Show HN: Build Your WSL Distro in Docker

48 points by K0IN 9 months ago | 11 comments
  • K0IN 9 months ago
    I love WSL, but I have multiple systems and juggling apt packages is a pain.

    So I had this in my head for a long time, that I can just build a rootfs using docker and load it in WSL.

    I tried it yesterday, and now I have a CLI tool to build my WSL image using Dockerfiles.

    I'm not sure if it helps anyone, but I wanted to share it, just in case.

    Cheers.

    • gavinray 9 months ago
      Could you add this to the README?

      I went looking for the "Why?" and couldn't find it, I think others would like to hear this too =)

      Best thing I could come up with was "declarative WSL setup like Nix/Fedora Silverblue"

      • turboponyy 9 months ago
        Somewhat related: https://github.com/nix-community/NixOS-WSL
      • marmaduke 9 months ago
        This is awesome! I was just today building a new wsl distro, and I didn’t want it tied to just a version of Linux but rather a project. I had to download a rootfs of Ubuntu and import it, and then spent time installing everything. Ofc I could use a bash script to automate the second part.

        So this would have solved my prob: have a dockerfile or image and up an wsl env for it. Given how great wsl is these days (i used to have Linux and Mac as daily drivers, now wsl) I guess this sort of thing will become more and more relevant

        • Rucadi 9 months ago
          Nice tool :) I did something similar in a hackathon some years ago. https://github.com/Rucadi/wsld

          It's totally unmaintained and forgotten :D

          In general, what I do now to generate WSL images is to docker run a container, and then export it to a .tar, finally, install that tar, is that easy.

          However, if I had your tool installed, for sure I would use that for ease of use.

          • K0IN 9 months ago
            Hei interesting, thanks for sharing.

            Also, the idea to do it the other way around WSL -> docker image is really nice.

          • el_oni 9 months ago
            Very cool, this should help me to be able to separate my different testing environments.

            Thanks for sharing!

            • cckk 9 months ago
              looks cool! Forgive my ignorance, but what's the adv of this over using Docker on WSL2?
              • K0IN 9 months ago
                for me, the advantages are:

                * In WSL2 I don't need to worry about, ports, mounts and data persistence (I think this is possible in docker but it needs more setup work)

                * I don't need docker desktop running

                in the end I think that both can solve the problem, I myself prefer wsl for my day to day tasks.

                • tricked 9 months ago
                  fyi docker works perfectly fine in wsl on Ubuntu and other distro using the standard installation method on Linux, no docker desktop needed.
              • pasi1337 9 months ago
                Thats a pretty nice thing to have!

                Thanks for sharing this.