Clear Linux on Windows Subsystem for Linux 2?

#1

Has anyone ported Clear Linux to Windows Subsystem for Linux 2 yet? I just updated my Windows partition to the Windows Insider preview build, which has WSL 2. There are some major performance improvements - there’s a virtual machine running a modified Linux 4.19, and the distros run on top of that much like a Docker, podman or LXC container would run on a Linux machine.

There’s a Fedora remix, Debian, a few variants of openSUSE and SUSE and a few variants of Ubuntu in the Microsoft Store, but I believe the tools are there if you want to roll your own.

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/wsl/build-custom-distro

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#2

I have Ubuntu running on WSL, but would be interested if we can get Clear Linux running on WSL2.

#3

I think I’ve seen some discussion on this issue and someone said it’s not technically difficult but there are lots of paperwork.

#4

The paperwork is if you want it in the Microsoft Store. You can sideload it without it being in the store. And the paperwork is a good idea!

#5

hi everyone, based on the Pengwin experience by the team back in the day, it’s indeed a lot of paperwork IF you intend to sell the app.

Today, if you have a look on the store, there’s people who put both Alpine and Arch as free apps and they don’t seem to have gone any particular difficulties.

The second point, in these forums, Rucadi exported the rootfs (Rootfs for WSL [gitlab]) and it’s possible to load it in WSL1 or 2 with the following command:
wsl.exe --import clearlinux c:\mysdistros\clearlinux c:\mydistros\clearlinux.rootfs.tar.gz

Hope this helps
WSL Corsair :pirate_flag:

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#6

Hi, as you have the command written, it errored saying "The system cannot find the path specified":

wsl.exe --import clearlinux c:\mysdistros\clearlinux c:\mydistros\clearlinux.rootfs.tar.gz
The system cannot find the path specified.

Then I swapped around the arguments and got "Access is denied." … so I ran power shell as administrator:

PS C:\WINDOWS\system32> wsl.exe --import clearlinux c:\mydistros\clearlinux.rootfs.tar.gz C:\mydistros\clearlinux
Access is denied.

Any thoughts?

#7

Hi Chris,

right, sorry, might have mentionned that mydistros is a directory that I took as an example.
Could you tell me if it’s created? other else run in powershell (no admin needed):

  1. mkdir c:\mydistros
  2. cp $HOME\Downloads\Clear*.tar* c:\mydistros <- as I don’t know the name of the tar file, please replace the path and the name of the Clearlinux rootfs that you downloaded
  3. wsl.exe --import clearlinux c:\mysdistros\clearlinux c:\mydistros\Clear*.tar* --version 2

this time around it should work (hopefully :pray:)

#8

shrugs

PS C:\WINDOWS\system32> cd C:\mydistros\
PS C:\mydistros> dir


    Directory: C:\mydistros


Mode                LastWriteTime         Length Name
----                -------------         ------ ----
d-----        10/3/2019  10:45 AM                clearlinux
d-----        10/3/2019  10:45 AM                clearlinux.rootfs.tar.gz
-a----        10/3/2019  10:44 AM          38438 Clear_Linux_Server_WSL_rootfs_clean.tar.gz


PS C:\mydistros> wsl.exe --import clearlinux c:\mysdistros\clearlinux c:\mydistros\Clear*.tar* --version 2
The system cannot find the path specified.
PS C:\mydistros>
#9

You reference c:\mysdistros\clearlinux, is that your culprit? mysdistros?

#10

just to be on the safe side, did you install WSL?
if you type wsl.exe —help, you get an output?

#11

ok on this one I misread, the “storage” part comes second and the “source rootfs” comes last