Pengwin September Update

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Pengwin 24.08.2 Release: Comprehensive Improvements and Key Fixes

We’re pleased to announce the release of Pengwin version 24.08.2, packed with significant updates and improvements aimed at enhancing your user experience.

1. Usability Enhancements:

  • New --help Option: The pengwin-setup command now includes a --help option, providing users with detailed information on usability and automation options.
  • Improved Navigation: The pengwin-setup menus have been refined to allow for more intuitive navigation with fewer keystrokes, making it easier to find and select the options you need.

2. Upgraded Packages and Backports:

  • Terraform Upgrade: Terraform has been updated to version 1.9.5, ensuring that you have access to the latest features and security patches.
  • Debian 12.7: Pengwin now is based on Debian 12.7, offering the most recent Debian enhancements.
  • Backports enabled: You’ll now automatically receive the latest versions of many essential packages, such as curl, cmake, golang, systemd, emacs, meson, xrdp, and more, through backports.
  • Node.js Enhancements: The Node.js installer has been improved, and the default Node.js LTS version installed by pengwin-setup has been updated to version 20. Additionally, the N (Node.js version manager) installer has been refined for better performance.

3. Default Packages and Installations:

  • command-not-found Package: This package is now included by default, helping users quickly find and install the correct package when a command is not found.
  • apt-utils Installed by Default: The apt-utils package is now part of the default installation, ensuring smoother package management.

4. Key Fixes and System Improvements:

  • Kubernetes Installer: We’ve fixed and improved the Kubernetes installer, ensuring a more reliable setup process.
  • SystemD on WSL1: Fixed an error that occurred when attempting to upgrade the systemd package on WSL1.
  • XFCE Installation: Resolved issues with XFCE installation on newer versions of WSL. If you’ve encountered problems, simply rerun the installer through pengwin-setup.
  • dbus Management: Ensured that dbus is only started once, no matter how many times Pengwin is launched, preventing conflicts.
  • Windows Terminal Behavior: The terminal will no longer close automatically after pengwin-setup finishes, giving you more control over your session.

5. User Experience Enhancements:

  • Message Of The Day Setting: You can now configure a Message Of The Day (MOTD) through pengwin-setup, adding a personal touch to your terminal sessions.
  • ibus and fcitx Improvements: Installation processes for ibus and fcitx have been enhanced, ensuring better support for input methods.
  • Programming Menu Navigation: The navigation in the Programming menu of pengwin-setup has been improved for a smoother experience.

How to Update

To enjoy these new features and improvements, existing users can update immediately by running the following command:

$ pengwin-setup update

We’re confident that these enhancements will significantly improve your Pengwin experience. As always, we appreciate your feedback and are committed to delivering a product that meets your needs.

Full Changelog here

Happy coding!

Raft WSL August Update - Launch WSL Settings

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Raft WSL 24.08.1

We're excited to announce the latest update to Raft WSL, packed with new features and improvements to enhance your WSL experience. Here’s what’s new in version 24.08.1:

New Distro View

Introducing a new streamlined view specifically designed for users with a limited number of distros installed. This view simplifies navigation and allows for easier management of your distributions.

WSL Settings Launch Support

You can now launch WSL Settings directly from Raft, provided you’re running WSL version 2.3.11 or newer. This feature is still in preview, but it’s a step towards giving you more control and flexibility over your WSL environment.

Windows Terminal Profile for Ubuntu

We’ve fixed an issue where Raft would not correctly launch the Windows Terminal profile for Ubuntu. This update ensures that your terminal sessions start seamlessly with the correct profile every time.

Other changes

Added

  • Oracle Linux Support: We've added support for Oracle Linux versions 9.4, 8.9, and 8.10, expanding your options for enterprise-grade distributions within WSL.

  • openSUSE Support: Raft now supports openSUSE Leap 15.6 and openSUSE Tumbleweed on ARM64, offering a broader range of SUSE-based distributions for your development needs.

  • SUSE 15 SP6 Support: Support has also been added for SUSE 15 SP6, ensuring you can work with the latest and most secure versions of this enterprise-focused Linux distribution.

Full Changelog here

We’re committed to continuously improving Raft WSL, and your feedback is invaluable. Try out these new features and let us know how they’re working for you. As always, stay tuned for more updates and improvements in the future!

Thank you for using Raft WSL, and happy coding!

For suggestions, feedback, bug reporting click here.

-The Pengwin Team

Pengwin Enterprise 8.8 and 9.2 released with OpenGL 4 & GPU video acceleration

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Pengwin Enterprise has been upgraded to Enterprise Linux 8.8 and Enterprise Linux 9.2, respectively, with an important addition, support for OpenGL 4 and GPU Video Acceleration in WSL2. Pengwin Enterprise comes with Mesa 22.3.0 preinstalled Direct3D 12 and video codec support.

