Raft is ready for WSL 2

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If you are in Windows Insider the wait is over, for you Raft will help you with your WSL 2 distributions. If you are in Windows stable you will be ready when you receive the update and Raft will help you in your migration process.

So what’s new in Raft WSL?

Full WSL 2 support:

  • Raft will show if your distribution is in WSL 1 or 2: A visual indicator over the distribution will indicate to you which version your distribution is installed.

  • Change the default WSL between versions 1 and 2: You can choose every time which version do you want to be used for new installations and for snapshot restoring.

  • Change the WSL version for any installed distribution: Your existing distributions can be switched to WSL 2 and switched back to WSL 1. Raft will offer to create a snapshot in case something goes bad.

  • Enable WSL 2 support in Windows if it is needed: When you receive your update to Windows 10 2004, Raft WSL will help you enabling WSL 2 support upon your request.

Running indicator: Now Raft put a green dot when your distro is running.

Either you are an insider or use stable versions of Windows this update will help you squeeze the best of WSL.

Cheers

Which version is installed

Which version is installed

Switching WSL versions

Switching WSL versions

Set version as default

Set version as default

Pengwin and Fedora Remix for WSL now are WSL 2 compatible

We recently have released Pengwin 1.4 and Fedora Remix for WSL 1.31.9 which are both compatible with WSL 2 and it is now supported.

Pengwin 1.4 Highlights:

  • Support for automatically detect WSL 2 and set variables like DISPLAY accordingly.

  • If it is WSL 2 an environment variable called WSL2 is defined.

  • The embedded XServer installed via pengwin-setup now it is WSL 2 aware.

  • GUILIB in pengwin-setup now is WSL 2 aware. It also improves Qt 5 and Open GL support.

  • Start menu shortcuts now work correctly with WSL 2 and dbus (regenerate them after the update).

Fedora Remix for WSL 1.31.9 Highlights:

  • Support for automatically detect WSL 2 and set variables like DISPLAY accordingly.

  • If it is WSL 2 an environment variable called WSL2 is defined.

  • Automatically creates a symbolic link called winhome to the user’s home folder.

  • The ARM64 version was updated to Fedora 31.

Enjoy the new versions and Happy New Year.

Raft Roadmap 2020

Raft is a Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL) distribution manager in native C#/XAML for Windows 10 applying Fluent design principles. Raft makes managing WSL distros on your Windows 10 device easy.

Following are the first things we will be working on in the next year:

  • WSL 2 Support: 

    • ✔ Change the default WSL between versions 1 and 2.

    • ✔ Change the WSL version for any installed distribution.

    • Specify the WSL version upon restoring a snapshot.

    • ✔ Enable WSL 2 support in Windows if it is needed.

  • Windows Terminal:

    • ✔ Run any installed distribution with Windows Terminal instead of the default console.

    • Offer to install Windows Terminal if it is needed.

    • ✔ Update distro data in Windows Terminal like name and icon.

    • Launch distributions directly by right-clicking Raft WSL in the taskbar.

  • GUI applications shortcuts:

    • Have a special section for all the icons available for the applications installed in all distributions.

    • See also separated by distribution.

    • Have the option to create the shortcuts in Start Menu.

    • Launch applications directly by right-clicking Raft WSL in the taskbar.

  • Custom distributions:

    • Show any installed distributions that do not have a match to any in the store, in a special section.

    • Offer as many features available with the official distros to the custom ones. (if it is possible)

    • Import any snapshot as a custom distribution.

    • Move distributions to another place (for example from C: to D:)

    • Duplicate distributions. The duplicate becomes a custom distribution.

    • Import a custom distribution from a tar.gz.

    • Have the option to create shortcuts in Start Menu to the custom distros.

    • Launch custom distros directly by right-clicking Raft WSL in the taskbar.

    • Specify where the custom distributions will be installed.

    • All the WSL 2 improvements will apply for custom distributions.

Stay tuned!

