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!
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_UNEXPECTEDAfter enabling WSL debug console in .wslconfig ([wsl2] debugConsole=true) we can see following error
WSL (1) ERROR: ConfigInitializeEntry:1576: Failed to create /bin/wslpath -> /initNot 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.