Pengwin Enterprise 9.2.0

  • Upgraded the Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL) distro to Enterprise Linux 9.2; the personal version was upgraded to Rocky Linux 9.2 and the corporate version to RHEL 9.2.

  • Recompiled the provided Mesa 22.3.0 to include the Microsoft Direct 3D driver and video codecs with OpenGL 4 support and video acceleration.

  • Added experimental prompt escape sequences for Windows Terminal 1.18 Shell Integration. Now you’ll see dots over the scrollbar, indicating the commands executed and whether they were successful. It only works in bash with the default prompt.

  • If you enable the right-click menu as described here: How to enable shell integration marks adding the "experimental.rightClickContextMenu": true element to your Windows Terminal settings.json you’ll have very useful commands

  • When the distro is being installed, a progress icon will appear on the Windows Terminal tab.

Fixed

  • After performing a Reset in App Settings, the distro can be installed again without reinstalling the app.

  • Now, if you configure Pengwin Enterprise as your Default Profile in Windows Terminal, right-click a folder in File Explorer and select Open in Terminal, it will correctly open in the desired directory.

  • The icon is now correctly displayed in the Windows Terminal tab with the default dark theme.

Pengwin Enterprise 8.8.0

  • Upgraded the Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL) distro to Enterprise Linux 8.8; the personal version was upgraded to Rocky Linux 8.8, and the corporate version to RHEL 8.8.

  • Recompiled the provided Mesa 22.3.0 to include the Microsoft Direct 3D driver and video codecs with OpenGL 4 support and video acceleration.

  • Added experimental prompt escape sequences for Windows Terminal 1.18 Shell Integration. Now you’ll see dots over the scrollbar, indicating the commands executed and whether they were successful. It only works in bash with the default prompt.

  • If you enable the right-click menu as described here: How to enable shell integration marks adding the "experimental.rightClickContextMenu": true element to your Windows Terminal settings.json, you’ll have handy commands.

  • When the distro is being installed, a progress icon will appear on the Windows Terminal tab.

Fixed

  • After performing a Reset in App Settings, the distro can be installed again without reinstalling the app.

  • Now, if you configure Pengwin Enterprise as your Default Profile in Windows Terminal, right-click a folder in File Explorer and select Open in Terminal, it will correctly open in the desired directory.

  • The icon is now correctly displayed in the Windows Terminal tab with the default dark theme.

Pengwin Enterprise 7.9.15

Although there is no update at distribution level, we backported the improvements from the launcher to Pengwin Enterprise 7

  • Added experimental prompt escape sequences for Windows Terminal 1.18 Shell Integration. Now you’ll see dots over the scrollbar, indicating the commands executed and whether they were successful. It only works in bash with the default prompt.

  • If you enable the right-click menu as described here: How to enable shell integration marks adding the "experimental.rightClickContextMenu": true element to your Windows Terminal settings.json, you’ll have handy commands.

  • When the distro is being installed, a progress icon will appear on the Windows Terminal tab.

Fixed

  • After performing a Reset in App Settings, the distro can be installed again without reinstalling the app.

  • Now, if you configure Pengwin Enterprise as your Default Profile in Windows Terminal, right-click a folder in File Explorer and select Open in Terminal, it will correctly open in the desired directory.

  • The icon is now correctly displayed in the Windows Terminal tab with the default dark theme.

Existing users can update immediately by running $ update.sh.

Report bugs and suggestions here.

More about Pengwin Enterprise: Click here

-The Pengwin Team

Fedora Remix for WSL 38 Released

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Fedora 38.0.0:

  • Upgraded to Fedora 38

  • Upgraded to Mesa 23.0.2 with OpenGL 4.0 and GPU video decode

Upgrade Fedora Remix for WSL to 38

You can upgrade your existing installation of Fedora 37 with the following steps.

