Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL)

“Unrooting” WSL…

Posted on by dk

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!)

Windows 11 Host Network Service (HNS) and Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL)…

Posted on by dk

For the longest time, my Ubuntu LTS 22.04 on my (forced-to-be-updated-to) Windows 11 (replete with other networking horrors) was not working properly – I could only access the Internet from within the WSL2 container when Windows Firewall was disabled.

Despite shenanigans like attempting to whitelist a whole plethora of executables:

  • C:\Windows\System32\vmcompute.exe
  • C:\Windows\System32\vmms.exe
  • C:\Windows\System32\vmwp.exe
  • C:\Windows\System32\wsl.exe
  • C:\Program Files\WSL\wsl.exe
  • C:\Program Files\WSL\wslservice.exe

Even attempting to whitelist the usual services suspects via C:\Windows\System32\svchost.exe like the following:

  • Host Network Service
  • Internet Connection Sharing (ICS)

All were to no avail. I could resolve domain names, but no traffic went out unless the host’s Windows Firewall was disabled.

I could not even see any blocked traffic from the logs, despite having the correct set up (tip: just use WFC‘s logging interface).

Searching ChatGPT and Perplexity sent me on various wild-goose chases, from changing WSL networking modes (NAT vs. “mirrored” in %USERPROFILE%/.wslconfig), to setting up dubious firewall rules referencing InterfaceAlias using New-NetFirewallRule (but which actual interface UUIDs change every boot). Continue reading →