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Edson Canganjo
Edson Canganjo

Posted on • Updated on

WSL on Windows Server 2019

Did you try to install WSL2 on Windows Server 2019 through wsl --install?
Did you try to install Microsoft Store?

Unfortunately it doesn't work on Windows Server 2019.

But it has soluction.

The solution was based on the link below:

  1. Microsoft;

Just follow the steps:
Those steps below needs to be done other and Administrator

cd C:\Users\Administrator\
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Enable the Windows Subsystem for Linux

Enable-WindowsOptionalFeature -Online -FeatureName Microsoft-Windows-Subsystem-Linux
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Download a Linux distribution

Invoke-WebRequest -Uri https://aka.ms/wslubuntu2004 -OutFile Ubuntu.appx -UseBasicParsing
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Extract and install a Linux distribution

Rename-Item .\Ubuntu.appx .\Ubuntu.zip
Expand-Archive .\Ubuntu.zip .\Ubuntu
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Add your Linux distribution path to the Windows environment PATH

$userenv = [System.Environment]::GetEnvironmentVariable("Path", "User")
[System.Environment]::SetEnvironmentVariable("PATH", $userenv + ";C:\Users\Administrator\Ubuntu", "User")
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Start installation (change directory to directory where is ubuntu.exe)

ubuntu.exe
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If is it usefull, please leave your comment or suggestion.
If it doesn't work, let's try together

Top comments (3)

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acsr profile image
Armin Stross-Radschinski

You collected all the pitfalls and condensed it to the way I successfully used to get Ubuntu 20.04 LTS up and running under WSL in Windows Server 2019 Datacenter , but are you sure you ended up with WSL2? I got just WSL1.

If you cannot wsl --listyou are on WSL1.

I was on the official LTSC build Windows Server 2019 Datacenter build version "1809"

Check notes at serverfault.com/a/1052298: After 2020.1.31, there is no way to run WSL2 on Windows Server 2019 in Production except on Internal Preview versions after version 1709.

The only official MS info I found, was for Windows Server 2022:
WSL 2 distros are now supported on Windows Server
at devblogs.microsoft.com/commandline...

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edsoncanganjo profile image
Edson Canganjo

Yes! Indeed, it's about WSL1 and not WSL2 sorry for my mistake

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acsr profile image
Armin Stross-Radschinski

For the nail in the coffin read: github.com/MicrosoftDocs/WSL/issue...