NOTE: If you have Windows 11 there is now an official way to do this in WSL 2, use it if possible - see MS post here (WINDOWS 11 ONLY)
This guide will enable systemd
to run as normal under WSL 2. This will enable services like microk8s
, docker
and many more to just work
during a WSL session. Note: this was tested on Windows 10 Build 2004, running Ubuntu 20.04 LTS in WSL 2.
-
To enable
systemd
under WSL we require a tool calledsystemd-genie
-
Copy the contents of
install-sg.sh
to a new file/tmp/install-sg.sh
:cd /tmp wget --content-disposition \ "https://gist.githubusercontent.com/djfdyuruiry/6720faa3f9fc59bfdf6284ee1f41f950/raw/952347f805045ba0e6ef7868b18f4a9a8dd2e47a/install-sg.sh"
-
Make it executable:
chmod +x /tmp/install-sg.sh
-
Run the new script:
/tmp/install-sg.sh && rm /tmp/install-sg.sh
-
Exit the WSL terminal and shutdown the WSL env:
wsl --shutdown
-
To open a new WSL terminal with
systemd
enabled, run:wsl genie -s
-
Prove that it works:
sudo systemctl status time-sync.target
I found the answer -- Windows Terminal, which is supposed to be available from the Microsoft Store, but isn't ATM. Works great for this purpose, plus allows for single window tabbed access to PS, Command, Azure and however many WSL distros you have installed. Downloadable from GitHub: