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WSL Linux Graphics and Systemd Support Takes Priority Over LXD

by Mike Levin

Tuesday, November 29, 2022

Yesterday, YouTube viewer eugrus asked:

Aren’t the WSL distros also basically containers? Why not import LXC-tarballs as WSL distros instead of adding an actual LXC management layer?

I answered it was that I wanted to master the LXC API and not WSL. Getting good at Microsoft tech in particular shuts you into Microsoft. No sooner did I express that opinion than I realized getting LXD to work under the new Windows Subsystem for Linux that was just released under the Microsoft store was going to be harder than I thought – at least with full Linux graphics support.

The puzzle becomes this:

It seems possible, but it turns out I can’t dedicate all the time in the world to this. It starts to defeat the purpose. So some time yesterday I backed off and decided to 2 out of 4 ain’t bad. Much of the reason I used LXD was because the Linux provided by Microsoft was so non-standard and any scripts I wrote to automate building my environments would be different against a Microsoft Linux vs. an LXD Linux because the first thing I’d have to do is a hack to get SYSTEMD installed. That’s no longer true, or only just requires an /etc/wsl.conf file as opposed to a distrod or other 3rd-party hack.

And so… and so… the repo LXDWIN is no more. Instead it’s now:

 ____       _       _      __  __        _     _
|  _ \ _ __(_)_ __ | | __ |  \/  | ___  | |   (_)_ __  _   ___  __
| | | | '__| | '_ \| |/ / | |\/| |/ _ \ | |   | | '_ \| | | \ \/ /
| |_| | |  | | | | |   <  | |  | |  __/ | |___| | | | | |_| |>  <
|____/|_|  |_|_| |_|_|\_\ |_|  |_|\___| |_____|_|_| |_|\__,_/_/\_\

LOL! I started using the Alice in Wonderland motif in Levinux and it seems to have worked well, so I figure I’ll make one of its great symbols of commitment (and throwing caution to the wind) into the repo name. It can be found at https://github.com/miklevin/drinkme or using the old shortcut which I redirected to the new location https://mikelev.in/ux

It’s time to make a video, right? ASAP. The iron is hot. Lots of people are probably trying to figure out what these changes mean.