Microsoft has released an update for WSL 2.7.0 (Windows Subsystem for Linux), enabling the execution of Linux applications on Windows. Version 2.7.0 is the second significant release after the utilities for command-line, background processes for Linux environments, and services for launching the virtual machine were opened under the MIT license. Previously, the code for WSL components related to the Linux kernel and the wslg graphics stack was opened, while the accompanying tools remained proprietary.
WSL provides a virtual machine with a complete Linux kernel (based on branch 6.6), in which Linux distributions can run. The kernel includes WSL-specific modifications, such as optimizations for reduced startup time and lower memory consumption, the ability to return memory released by Linux processes to Windows, and configurations to exclude unnecessary drivers and subsystems. The system is installed in a separate disk image (VHD) with an ext4 file system and a virtual network adapter.
Among the changes:
- The Linux kernel has been updated to version 6.6.114.
- Updated versions of the WSLg graphics stack 1.0.71, .NET, Microsoft.NETCore.App.Runtime, and NuGet packages.
- The wslsettings configurator has been improved.
- A parameter automount.cgroups has been added to wsl.conf for selecting the Cgroup version.
- Implemented forced shutdown of the virtual machine when it hangs during the stop of all services.
- Ensured the transmission of the virtual machine identifier to the initialization process of the launched distributions. An option ‘—vm-id’ has been added to the wslinfo utility.
- A kernel parameter hvsocket has been added for logging Hyper-V hypervisor events during boot.
- Support has been added for Debian 13, Ubuntu 25.10, Fedora 43, SUSE Linux 16, openSUSE Leap 16, openSUSE Tumbleweed, Kali 2025.3, and the December build of Arch Linux.
Source: opennet.ru