First, backup your installation:

wsl --export fedoraremix fedoraremix37_backup.tar.gz

Then proceed:

NOTE: DO NOT PERFORM THE UPGRADE STARTING FEDORA REMIX WITH SYSTEMD; IT WILL RUIN YOUR INSTALLATION

#Be sure that systemd is disabled
[ "$(grep -c "^systemd.*=.*true$" /etc/wsl.conf)" -ne 0 ] && sudo sed -i "s/^systemd.*=.*true$/systemd=false/" /etc/wsl.conf && wsl.exe --terminate ${WSL_DISTRO_NAME}

update.sh 
sudo dnf -y upgrade --refresh  
sudo dnf -y install dnf-plugin-system-upgrade  
sudo rpm --import https://src.fedoraproject.org/rpms/fedora-repos/raw/rawhide/f/RPM-GPG-KEY-fedora-38-primary  
sudo dnf -y install distribution-gpg-keys 
sudo dnf -y system-upgrade --allowerasing --skip-broken download --releasever=38  
sudo dnf -y system-upgrade reboot

At this point, it will raise an error, ignore it, and execute the following commands:

sudo dnf -y system-upgrade upgrade   
sudo dnf -y autoremove   
sudo dnf -y clean all   
sudo mandb  
update.sh  
cat /etc/fedora-release
exit

You can then reenable or start with SystemD if you were using it.

Enjoy it!

Pengwin November Update - SystemD, Desktop Environment

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Pengwin 22.11.4

What’s new

  • Support for SystemD Windows 10 / 11

  • Now you can install the Xfce desktop environment from pengwin-setup

  • Customized the XRDP login screen with a Pengwin theme

  • Customized the default wallpaper for Xfce with a Pengwin theme

  • Enabled the backports so you'll have a more recent version of 7zip, cmake, git, golang, npm, among others

  • Now Pengwin can start with Windows logon without showing a terminal window

 
 

  • Allow to disable WSLg from pengwin-setup only for Pengwin

  • Added support for installing JetBrains Toolbox inside Pengwin

  • Added wslsystemctl command for starting services in WSL1

Improvements

  • Improved the DISPLAY variable management for non-WSLg users or who still want to use Xservers

  • Updated .NET version to 7.0

  • Include by default the software-properties-common to ease the installation of packages from PPAs

  • Bump pyenv python to 3.10.4

  • Upgraded MariaDB installer

  • Upgraded terraform to 1.2.8

  • Improved the integration with Rancher Desktop and Docker Desktop

  • Improved the IBus installer in pengwin-setup

Fixes

  • Fixed autocompletion for helm and kubectl

Full changelog here.

Existing users can update immediately by running $ pengwin-setup update.

Report bugs here.

Acknowledgments 

🏆 Dani Llewellyn - for her hard work making it possible to have SystemD and Snaps together with WSLg with a single and easy-to-use script.

🏆 Guido U. Draheim - for creating a script that allows WSL users to start services without having to start SystemD, also helping WSL1 users.

🏆 carrizo - for integrating both scripts into the image and the update.sh script, and making it possible to call them transparently from the launcher.

🏆 Javier David Santos Sanchez - for his amazing implementation of the Desktop Environment installer

🏆 DesktopECHO - for his very polished project xWSL that saved us hours of trial and error with the Desktop Environment

Top Contributors

We love being open-source, and we love recognizing those who have made an impact on each release. Check out our top contributors for this release below!

Contributors who created the most merged pull requests

🏆 Hoàng

🏆 Javier David Santos Sanchez

Contributors who opened the most non-duplicate issues

🏆 Ling Hengqian

🏆 Alejandro González Alonso

🏆 akwebb1

Announcing built-in SystemD support in Pengwin Enterprise

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SystemD is not supported officially in WSL and the lack of it imposes the following limits:

  • Services cannot be started using the familiar systemctl and the daemons must be started manually.

  • For RedHat and SUSE like distros, neither the service command can be used to start services.

  • Use snaps

  • Run Gnome desktop

Pengwin Enterprise 7.9.1 and 8.6.1 include SystemD support

Traditionally bringing SystemD to WSL implied using workarounds or scripts to be able to start the systemd daemon with a process id 0. We based our implementation on one of them, the one-script-wsl2-systemd by Dani Llewellyn. Upon updating to 7.9.1 or 8.6.1 versions, you’ll see the following changes:

  • A new start menu entry called Pengwin Enterprise 7/8 (SystemD)

 
 

  • A new menu entry in Windows Terminal

 
 

  • New options for run at Windows login

 
 

Starting SystemD

The SystemD support is entirely optional, and you can start it or not, depending on what you need to do. You can use the Start Menu shortcut, the Windows Terminal profile, via command line, execute: wle -s / pengwinenterprise8 -s, or inside a running instance sudo start-systemd

NOTE: You don’t need to wipe your actual installation; when you start SystemD for the first time, it will update everything for you into your existing instance.

