Microsoft an enhancement in the functionality of WSL2 (Windows Subsystem for Linux), which allows for the execution of Linux executable files in Windows.
Starting from the Windows Insiders build 20211, WSL2 now supports mounting file systems from physical disks.
The command "wsl --mount" has been proposed for mounting, which allows mounting partitions with file systems not natively supported by Windows, such as accessing a partition with an ext4 file system. This feature can be used to work with the same Linux partition when multiple operating systems (Windows and Linux) are present on the computer.
Mounted partitions are visible not only in the WSL Linux environment but also in the primary system through the virtual disk "\wsl$" in File Explorer.
It is important to note that the WSL2 edition by providing a full Linux kernel instead of the previously used emulator, which translated Linux system calls into Windows system calls. The Linux kernel in WSL2 does not come bundled with the Windows installation image but is loaded dynamically and kept up to date by Windows, similar to how graphic drivers are installed and updated. The standard Windows Update mechanism is used for kernel installation and updates.
The proposed kernel for WSL2 The WSL2 environment runs in a separate virtual hard disk (VHD) with an ext4 file system and a virtual network adapter. Similar to WSL1, user space components
are installed the following builds are offered Debian GNU/Linux, Kali Linux , , ,
, and .
Source: opennet.ru
