I have just upgraded my WSL1 to WSL2 (Windows Subsystem Linux)

A screenshot tells thousand words:


Reference: Comparing WSL Versions https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/w...ompare-versions

In short, WSL2 is full Linux kernel, others are same as WSL1. I heard that WSL2 supports GUI app, but I got "Segmentation fault" error when running my own Linux GUI program.

This is how I follow the online tutorial to convert from WSL1 to WSL2:

Start PowerShell and Run as Administrator:




After that need to restart PC....

Then download and install wsl_update_x64.msi ( https://wslstorestorage.blob.core.windows.n..._update_x64.msi )

Finally type:




....where Ubuntu-22.04.2 may vary depending on what you see on:


NAME STATE VERSION
* Ubuntu-22.04 Stopped 2

I am version 2, but still ubuntu 20.04

I will advice people that have low RAM, don't use WSL2, stick with WSL1. There's a not apparent overhead of around 2GB RAM when you use WSL2 and at least one distro.

Even worse, if you use laptop that reserved part of your RAM to the onboard graphic.

How to get wsl....

Need to enable "Windows Subsystem for Linux" in Programs & Features first....


Then go to Windows Store to download Ubuntu for WSL.

To launch it, open Command Prompt and type "wsl".

You can get more info from online tutorial.

File I/O is significantly faster, esp if you just keep them inside WSL2. Mounts of the host directory (e.g the C: drive) incurs a performance penalty.

For both WSL1 and WSL2, if you create a lot of small files (e.g. node_modules), it is annoyingly slow. Go compiles are affected as well, as the dang built-in malware scanner gets in the way. Keeping the files within the WSL partition bypasses Windows Defender.

BTW, use Windows Terminal, esp. Windows Terminal Preview. Significantly better than cmd.

This post has been edited by angch: Sep 6 2023, 09:45 PM

New update for WSL:
https://devblogs.microsoft.com/commandline/...er-2023-update/

* Automatic memory reclaim
* Automatic disk space cleanup
....among others.