Some examples

Ok, I have SystemD; now what? Let’s see some helpful use cases:

The SSH server is started automatically

First, install prerequisites sudo yum -y install iproute openssh-server openssh-clients

And enable ssh sudo systemctl enable --now sshd

Let’s get the IP address with ip address show dev eth0

And ssh into it

Sadly the WSL2 IP address changes on every restart. Let’s use hostnames instead:

  • Edit the /etc/wsl.conf to establish a custom hostname. Add a hostname entry in the [network] section with the hostname that you like

  • Install avahi with sudo yum -y install avahi and enable it with sudo systemctl enable --now avahi-daemon

  • Terminate Pengwin Enterprise (wsl.exe --terminate pengwinenterprise8 or wle) and start it again with SystemD.

  • Now connect using ssh but using the hostname.

  • In RHEL you may also need to open the port in Firewall: sudo firewall-cmd --permanent --add-port=5353/udp and sudo firewall-cmd --reload

Install GNOME desktop

Let’s level it up and install a full desktop. First, edit the /etc/wsl.conf to establish a custom hostname. Add a hostname entry in the [network] section with the hostname that you like as we did in the previous example:

Now install Gnome using:

  • Pengwin Enterprise 8: sudo yum group install -y Workstation

  • Pengwin Enterprise 7: sudo yum group install 'GNOME Desktop'

  • RHEL7: sudo yum group install 'Server with GUI'

When it finishes, you’ll need to configure the locale with localectl set-locale LANG="en_US.UTF-8"
The last step is to install the remote desktop support xrdp

  • First, install the EPEL repository: sudo yum -y install epel-release or sudo yum install -y https://dl.fedoraproject.org/pub/epel/epel-release-latest-8.noarch.rpm for RHEL

  • Then XRDP: sudo yum -y install tigervnc-server xrdp and enable it with sudo systemctl enable --now xrdp

  • In RHEL you may also need to open the port in Firewall: sudo firewall-cmd --permanent --add-port=3389/tcp and sudo firewall-cmd --reload

  • Terminate Pengwin Enterprise (wsl.exe --terminate pengwinenterprise8 or wle) and start it again with SystemD

Now open the Remote Desktop Connection or Remote Desktop app from the store (recommended) and put the hostname you defined in the Computer or PC name field. Also, you can specify the username and if you want it to save the password

And here is

Install and run Snaps

Once you started with SystemD, you can install SnapD using the standard steps for RHEL:

  • Create the symbolic link for the classic mode: sudo ln -s /var/lib/snapd/snap /snap

  • Check if everything is ok with snap version

  • Install an example snap: sudo snap install hello-world

  • And run it: snap run hello-world

Installing a snap with GUI suppport

What about a graphical application? Let’s try with IntelliJ IDEA. sudo snap install intellij-idea-community --classic

Note for Windows 11 users. GUI support with snaps is not currently supported on WSLg in Pengwin Enterprise 7-8. You’ll need to disable WSLg editing winhome/.wslconfig, /etc/wsl.conf or creating a startup file (recommended) with: echo 'unset DISPLAY' | sudo tee /etc/profile.d/00-nowslg.sh and use the traditional methods used in Windows 10 installing an X Server like VcXSrv or X410, Pengwin Enterprise will be configured automatically to use it.

Windows 10, you’ll need a running X Server in Windows such as X410 or VcXsrv.

IntelliJ IDEA installed as a snap in Pengwin Enterprise

Note that for Windows 10, you’ll need a running X Server in Windows, such as X410 or VcXsrv

Starting your services at Windows log-in

You can instruct Pengwin Enterprise to run at Windows startup with SystemD, thus starting your services. Just go to the App Settings and activate the preferred option. The No Window option won’t show any console upon start.

 
 

Starting services in Pengwin Enterprise without using SystemD, also available for WSL1

Many services like SSH, Avahi, and XRDP don’t require SystemD in order to be run. But starting them manually can be tedious. This is why this update to Pengwin Enterprise includes a script that can be used to start services using the systemctl syntax. We called it wslsystemctl and it is based on a solution made to start services in a docker container in an easy way. For more information on the source check: Docker SystemD Replacement

Starting SSH

  • Run sudo wslsystemctl start sshd-keygen@ecdsa.service (sudo wslsystemctl start sshd-keygen in Pengwin Enterprise 7) only the first time to generate the key.

  • Run sudo wslsystemctl start sshd

Starting your services at Pengwin Enterprise start without SystemD

You can add the command sudo wslsystemctl default to your .bashrc so your services will be started.

echo "%wheel ALL=NOPASSWD: /usr/bin/wslsystemctl default" | sudo EDITOR="visudo" tee /etc/sudoers.d/start-services
echo "sudo wslsystemctl default 2>/dev/null">> $HOME/.bashrc

Known issues

The SystemD integration is a work in progress; some things don’t run well or are incompatible. Our piece of advice is that use SystemD only when you need it. Let’s see some of them and workarounds.

