Instructions for setting up Linux development tools on Windows 10 using WSL2.
Some of the instructions here are fairly new and may not work if Windows 10 is not on a somewhat recent build. Check the WSL2 install instructions for specific requirements but you can open Start, type 'Windows update', and open the Windows Update settings. If Windows is up-to-date you are probably good to go.
Windows Subsystem for Linux 2 is latest version of WSL and is pretty much a VM running on Hyper-V. Follow the instructions here under Manual Installation Steps for steps to get WSL2 installed.
If you get an error during the WSL2 setup similar to Error: 0x80370102 The virtual machine could not be started because a required feature is not installed. you may need to double-check that you have virtualization enabled
in your computer's BIOS settings. See the troubleshooting page here
for additional help
When you get to Step 6 of the install instructions you will be asked to pick a Linux distribution to install. I would recommend using Ubuntu 18.04 or Ubuntu 20.04 as these seem to be the most stable and have the best support for external packages currently (as of June 2021). If you prefer a Linux distribution you can pick something else but you'll need to adapt the remaining instructions here as most of the commands are for Ubuntu.
Windows Terminal is a terminal tool from Microsoft with better support for Linux and other non-Windows shells. I recommend that you install and use Windows Terminal to reduce the chance of hitting some terminal interaction issue. Download and install the .msixbundle file from here.
Open Windows Terminal and open a new tab to Ubuntu.
When the terminal opens to Bash run the following command and make sure packages update successfully.
sudo apt update
In the Ubuntu terminal run the following commands to setup git and an SSH key for GitHub:
mkdir -p ~/.ssh
ssh-keygen -o -a 102 -t ed25519 -f ~/.ssh/id_ed25519_github -C "username@example.com/Device"
sudo apt install -y git
echo '
# Github
Host github.com
HostName github.com
PreferredAuthentications publickey
IdentityFile ~/.ssh/id_ed25519_github' >> ~/.ssh/config
git config --global user.email "your.username@examlpe.com"
git config --global user.name "Your Name"Now you can add your public key to GitHub to authorize access:
cat ~/.ssh/id_ed25519_github.pubCopy the output and paste it in to the New SSH Key dialog on this GitHub settings page
After saving your public key to GitHub test your GitHub access with the following command:
ssh -T git@github.comYou should get a message similar to Hi <username>! You've successfully authenticated, but GitHub does not provide shell access.
The following are additional tools that are usually required or helpful for development on Linux:
sudo apt update && \
sudo apt install -y \
bash-completion \
build-essential \
curl \
dnsutils \
htop \
iputils-ping \
man \
mtr-tiny \
nano \
tig \
tldr \
traceroute \
wget \
vimRun the following commands to install Python in Ubuntu. You can change the version number as-needed.
export PYTHON_VERSION=3.8
sudo add-apt-repository -y ppa:deadsnakes/ppa
sudo apt install -y "python$PYTHON_VERSION" "python$PYTHON_VERSION-venv" "python$PYTHON_VERSION-dev"
mkdir -p "$HOME/bin"
ln -f -s "/usr/bin/python$PYTHON_VERSION" "$HOME/bin/python"
ln -f -s "/usr/bin/python$PYTHON_VERSION" "$HOME/bin/python3"
echo '
PATH="$HOME/bin:$PATH"
' >> ~/.bashrc
source ~/.bashrcYou should then be able to test Python and check the installed version number with
python -VRun the following commands to install Golang in Ubuntu. You can change the version number as-needed.
export VERSION=1.14
cd /tmp
wget -O "go$VERSION.linux-amd64.tar.gz" "https://dl.google.com/go/go$VERSION.linux-amd64.tar.gz"
sudo tar -C /usr/local -xf "go$VERSION.linux-amd64.tar.gz"
echo '
PATH="/usr/local/go/bin:$HOME/go/bin:$PATH"
' >> ~/.bashrc
source ~/.bashrcYou should then be able to test Golang and check the installed version number with
go version