onomatopellan/vhdx.txt

## vhdx.txt
1. Ubuntu WSL2 must be already installed in C: system drive and user should be able to call windows binaries like wsl.exe from bash.

2. We will install Alpine WSL2 distro in an external partition/disk:

    Download Alpine from here:
    https://github.com/yuk7/AlpineWSL/releases/download/3.11.5-1/Alpine.zip

    Extract the files in an external partition/disk. (for example D:\Alpine)
    Make sure WSL2 is enabled by default (wsl.exe --set-default-version 2)
    Inside the Alpine folder run Alpine.exe to install the Distro. An ext4.vhdx file will be created in that same folder.
    Run Alpine.exe again.
    Now from the Alpine terminal we will create same user as Ubuntu. This will create the /home/onoma folder.
        adduser onoma

3. On Ubuntu edit the ~/.profile file and add:

# mount external /home folder from Alpine distro
if [ ! -d /mnt/wsl/Alpine ]; then
    mkdir /mnt/wsl/Alpine
    wsl.exe -d Alpine mount --bind /home/onoma /mnt/wsl/Alpine/
fi

4. We will close the VM with:
    wsl.exe --shutdown

5. Next time Ubuntu distro is launched it will automount the /home/onoma folder from Alpine distro to /mnt/wsl/Alpine in Ubuntu with all
the benefits and speed of ext4 mounted folders.

How it works
---------------
WSL2 runs a single lightweight VM that supports multiple distros running on the same Linux kernel.
Every time a distro is launched, its vhdx file is attached automatically to the VM as a /dev/sdc device.
Thanks to the nature of WSL interop we can launch another distro and inmediately close it from inside bash.

The folder /mnt/wsl is an undocumented WSL2 feature which is a tmpfs special folder used by applications as Docker for Desktop.
Everything mounted in that folder will also appear in every running distro under /mnt/wsl/. Just make sure you have file permissions to
access that directory. In my case I'm using user "onoma" on both Ubuntu and Alpine.
	1. Ubuntu WSL2 must be already installed in C: system drive and user should be able to call windows binaries like wsl.exe from bash.

	2. We will install Alpine WSL2 distro in an external partition/disk:

	Download Alpine from here:
	https://github.com/yuk7/AlpineWSL/releases/download/3.11.5-1/Alpine.zip

	Extract the files in an external partition/disk. (for example D:\Alpine)
	Make sure WSL2 is enabled by default (wsl.exe --set-default-version 2)
	Inside the Alpine folder run Alpine.exe to install the Distro. An ext4.vhdx file will be created in that same folder.
	Run Alpine.exe again.
	Now from the Alpine terminal we will create same user as Ubuntu. This will create the /home/onoma folder.
	adduser onoma

	3. On Ubuntu edit the ~/.profile file and add:

	# mount external /home folder from Alpine distro
	if [ ! -d /mnt/wsl/Alpine ]; then
	mkdir /mnt/wsl/Alpine
	wsl.exe -d Alpine mount --bind /home/onoma /mnt/wsl/Alpine/
	fi

	4. We will close the VM with:
	wsl.exe --shutdown

	5. Next time Ubuntu distro is launched it will automount the /home/onoma folder from Alpine distro to /mnt/wsl/Alpine in Ubuntu with all
	the benefits and speed of ext4 mounted folders.

	How it works
	---------------
	WSL2 runs a single lightweight VM that supports multiple distros running on the same Linux kernel.
	Every time a distro is launched, its vhdx file is attached automatically to the VM as a /dev/sdc device.
	Thanks to the nature of WSL interop we can launch another distro and inmediately close it from inside bash.

	The folder /mnt/wsl is an undocumented WSL2 feature which is a tmpfs special folder used by applications as Docker for Desktop.
	Everything mounted in that folder will also appear in every running distro under /mnt/wsl/. Just make sure you have file permissions to
	access that directory. In my case I'm using user "onoma" on both Ubuntu and Alpine.