WSL Store edition

You may experience crashes or wsl shutdowns when using Remote Desktop, and a desktop environment served via XRDP. Also, the interoperability between WSL and Windows begins to fail. The advice is if you experience stability problems, uninstall the Store version.

WSLg

Out of the box, GUI applications won’t work in WSLg if Pengwin Enterprise is started with SystemD; we are still working on that. The situation is worse if the application is packed as a snap. Some workarounds:

  • The best way is to bypass WSLg entirely and use an X Server in Windows as we do in Windows 10. With the following command, WSLg will be disabled just for Pengwin Enterprise: echo "unset DISPLAY" | sudo tee /etc/profile.d/00-nowslg.sh

  • Another way is to use Wayland instead of XWayland; it won’t work with snaps unless the Wayland plugin is packed into the snap. For it, we need to install the Wayland plugin and define some environment variables.

 
sudo yum -y install qt5-qtwayland 
export QT_QPA_PLATFORM=wayland 
export XDG_RUNTIME_DIR=/mnt/wslg/runtime-dir

  • if you installed any desktop environment like the previous examples, the GUI applications would run perfectly inside.

Start menu shortcuts won’t be generated for snap applications

We are working to bring an alternative for this because SystemD must be started before trying to use the snaped application.

Acknowledgments 

🏆 Dani Llewellyn - for her hard work making it possible to have SystemD and Snaps together with WSLg with a single and easy-to-use script.

🏆 Guido U. Draheim - for creating a script that allows WSL users to start services without having to start SystemD, also helping WSL1 users.

🏆 carrizo - for integrating both scripts into the image and the update.sh script, and making it possible to call them transparently from the launcher.

Conclusion

There is still work to do, but we want to know what you do with it; please share your impressions and use cases in the comments.

Enjoy it!!

Raft WSL July Update - Import distros from files

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Raft WSL 22.7.4

Import distros packed as tar files.

Tar files can be obtained from Docker containers or exported from WSL distros. Plenty of instructions to obtain them are all over the internet for your desired distro.

Raft WSL will set it up

With the most popular distributions, Raft WSL will assist you to configure it, creating a default user, and other things depending on the distro.

Improved the subscription process

If you are not still subscribed, you can try Raft for 30 days without limitations and compromise because now a payment method is not required to try it. So, Why not try it right now?

Other changes (since the November update)

  • Partial Arch Linux support

  • Partial CBL Mariner support

  • Support for AlmaLinux 9 & 8

  • Support for openSUSE Leap 15.4

  • Support for SUSE 15 SP4

  • Support for Oracle Linux 8.6 & 7.9

  • Every distro that is Debian or Fedora based is recognized based on the ID_LIKE field of os-release

  • Support for Ubuntu (Preview)

  • Support for Ubuntu 22.04 LTS

  • The Raft icon in the PowerToys Settings now shows correctly

  • Fixed an incompatibility issue with PowerToys 0.55.0. Now the required version of PowerToys is >= 0.55.0

  • Improve performance by reducing the redundant calls to the WSL API

  • Improved look and feel of Settings and Snapshot screens to align better to Windows 11 design

  • Improved compatibility with "Windows Subsystem for Linux Preview - Microsoft Store Edition."

For suggestions, feedback, bug reporting click here.

-The Pengwin Team

Announcing built-in SystemD support in Fedora Remix for WSL

in ,

SystemD is not supported officially in WSL and the lack of it imposes the following limits:

  • Services cannot be started using the familiar systemctl and the daemons must be started manually.

  • For RedHat and SUSE like distros, neither the service command can be used to start services.

  • Use snaps

  • Run Gnome desktop

Fedora Remix WSL 35.13.5 includes SystemD support

Traditionally bringing SystemD to WSL implied using workarounds or scripts to be able to start the systemd daemon with a process id 0. We based our implementation on one of them, the one-script-wsl2-systemd by Dani Llewellyn. Upon updating to the 35.13.5 version you’ll see the following changes:

  • A new start menu entry called Fedora Remix for WSL

 
 

  • A new menu entry in Windows Terminal

 
 

  • New options for run at Windows login

 
 

Starting SystemD

The SystemD support is completely optional and you can start it or not depending on what you need to do. You can use Start Menu shortcut, the Windows Terminal profile, via command line execute: fedoraremix -s, or inside a running instance sudo start-systemd

NOTE: You don’t need to wipe your actual installation, when you start SystemD for the first time it will update and everything for you into your existing instance.

