WSL install

Windows 10/11 installation

ROS can run natively in Windows 10/11, as a docker container, or within WSL.
As the latter approach provides an experience that is (nearly) identical to the Linux experience, I suggest that one.

The Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL2) allows to install and run a Linux distro(s) within Windows 10/11.
Linux apps are seamlessly integrated into Windows, consuming resources as required (and not being restricted to dedicated CPU cores as with usual VM solutions).

1. Follow the official installation instructions to install WSL2 and Ubuntu 20.04 (Focal).
   Note that there are different install instructions for older versions of Windows 10.

   Advanced configuration

   WSL2 employs Windows' virtualization capabilities to run an open-source linux kernel (patched by Microsoft).
   The distribution is installed into a virtual disk, located in %LOCALAPPDATA%\Packages\distribution\LocalState\ext4.vhdx by default.

   Share a Linux installation between different users.

   1. Relocate the virtual disk file to a shared location:

      wsl -l                                                 # list your available distros
      wsl --export Ubuntu %TMP%\ubuntu-wsl.tar               # export filesystem as tarball
      wsl --unregister Ubuntu                                # deinstall distro, removing ext4.vhdx
      wsl --import Ubuntu W:\ubuntu-wsl %TMP%\ubuntu-wsl.tar # import tarball to custom location W:\ubuntu-wsl
      wsl -l

      Note: You can also edit the location of the virtual disk file in the registry and just move it around instead of exporting + importing. See next step.
   2. Copy the WSL registry entry between users:
      • First, ensure that WSL is not running: wsl --shutdown
      • Linux distros are stored in the user registry: Computer\HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Lxss
      • Open regedit, locate this entry, find the linux distro you want to share, and export the corresponding registry structure.
      • In the other user's login, import the registry file.

   Enable ssh into WSL
   Essentially, your WSL is a separate virtual machine, having its own IP address. Hence, there are two options to ssh into your WSL machine:

   • Run an ssh server in Windows and forward any traffic to the WSL machine and its ssh server, described here.
   • Directly run a WSL bash when sshing into your Windows machine, described here as follows:

      Add-WindowsCapability -Online -Name OpenSSH.Server  # Install ssh server in Windows
      Set-Service -Name sshd -StartupType 'Automatic'     # Automatically start sshd service
      # Configure bash.exe as your default ssh shell
      New-ItemProperty -Path "HKLM:\SOFTWARE\OpenSSH" -Name DefaultShell -Value "C:\WINDOWS\System32\bash.exe" -PropertyType String -Force

2. To run GUI applications, Windows needs to run an X server. Latest versions of WSL2 already provide a seemless GUI integration.

   For older releases follow these hidden instructions.

   Most people suggest [**`VcXsrc`**](https://sourceforge.net/projects/vcxsrv/).

   To direct WSL applications to your server, configure the DISPLAY variable in your .bashrc to point to the WSL nameserver:

   echo "export DISPLAY=$(awk '/nameserver / {print $2; exit}' /etc/resolv.conf 2>/dev/null):0" >> ~/.bashrc
   echo "export LIBGL_ALWAYS_INDIRECT=0" >> ~/.bashrc  # required for OpenGL apps like rviz

   Note that you can paste stuff from the clipboard into a Linux terminal via a right mouse button click.

   Finally, launch VcXsrv from the start menu. You can keep all default settings except Native opengl, which needs to be disabled. Otherwise, applications such as rviz will not run as expected.

   Note: You will also need to open your firewall for VcXsrv to accept connections from the WSL2 network.

   

   To test your X server configuration, you could start an X11 application like this:

   sudo apt install xterm  # Install the X11 application xterm
   xterm &  # This should open a terminal in a new window

   If this shows an error like xterm: Xt error: Can't open display: ..., check that you have started your X server correctly. You also might want to check the actual display name used by the X server. To this end, hoover with your mouse over the X-server icon in the system tray:

   

   In the example, ares:0.0 is shown. Try the following command then (replacing ares:0.0 with your display name):

   DISPLAY=ares:0.0 xterm

   and if it works change the DISPLAY variable in your .bashrc accordingly.

3. Follow the standard instructions to install ROS in your Ubuntu subsystem:

   sudo sh -c 'echo "deb http://packages.ros.org/ros/ubuntu $(lsb_release -sc) main" > /etc/apt/sources.list.d/ros-latest.list'
   curl -s https://raw.githubusercontent.com/ros/rosdistro/master/ros.asc | sudo apt-key add -
   sudo apt update
   sudo apt install ros-<distro>-desktop ros-<distro>-agni-tf-tools
   
   sudo apt install python3-rosdep python3-catkin-tools
   sudo rosdep init
   rosdep update

4. Configure your .bashrc to source the ROS environment by default:

   echo "source /opt/ros/<distro>/setup.bash" >> ~/.bashrc

5. Test your installation:

   roscore &  # This just outputs some logs in the console
   rviz  # This should open a visualization window

6. I suggest using Visual Studio Code for development (in a WSL environment and in general).
   It provides an extension to access your WSL environment.