“Unrooting” WSL…

WSL starts as root user be default.

Here’s how to ensure it runs as a “non-root user” (assumedly already created), which you then have to su and/or sudo <something> to act as root:

  • either/and:
    • modify a shortcut or change Windows Terminal’s Profile to set the distribution (if required) and the user name, and starting in the user’s home directory:
      • wsl -d <distro> -u <user> -cd ~
    • edit /etc/wsl.conf to always start with a specific user:
      • [user]
        default=<user>

Simple! (Not!)

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