WSL dev environment setup & instalation

Setup steps

1. Enable the optional WSL feature from Powershell:

Enable-WindowsOptionalFeature -Online -FeatureName Microsoft-Windows-Subsystem-Linux

It can also be done from Settings > Updates & Security. Google it.

For WSL2 there's another command. Google it.

2. Install WSL - Install Ubuntu from Microsoft Store

user: username
pass: *********

3. Install VSCode and extension Remote - WSL. Also install your preffered extensions for dev

Here are some examples:

• DotENV
• Docker
• vscode-icons
• Diff
• Git Blame
• Git History
• KillTasksButton
• npm
• TSLint
• Visual Studio IntelliCode
• vscode-styled-components

4. Fix WSL new folders permissions (https://www.turek.dev/post/fix-wsl-file-permissions/):

1. Create wsl.conf in /etc/ if it doesn't exists. Else, modify to contain this part (For uid and gid check: cat /etc/passwd):

   user@host:~$ touch /etc/wsl.conf

   [automount]
   enabled = true
   root = /
   options = "metadata,uid=1000,gid=1000,dmask=0022,umask=0022,fmask=0011"
   

2. Add to ~/.profile (at the end)

   user@host:~$ nano ~/.profile

   # Note: Bash on Windows does not currently apply umask properly.
   if [[ "$(umask)" = "0000" ]]; then
   umask 0022
   fi
   

Other wsl config resources:

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/wsl/wsl-config

https://devblogs.microsoft.com/commandline/automatically-configuring-wsl/

5. In Windows create folder workspace in C:\

Keep all of your project files and development work in a linked C drive directory. If you do that, even if you have to reinstall the WSL, you won’t lose any work!

6. Restart WSL (by restarting the computer or the wsl service: https://superuser.com/questions/1319478/rebooting-wsl-in-windows-1803)

Now, C:\ drive is mounted in /c/ instead of /mnt/c/ which is better for Docker

7. Update existing packages

user@host:~$ sudo apt update

user@host:~$ sudo apt upgrade

8. Open VSCode

user@host:~$ code .

This will install VSCode Server:

Installing VS Code Server for x64 (5763d909d5f12fe19f215cbfdd29a91c0fa9208a)
Downloading: 100%
Unpacking: 100%
Unpacked 2321 files and folders to /home/user/.vscode-server/bin/5763d909d5f12fe19f215cbfdd29a91c0fa9208a.

Check extensions in VSCode: Some must be installed also in WSL. They appear with Install in WSL: Ubuntu-20.04

9. Install nvm and node

user@host:~$ curl -o- https://raw.githubusercontent.com/nvm-sh/nvm/v0.35.3/install.sh | bash

user@host:~$ nvm ls-remote

user@host:~$ nvm install --lts=dubnium

10. Create symlink for ssh keys ~/.ssh -> /c/Users/<user>/.ssh

user@host:~$ ln -s /c/Users/<user>/.ssh ~

IF you get this error when trying to clone for example user@host:/c/workspace$ git clone git@domain.com:path/to/repository.git repo-name:

Cloning into 'repo-name'...
Warning: Permanently added the ECDSA host key for IP address '**.***.**.***' to the list of known hosts.
@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@
@         WARNING: UNPROTECTED PRIVATE KEY FILE!          @
@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@
Permissions 0744 for '/home/user/.ssh/id_rsa' are too open.
It is required that your private key files are NOT accessible by others.
This private key will be ignored.
Load key "/home/user/.ssh/id_rsa": bad permissions
git@domain.com: Permission denied (publickey,keyboard-interactive).
fatal: Could not read from remote repository.

Please make sure you have the correct access rights
and the repository exists.

then:

user@host:~$ cd ~/.ssh

user@host:~/.ssh$ chmod 600 *

11. Create symlink for .gitconfig

user@host:~$ ln -s /c/Users/<user>/.gitconfig ~

[user]
	email = user.email@domain.com
	name = User Name
[alias]
	up = "!git remote update -p; git merge --ff-only @{u}"
	upall = "!git branch|cut -c2-|while read B; do git branch --set-upstream-to=\"origin/${B}\" \"${B}\" && git checkout \"$B\" && git up; done"

12. Disable annoying bell beep in terminal / vim / less

https://stackoverflow.com/questions/36724209/disable-beep-of-linux-bash-on-windows-10

1. Uncomment set bell-style none and set bell-style visible in /etc/inputrc

   user@host:~$ sudo nano /etc/inputrc

2. Add this line to ~/.vimrc (create ~/.vimrc if not exists)

   set visualbell

3. To disable the beep also in less (i.e. also in man pages and when using "git diff") you need to add export LESS="$LESS -R -Q" in your ~/.profile file.

4. Add to ~/.bashrc (at the end)

   user@host:~$ nano ~/.bashrc

   # Disable annoying bell sound in terminal
   setterm blength 0
   

TROUBLESHOOT:

1. VSCode opened from inside a symbolic link (symlink) will encounter problems with git real time refresh

microsoft/vscode-remote-release#314

Therefore, creating a symlink for /c/workspace inside the home folder is NOT recomended (like this user@host:~$ ln -s /c/workspace ~)

2. FOR WHEN IT WILL BREAK:

https://superuser.com/questions/1319478/rebooting-wsl-in-windows-1803

Other resources:

• https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/dev-environment/
• https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/wsl/interop