3 easy ways to get multiple instances of WSL!

What if you want something different, custom or just have more instances of the same distribution? Microsoft Store provides a variety of Linux distributions to choose from, but it might be not enough at times. Luckily it turns out it is trivial to get what you want!

Table of Contents

1st Method – Downloading

First one is the easiest of them all – just fetch a release straight from vendor’s download page.

curl --location `
  --remote-name `
  "https://cloud-images.ubuntu.com/wsl/kinetic/current/ubuntu-kinetic-wsl-amd64-wsl.rootfs.tar.gz"

wsl --import `
  UbuntuKinetic `
  "C:\ProgramData\UbuntuKinetic" `
  "ubuntu-kinetic-wsl-amd64-wsl.rootfs.tar.gz" --version 2

2nd Method – Cloning

Second is not much more difficult, as first we install a distribution from a Windows Store. Next the only thing needed is to export already installed distribution and import it under a different name. Really, that’s it 😉

wsl --list

wsl --export YOUR-CURRENT-DISTRO my-distribution.tar

wsl --import YOUR-NEW-DISTRO "C:\ProgramData\YOUR-NEW-DISTRO" my-distribution.tar

3rd Method – Docker

Third is not that difficult either on the surface, but your mileage may vary as these images might not be compatible with WSL.

docker run --name imagecontainer -t centos echo hello

docker export imagecontainer > distribuition-image.tar

wsl --import YOUR-NEW-DISTRO "C:\ProgramData\YOUR-NEW-DISTRO" distribuition-image.tar

This process is more described here, but unfortunately it didn’t work on my environment 🙁

PS > wsl -d UbuntuDesktop -e uname -a
Catastrophic failure
Error code: Wsl/Service/CreateInstance/E_UNEXPECTED

After enabling WSL debug console in .wslconfig ([wsl2] debugConsole=true) we can see following error

WSL (1) ERROR: ConfigInitializeEntry:1576: Failed to create /bin/wslpath -> /init

Not giving up yet, to be continued…

Final Thoughts

Importing WSL Distributions gives you a lot of power, as you can not only create multiple environments, but also run distributions that are not available in the store. Importantly you will get Windows Terminal integration out-of-the box, and other WSL only features that you don’t get with a full Virtual Machine. Although some features might require some tinkering and additional configuration.