Pengwin Enterprise 1.1 Released at Store

Hello,

We fixed some issues:

  • Added Man Pages: Yes now you can type man <command> without installing anything additional.

  • Fixed issue with ping: ping <ip> now just works

  • Install by default bash-completion, vim, which, and wget: Some basics that come preinstalled in a usual RedHat derivatives installation.

  • Set defaults in vim for dark background terminal, syntax highlight and no bells!: The terminal in WSL is almost used in black. So now vim correctly show colors for black background. Also by default no more beeps.

Enjoy!

Fedora Remix for WSL 31 Released at Store

Hello,

You can now download or Fedora Remix fro WSL 31.

Despite the upgrade we fixed some issues:

  • Added Man Pages: Yes now you can type man <command> without installing anything additional.

  • Fixed issue with ping: ping <ip> now just works

  • Install by default bash-completion, vim, and wget: Some basics that come preinstalled in a usual Fedora installation.

  • Set defaults in vim for dark background terminal, syntax highlight and no bells!: Terminal in WSL is almost used in black. So now vim correctly show colors for bacl background. Also by default no more beeps.

Enjoy!

Upgrade Fedora Remix for WSL to 31

Hello,

We are preparing an upgrade for Fedora Remix for WSL 31. Meanwhile, you can upgrade it in place following these steps:

First, if you are in Windows 1903 or newer first backup your installation:

wsl --export fedoraremix fedoraremix30_backup.tar.gz

Then proceed:

sudo dnf upgrade --refresh
sudo dnf install dnf-plugin-system-upgrade
sudo dnf system-upgrade --allowerasing --skip-broken download --releasever=31
sudo dnf system-upgrade reboot

At this point, it will raise an error, ignore it, and execute the following commands:

sudo dnf system-upgrade upgrade
cat /etc/fedora-release
exit

If you face an error like: "Failed to obtain the transaction lock (logged in as root).". Run this:

sudo dnf upgrade --refresh rpm glibc
sudo rm /var/lib/rpm/.rpm.lock
sudo dnf upgrade dnf

And repeat the last command that you attempted and keep following the steps.

Install man pages in Pengwin Enterprise and Fedora Remix

Thanks to a review received via Windows Store, we noticed that Pengwin Enterprise and Fedora Remix lack of man pages. We stripped them to reduce the image size, but it hurts more than it helps. We will release an upgrade, including them, but for now, here are the commands for their installation.

Pengwin Enterprise

#Instruct yum that we want to install documentation
sudo sed -i "s/(tsflags=nodocs)/#\1/" /etc/yum.conf

#Reinstall man
sudo yum -y remove man-pages man-db man
sudo yum -y install man-pages man-db man

Fedora Remix

sudo dnf-y install man-pages man-db man

Hope it helps!

Leadership Transition at Whitewater Foundry

Hayden Barnes, the founder of Whitewater Foundry and project manager for Pengwin, has accepted a position as a Developer Advocate for Ubuntu on WSL at Canonical.

Carlos Ramirez will assume the leadership role at Whitewater Foundry. Carlos has nearly 20 years of experience in enterprise software development and has been a core contributor to Pengwin since the early stages of the project. Carlos is also active in the Wine community. Carlos developed several tent-pole features of Pengwin and has led user support for several months. Hayden and Carlos have been working behind the scenes for several weeks to ensure a smooth transition.

Whitewater Foundry is pleased to welcome Kevin Brock to the core team. Kevin and Carlos have taken the lead on a new product by Whitewater Foundry that is expected later this fall known as Project Raft.

Hayden will continue advising on Whitewater Foundry projects as an outside contributor.

Pengwin Dev Blog: How to stop PowerShell from resetting your WSL console font

A ‘dev blog’ is a link to a post on the personal blog of a Pengwin contributor of interest to the Pengwin community.

