problems (see this issue on ArchWSL). A workaround:

sudo ln -sf libedit.so /usr/lib/libedit.so.2

4. To download all packages (without package re-installing):

pacman -Qq | sudo pacman -Sw -

5. To enable systemd support, create /etc/wsl.conf with below content:

[boot]
systemd=true

6. You can set the default user by putting the following content to /etc/wsl.conf:

[user]
default=USERNAME_IN_WSL

wsl-arch-rootfs's Issues

Issue to provide repo image.

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