Some examples

Ok, I have SystemD, now what? Let’s see some useful use cases:

The SSH server is started automatically

First, let’s get the IP address with ip address show dev eth0

And ssh into it

Sadly the WSL2 IP address changes on every restart. Let’s use hostnames instead:

  • Edit the /etc/wsl.conf to establish a custom hostname. Add a hostname entry in the [network] section with the hostname that you like

  • Install avahi with sudo dnf -y install avahi and enable it with sudo systemctl enable avahi-daemon

  • Stop Fedora Remix with wsl.exe --terminate fedoraremix

  • Start it again with SystemD.

  • Now connect using ssh but using the hostname

 

Install GNOME desktop

Let’s level it up and install a full desktop. First, edit the /etc/wsl.conf to establish a custom hostname. Add a hostname entry in the [network] section with the hostname that you like as we did in the previous example:

Now install Gnome using sudo dnf -y groupinstall 'Basic Desktop' GNOME. You can use also the Fedora Workstation group but it will install many things that probably you won’t need.

When it finish you’ll need to configure the locale with: localectl set-locale LANG="en_US.UTF-8"
The last step is to install the remote desktop support xrdp: sudo dnf -y install xrdp and enable it with sudo systemctl enable xrdp
Terminate fedoraremix and start it again with SystemD

If the terminate command fails, run it from PowerShell. Start Fedora Remix again with SystemD

Now open Remote Desktop Connection or Remote Desktop app from the store (recommended) and put the hostname that you defined in the Computer or PC name field. Also you can specify the username and if you want it to save the password

And here is

Install and run Snaps

Once you started with SystemD, you can install SnapD using the standard steps for Fedora:

  • Be sure that you started Fedora Remix with SystemD.

  • Run: sudo dnf -y install snapd

  • Create the symbolic link for the classic mode: sudo ln -s /var/lib/snapd/snap /snap

  • Check if everything is ok with: snap version

  • Install an example snap: sudo snap install hello-world

  • And run it: hello-world

If you see a bash: hello-world: command not found... start Fedora Remix again in SystemD mode

Installing a snap with GUI suppport

What about a graphical application? Let’s try with IntelliJ IDEA. sudo snap install intellij-idea-community --classic

IntelliJ IDEA installed as a snap in Fedora Remix for WSL

Note that for Windows 10 you’ll need a running X Server in Windows such as X410 or VcXsrv

Starting your services at Windows log-in

You can instruct Fedora Remix to run at Windows startup with SystemD thus starting your services. Just go to the App Settings and activate the preferred option. The No Window option won’t show any console upon start.

 
 

Starting services in Fedora Remix for WSL without using SystemD, also available for WSL1

Many services like SSH, Avahi, and XRDP don’t require SystemD in order to be run. But starting them manually can be tedious. This is why this update to Fedora Remix includes a script that can be used to start services using the systemctl syntax. We called it wslsystemctl and it is based on a solution made to start services in a docker container in an easy way. For more information on the source check: Docker SystemD Replacement

Starting SSH

  • Run sudo wslsystemctl start sshd-keygen@ecdsa.service only the first time to generate the key

  • Run sudo wslsystemctl start sshd

Starting your services at Fedora Remix start without SystemD

You can add the command sudo wslsystemctl default to your .bashrc so your services will be started.

echo "%wheel ALL=NOPASSWD: /usr/local/bin/wslsystemctl default" | sudo EDITOR="visudo" tee /etc/sudoers.d/start-services echo "sudo wslsystemctl default 2>/dev/null">> $HOME/.bashrc

Known issues

The SystemD integration is a work in progress and some things don’t run well or are incompatible. Our piece of advice is that use SystemD only when you really need it. Let’s see some of them and workarounds.

WSL Store edition

You may experience crashes or wsl shutdowns when using Remote Desktop and a desktop environment served via XRDP. Also, the interoperability between WSL and Windows begins to fail. The advice is if you experience stability problems uninstall the Store version.

WSLg and Qt applications

Out of the box, Qt applications will be rendered as black boxes in WSLg if Fedora Remix is started with SystemD, we are still working on that. The situation is worse if the application is packed as a snap. Some workarounds:

  • The best way is to bypass WSLg completely and use an X Server in Windows as we do in Windows 10. With the following command, WSLg will be disabled just for Fedora Remix: echo "unset DISPLAY" | sudo tee /etc/profile.d/00-no-wslg.sh

  • Another way is to use Wayland instead of XWayland; it won’t work with snaps unless the Wayland plugin is packed into the snap itself. For it, we need to install the Wayland plugin and define some environment variables

 
sudo dnf -y install qt5-qtwayland
export QT_QPA_PLATFORM=wayland
export XDG_RUNTIME_DIR=/mnt/wslg/runtime-dir

  • if you installed any desktop environment like in the previous examples, the Qt applications will run perfectly inside of it.