Patrick Wu develops wslutilities and is a contributor to Pengwin Linux. Recently he solved a longstanding issue with a tool in wslutilities, wslusc, which creates Windows shortcuts for Linux applications. Patrick wrote about the technical challenge and the solution he found in his blog here.

Fedora Remix for WSL 30.1 Released

Fedora Remix for WSL 30.1 has been released as the first build of Fedora Remix for WSL from Fedora 30 packages.

30.1 includes the following changes:

  • Fresh build from the latest Fedora 30 packages.

  • It is no longer necessary to call dbus-uuidgen on installation.

  • glibc-langpack-en is installed by default to make locale stop complaining and glyphs in shells like fish appear correctly.

30.1 will be available in the Microsoft Store in the next 24-48 hours here.

Signed builds for side-loading can be downloaded here.

Fedora Remix for WSL supports both x86_64 and arm64 devices.

The Chocolatey package of Fedora Remix for WSL will be updated to Fedora 30 packages when version Fedora Remix for WSL 30.2 is released.

Existing Fedora Remix for WSL users can upgrade to Fedora 30 packages using:

$ sudo dnf upgrade --releasever=30 

File bug reports here.

-Hayden

IMG_0618.jpeg

Pengwin 1.2.5 released. See what's new and what's coming next.

Pengwin 1.2.5 has been released, including pengwin-base build 192 and pengwin-setup build 851.

Pengwin 1.2.5 features:

  • Homebrew

  • Keychain from Funtoo

  • Added bash completion for npm

  • Improvements to ColorTool

  • Fixes for Node and npm

  • Fixes for pre-1803 Windows 10 edge cases

  • Fixes for multiple users on same instance of Pengwin

  • Option to suppress update/upgrade when running pengwin-setup

Existing users can update immediately by running $ sudo apt-get update ; sudo apt-get upgrade -y.

An updated build for new installs will be released via the Microsoft Store within 24-36 hours.

Report bugs here.

Planned for Pengwin 1.2.6:

  • Docker Toolbox support

  • Add Linux GUI app shortcuts to your Windows desktop

  • Uninstall scripts for many features/tools in pengwin-setup

  • Deprecation of Cassandra implementation due to lack of community interest vs. complexity of maintenance

Huge thanks to the team, including Carlos, Kim, Patrick, and Spiro.

-Hayden

WSL2 and Pengwin, RHEL8 on Pengwin Enterprise, and Fedora Remix for WSL 30

WSL2

Pengwin will support both WSL1 and WSL2. Same with Pengwin Enterprise and Fedora Remix for WSL.

Pengwin

Pengwin Linux 1.2.4 is headed to Microsoft Store with pengwin-base build 182, pengwin-setup build 770, and wslutilities 2.1.1. Run $ sudo apt-get update and $ sudo apt-get upgrade to get the latest versions now.

Pengwin Enterprise

The demo build of Pengwin Enterprise in the Store will continue to ship with Scientific Linux 7, which will be supported by Red Hat and Fermilab until 2024. Popular third-party repos, e.g. EPEL, will support it through that time as well.

Fedora Remix for WSL

Now that Fedora Remix for WSL has reached build 30 to avoid confusion with Fedora release numbers we are changing the versioning of Fedora Remix for WSL from 1.0.x, where x is our build number, to 1.x.y, where x is the Fedora release and y is our build of that release. 1.30.3 would be our third build from Fedora 30.

You can download the release candidate for Fedora Remix for WSL 1.30.1 , with packages from Fedora 30, here.

The new Windows Terminal teaser has passed 1,000,000 views. Did you catch Pengwin Linux in there?

WSL at Build 2019: Day 1 Round-Up

Annotation 2019-05-06 232025.jpg

We are so excited to announce Windows Terminal! Windows Terminal is a new, modern, fast, efficient, powerful, and productive terminal application for users of command-line tools and shells like Command Prompt, PowerShell, and WSL. Blog post: http://devblogs.microsoft.com/commandline/introducing-windows-terminal/ GitHub: https://github.com/microsoft/terminal