WSL2-Linux-Kernel VS winget-pkgs

By the way, Microsoft publishes the WSL kernel source, under GPL, as they must: https://github.com/microsoft/WSL2-Linux-Kernel

From here on out it gets a bit hazy. For kernel builds you will have to use the Microsoft Linux Kernel (don't laugh, it's actually a thing). The USBIPD project walks through a WSL kernel build, so you can use that as a guide of sorts. Once you've done everything you need with the disk, the Gentoo project shows how to import it, but if you already have the VHDX file, I think the import-in-place option may be simpler. Take care in CH2 when making the filesystem. I'm not sure if WSL want's only one ext4 partition or if it walks the disk looking for root. There may be some .wslconfig settings for this, my first guess would be kernelCommandLine.

This was true for WSL1, but WSL2 does contain a Linux kernel. The source code for it is available at:

https://github.com/microsoft/WSL2-Linux-Kernel

git clone --branch mytag0.1 --depth 1 https://github.com/microsoft/WSL2-Linux-Kernel use tag for your version

But if you need a custom kernel then build it by taking Microsoft's kernel config as your base and then set the following up accordingly in your %USERPROFILE%\.wslconfig file:

It uses a customized version of the Linux kernel (repo) that integrates with the host Windows OS. You can build any distro on top of that kernel, as people have done with (of course) Arch. The distro isn't any less "real" than a distro that it run on QEMU (and with a level 1 hypervisor, all systems that uses one are technically virtualized already).

I recompiled the kernel using sources from https://github.com/microsoft/WSL2-Linux-Kernel with experimental genpatches applied.

KERNVER=$(uname -r | cut -f 1 -d'-') git clone --branch linux-msft-$KERNVER --depth 1 https://github.com/microsoft/WSL2-Linux-Kernel.git ~/kern-$KERNVER zcat /proc/config.gz > ~/kern-$KERNVER/.config make -C ~/kern-$KERNVER -j 4 make -C ~/kern-$KERNVER -j 4 modules_install ln -s /lib/modules/$KERNVER-microsoft-standard-WSL2+ /lib/modules/$KERNVER-microsoft-standard-WSL2

7.0 is now available: https://github.com/microsoft/winget-pkgs/pull/147886

I researched this for a WinGet thing: https://github.com/microsoft/winget-pkgs/pull/110618

Ah, reminds me of that time I requested a .editorconfig file in a Microsoft repo: https://github.com/microsoft/winget-pkgs/issues/329

Take dropbox as an example. This is what the yaml manifest looks like for that if you install it through winget. It literally has a hardcoded link to an .exe installer hosted by dropbox and then just set the flags to silent. I am not spreading misinformation, you are.

It's not quite the same though, as there are different considerations when using a repository of things a unified group has decided should be included and built (or slightly modified existing) packages for and a repo where anyone can submit a package that will go through some level of vetting. In the end I still believe most this discussion is really about individuals and how much trust they apply towards different groups and sources and is not really about Linux or Windows in particular as much.

1: https://github.com/microsoft/winget-pkgs

I never used winget, but probably: - https://github.com/microsoft/winget-pkgs/issues/107858 - https://github.com/Genymobile/scrcpy/issues/4027

It's probably not on the Store, winget pulls from both the Store and a community collection of manifests on GitHub: https://github.com/microsoft/winget-pkgs

I think that's part of the problem, if you don't have that package manager to bootstrap your signature key ring, DNS is your next best bootstrap. It is, of course, a terrible bootstrap for trust, but it is one so many users on Windows have been relying on for such a long time.

For power users on any modern Windows 10/Windows 11 there is at least WinGet now. Its manifests repo is becoming a very interesting (open) source of truth for common Windows applications. Admittedly, it in most cases doesn't seem to be checking specific code signatures in most cases either, but at least includes SHA checksums.

For instance, 7zip's manifests: https://github.com/microsoft/winget-pkgs/tree/master/manifes...

It's too bad there's still not a great option for "average user that doesn't know/trust how to use a CLI", given how sadly polluted the Microsoft Store can be for many common, especially Open Source, applications. For direct instance, because winget kindly includes Microsoft Store results when searching, there is a "7zip 22" in the Microsoft Store that costs some amount of money (winget details say "PaidUnknownPrice" for the pricing information; I'm on a corporate machine right now with the actual Store access locked so can't search in the actual Store right now) and the Publisher is listed as RepackagerExpress.com. (That website currently doesn't go anywhere, giving it a spot check.)

Having seen this, I may boot up my personal machine and try to report this specific Store listing for violating the Store's Open Source policies, though I'm unsure if such whackamole is all that useful. (Seems like it might be a useful winget feature request for it to provide Store Report URLs.)

For example, see that Firefox has /S here.