The Arch Linux developers have announced that they have agreed with Microsoft to publish official builds for the WSL (Windows Subsystem for Linux) subsystem. The builds will be included in the list of Linux distributions distributed through the WSL repository and offered for quick installation in WSL (to install Arch, it will be enough to run the command "wsl —install ArchLinux"). Since Arch Linux is being developed within the framework of the rolling update delivery model, the builds are planned to be updated once a month.
The assemblies will be formed in a new format, allowing the distribution to be distributed from your own servers Without uploading to the Microsoft Store, without packaging in appx format, and without including Windows-specific code in the build. The new method involves placing a tarball containing the distribution's system environment and the /etc/wsl-distribution.conffile file, which contains metadata such as the name, icon, default user ID, and environment configuration scripts executed on first launch.
Canonical also announced yesterday that it has started distributing Ubuntu builds for WSL in a new format. The Ubuntu build is already included in the official list of distributions for WSL, so to install it, simply run the command "wsl —install ubuntu" in Windows. If you need to make changes to the build, you can download it to your local system and install it after changing it with the command "wsl —install —from-file ubuntu.tar.wsl". Ubuntu versions 24.04, 22.04, 20.04 and 18.04 are available for installation. By default, when specifying "ubuntu", version 22.04 is installed.
Other distributions added to the WSL list include openSUSE Leap, openSUSE Tumbleweed, SUSE Linux Enterprise, Kali Linux, Debian GNU/Linux, and Oracle Linux. Fedora Linux is also vying for inclusion in the list, with its technical committee recently approving a proposal to create official Fedora builds for WSL. Fedora builds for WSL will be delivered starting with the release of Fedora 42. It is noted that the project had not previously published builds for WSL, as their placement in the Windows Store catalog required signing an agreement, the terms of which contradicted Fedora policy. Delivery directly in the new format (tar archive with a manifest) will solve this problem.
WSL provides a virtual machine with a full Linux kernel (based on the 6.6 or 5.15 branches) that can run Linux distributions specially adapted for WSL. The kernel includes WSL-specific changes, such as optimizations to reduce startup time and memory consumption, the ability to return memory freed by Linux processes to Windows, and settings 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.
Source: opennet.ru