Start menu shortcuts won’t be generated for snap applications

We are working to bring an alternative for this, because SystemD must be started before trying to use the snaped application.

Acknowledgments 

🏆 Dani Llewellyn - for her hard work making it possible to have SystemD and Snaps together with WSLg with a single and easy-to-use script.

🏆 Guido U. Draheim - for creating a script that allows WSL users to start services without having to start SystemD, also helping WSL1 users.

🏆 carrizo - for integrating both scripts into the image and the update.sh script, and making it possible to call them transparently from the launcher.

Conclusion

There is still work to do but we want to know what you do with it, please share your impressions and use cases in the comments.

Enjoy it!!

Pengwin Enterprise 8.5 released with GPU acceleration on Windows 11

in

Pengwin Enterprise has been upgraded to Enterprise Linux 8.5, with an important addition, GPU Acceleration in WSL2 in Windows 11. Pengwin Enterprise comes with Mesa preinstalled, so you can install your favorite 3D modeling application like Blender and take advantage of your GPU in Windows 11.

Pengwin Enterprise 8.5.0

  • Upgraded the Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL) distro to Enterprise Linux 8.5, personal version was upgraded to Rocky Linux 8.5 and corporate version to RHEL 8.5.

  • Recompiled the provided Mesa 21.1.5 to include the Microsoft Direct 3D driver making Pengwin Enterprise 8 the first enterprise Linux distribution to have GPU acceleration in Windows 11.

  • Fixed an error preventing some users to launch Pengwin Enterprise 8 from Windows Terminal.

  • If you have Windows Terminal 1.12, Windows 11 and set Windows Terminal as the default console, when you open Pengwin Enterprise 8 from start menu, it will launch in Windows Terminal with the right profile selected.

Existing users can update immediately by running $ update.sh.

Report bugs and suggestions here.

More about Pengwin Enterprise: Click here

-The Pengwin Team

Raft WSL November Update - Windows 11 styles

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Raft WSL 21.11.5

  • Redesigned to match the newest Microsoft styles. Looks great on Windows 11 and Windows 10

WSL Shutdown

NEW: Now, you can shut down the entire WSL by pressing a button. Helpful if you changed the .wslconfig file.

Run as root

NEW: Now you can run a distro as root

Default Distro

Now you can choose the default distro directly in the toolbar

Small install Window

When you install a distro, you'll see a small dialog box instead of the whole Microsoft Store window.

Snapshots

The snapshots screen was redesigned to improve usability.

Other changes

  • Fixed an incompatibility with PowerToys 0.45+

  • The distro context menu was reordered for better usability. Now the terminate distro action is more accessible.

  • Added openSUSE Tumbleweed

  • Added Pengwin Enterprise 8

  • Improved Pengwin Enterprise and Fedora Remix logos, especially in with the dark theme.

  • Fixed a crash on startup when there is no Internet connection

  • Fixed a crash when WSL is not installed

  • Fix a regression that causes an application crash if Feedback or Rate Us buttons are clicked

  • Hide the Rancher Desktop support distributions

  • Improve the Alpine logo in dark theme

For suggestions, feedback, bug reporting click here.

-The Pengwin Team

Announcing Pengwin Enterprise 8

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The wait is over! Pengwin Enterprise supporting Enterprise Linux 8 distros in WSL has arrived.

The personal demo version is Rocky Linux 8 based

We rebased our store version from Scientific Linux 7 to Rocky Linux 8. You can get it here.

Pengwin Enterprise for organizations is now in 8.4

Besides Rocky Linux that was mentioned before, Whitewater Foundry can customize an in-house WSL build of Pengwin Enterprise 8 based on RedHat Enterprise Linux 8, Centos 8 Stream, and Oracle Linux 8.

With renewed look

We not only refreshed the logo but also Pengwin Enterprise 8 includes a custom Windows Terminal profile with menu icon, background, and custom color theme, to better integrate the experience with Windows Terminal.

Click here for more info and here to check the personal version in Microsoft Store.

Enterprise Linux 8 on Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL / WSL2)

Raft WSL July Update - Improved look and feel

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Raft WSL 21.7.3

  • Improved the look and feel of the context menus

  • Improved the look and feel of every modal dialog

  • Improved RHEL logo

  • Improved the visibility when the window is very small

  • Fixed a crash when canceling the deletion of a distro

  • Fixed a bug that caused in some installations that Store distros couldn't be executed from Windows Terminal

  • Added openSUSE Leap 15.3 support

  • Added SLES 15 SP3 support

  • Improved logos for openSUSE and SLES

  • Fixed custom openSUSE Leap distros recognition

Report bugs here.

