WSL2 Create Distro

Creates a distro from a tarball and optionally adds a user to it

As a general pourpose, when working in different projects or companies, one might need to create a self-contained WSL environment, just as one creates a Virtual Machine. This script will do just that. It creates a WSL distribution from a tarball file, and optionally creates a user and adds it to a group (sudo by default). Additionally, it will set a default shell (for WSL with Ubuntu the default shell is /bin/bash) and optionally a default user.

The whole process takes 10 seconds approximately.

Install

The script presumes that you have WSL installed, and uses WSL2 as the default WSL version. I haven't tested with WSL1. If you want to see some instructions on how to install WSL2, you can find them here: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/wsl/install-win10

Apart from that there is nothing to install really. You can just copy and paste the code into a PS1 file wherever you want, or:

Clone the repository locally:
git clone https://github.com/IAL32/WSL2-Create-Distro.git

Change the working directory:
cd .\WSL-Create-Distro

And then use the script!

If you have noticed, if you created a user, it won't have a password set. That's ok! We can always use the function here:

Get-ItemProperty Registry::HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Lxss\*\ DistributionName | Where-Object -Property DistributionName -eq <YOUR_DISTRONAME> | Set-ItemProperty -Name DefaultUid -Value ((wsl -d <YOUR_DISTRONAME> -u root -e id -u) | Out-String);

And set the user back to root (if it wasn't already). From here, we can then change the user's password:

passwd <USERNAME>

and also, while we are at it, we can do the same for the root user:

passwd

The last thing would be to set /bin/bash as the default shell for the new user. This is necessary, as WSL bindings to Windows will only work if bash is used as the default shell.

We just need to login with your user, and launch:

chsh

The command will then ask for your password, and the path of the shell you want to use. Just type:

/bin/bash

And that's it!

Usage

NOME
    .\CreateLinuxDistro.ps1

RIEPILOGO
    Creates a WSL2 distro and optionally adds a user with group


SINTASSI
    .\CreateLinuxDistro.ps1 [-INPUT_FILENAME] <FileInfo> -OUTPUT_DIRNAME <FileInfo> -OUTPUT_DISTRONAME <Object> [-DEFAULT_SHELL <Object>] [-SET_USER_AS_DEFAULT <Object>]
    -ROOT_PASSWORD <Object> [-WhatIf] [-Confirm] [<CommonParameters>]

    .\CreateLinuxDistro.ps1 [-INPUT_FILENAME] <FileInfo> -OUTPUT_DIRNAME <FileInfo> -OUTPUT_DISTRONAME <Object> [-DEFAULT_SHELL <Object>] [-CREATE_USER <Boolean>]
    [-CREATE_USER_USERNAME <Object>] -CREATE_USER_PASSWORD <Object> [-ADD_USER_TO_GROUP <Boolean>] [-ADD_USER_TO_GROUP_NAME <Object>] [-SET_USER_AS_DEFAULT <Object>] -ROOT_PASSWORD <Object> [-WhatIf]  
    [-Confirm] [<CommonParameters>]


DESCRIZIONE
    As a general pourpose, when working for different projects or companies,
    one might need to create a self-contained WSL environment, just as one creates a
    Virtual Machine.
    This script will do just that. It creates a WSL distribution from a tarball file,
    and optionally creates a user and adds it to a group (sudo by default).


COLLEGAMENTI CORRELATI

COMMENTI
    Per visualizzare gli esempi, digitare: "get-help .\CreateLinuxDistro.ps1 -examples".
    Per ulteriori informazioni, digitare: "get-help .\CreateLinuxDistro.ps1 -detailed".
    Per informazioni di carattere tecnico, digitare: "get-help .\CreateLinuxDistro.ps1 -full".

Examples

Creates a WSL2 instance using Ubuntu20.04 (Focal Fossa) using a previously downloaded tarball (the example uses the following one: https://cloud-images.ubuntu.com/focal/current/focal-server-cloudimg-amd64-wsl.rootfs.tar.gz), creates a user with username myuser and adds it to the group sudo. It also sets the user password to the one given in the pipeline, and the password for the root user, also given in the pipeline.

.\CreateLinuxDistro.ps1 -INPUT_FILENAME .\focal-server-cloudimg-amd64-wsl.rootfs.tar.gz -OUTPUT_DIRNAME "$env:LOCALAPPDATA\Packages\ubuntu2004-test-1" -OUTPUT_DISTRONAME ubuntu2004-test-1 -CREATE_USER 1 -CREATE_USER_USERNAME myuser -ADD_USER_TO_GROUP 1 -ADD_USER_TO_GROUP_NAME sudo -SET_USER_AS_DEFAULT myuser

Delete WSL2 distribution

As stated in the official documentation you can delete a WSL2 distribution using the following command:

wsl --unregister <DistributionName>