-The Pengwin Team

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Pengwin July Update - VcXSrv HighDPI support improved

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Pengwin 21.7.1

  • Now Pengwin is compatible with XRDP. Installing xrdp and xorgxrdp should work now.

  • Improved high-dpi support in the embedded VcXsrv

    pengwin-setup now configures the embedded VcXsrv to correctly handling the DPI from Windows avoiding the blur. VcXsrv upon start reads the DPI values from Windows and makes them available to applications. Pengwin then reads those values configures the environment accordingly.
    To take advantage of these improvements be sure to execute: pengwin-setup install GUI VCXSRV and pengwin-setup install GUI HIDPI after the update.

Other updates

  • Fixed the NodeJS NVM (no longer installs N instead)

  • Fixed the MariaDB installer in LAMP. Also, the support for ARM64 was improved.

  • Improved Python PyEnv configs and bump Python version to 3.9.6 (Thanks Hoàng)

  • Upgraded helm and fixed Kubernetes installer

  • Fixed the docker support uninstaller

Existing users can update immediately by running $ pengwin-setup update.

Report bugs here.

Top contributors

We love being open source and we love recognizing those who have made an impact for each release. Check out our top contributors for this release below!

Contributors who created the most merged pull requests

🏆 Hoàng

Contributors who opened the most non-duplicate issues

🏆 akwebb1

🏆 Will Sargent

🏆 Jack Sun

Raft WSL June update - Integration with Power Toys Run

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Raft WSL 21.5.2 has been released

New! Power Toys Run Integration

PowerToys have a PowerToys Run tool that allows you, by pressing a global keyboard shortcut (Alt+Space), to execute many commands like running programs, open URLs, make calculations, etc.

Now Raft WSL installs a plugin to allow you to manage your distros from the same interface.

PowerToys Run plugins

After pressing Alt+Space you can begin typing your distro name or if you type $, the list of all your installed distros will appear.

Listing your distros in PowerToys Run

Listing your distros in PowerToys Run

In this interface, you can perform the following operations in your distro:

  • Run it in Windows Terminal by clicking the corresponding button or pressing Ctrl+Shift+T

  • Run it in Windows Console by clicking the corresponding button or pressing Ctrl+Shift+C

  • Run it in the default mode specified in the Raft WSL Settings by double-clicking it.

  • Open the distro home folder of the default user in Windows File Explorer by clicking the corresponding button or pressing Ctrl+Shift+E.

  • Update the packages in your distro. This is equivalent to apt update && apt upgrade in your distro.

Other changes present in this release.

  • If you have Windows Terminal 1.7 or newer, you won't need to "Synchronize Distributions" in Settings to get icons in the menu for Store distros. Instead, they will appear automatically upon you install them.

  • Now, opening the distro in File Explorer won't show a black flash window.

  • The icon for Opening with File Explorer changed to match the PowerToys one.

  • Starting custom distros with changed names now works right in Windows Terminal.

  • In the Windows Settings -> App Settings, it is possible now to set Raft WSL launch at Windows startup.

  • Added definitions for openSUSE Tumbleweed and SLES 12 SP5

Fedora Remix for WSL May Update with Windows Terminal theme

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Fedora 34.5.5:

  • Automatically creates an entry with logo in Windows Terminal

  • Add default background and colors to Windows Terminal (you can change them in Settings)

If you have Windows Terminal 1.7 or newer when you run Fedora Remix, you will see a very nice color scheme, background, and menu logo without taking any action. The new built-in theme has the following defaults:

  • Starts in the Linux home directory instead of the Windows one.

  • Has default icon for the tab title and menu

  • Default background image with the Fedora Remix logo aligned to the bottom right and with an opacity of 15%

  • A Color Scheme that mimics the default color palette of Fedora Workstation, so you will feel at home.

  • Cursor type square as in Gnome Terminal

  • Font face Cascadia Code with ligatures

If you don’t like the defaults or part of them, you can simply change them in the Settings screen and they will be preserved.

Other changes in Fedora Remix for WSL include

  • In-App Settings, it is possible to set Fedora Remix launch at startup

  • When a new distro is created, now the default user is written in wsl.conf. So, the default user is preserved on exports and imports

  • Fixed a problem installing packages in WSL1

  • Upgraded WSLU to 3.2.3

Existing users can update immediately by running $ upgrade.sh.

Report bugs here.

Huge thanks to all contributors, and issue reporters.

-Carlos