wsl-distrod VS wsl2_scripts

Systemd works even in the non-store Windows 10 using https://github.com/nullpo-head/wsl-distrod

In case you're using an older version of WSL that doesn't support systemd, you can give Distrod a try.

It uses snapd (so in turn, systemd) so maybe that's what you missed. Up until the WSL update that brought systemd support I've been using distrod to have systemd in my WSL2 distros so it went all smoothly for me.

I use distrod to get a wsl instance of Arch running. It's nice to have (some) systemd functionality with it ;)

You don't need Docker Desktop to install Linux distros as your WSL2 systems. For Arch there's https://github.com/yuk7/ArchWSL and if you want systemd too then use this one instead https://github.com/nullpo-head/wsl-distrod/ (not specific to just Arch). Also any OCI compliant rootfs tarball goes really, you can use Docker or Podman to export images as tarballs & import them as WSL distros and vice versa. Just telling in case all you want is a distro and not a container engine like Docker running.

You can install the snap version if you have snap running (duh) so, I recommend you to either add systemd to your Ubuntu or make a new Ubuntu installation, both with this one: https://github.com/nullpo-head/wsl-distrod/.

Not sure on the specifics for why it won’t install for you, but I’d recommend trying a tool called distrod regardless. You can get Ubuntu Jammy with it and it makes the distro support systemd.

Install the resolvconf package and write the nameserver etc lines into /etc/resolvconf/resolv.conf.d/base file instead (or depending on your needs, use systemd by using a tool like Distrod and edit /etc/systemd/resolved.conf instead).

I used Distrod tool to install WSL that has extra features like systemd, auto-start and port forwarding ability.

https://github.com/nullpo-head/wsl-distrod I use this at work with Gentoo and it's worked fine.

Once you resolve this, check out these scripts for backing up and restoring your WSL2 instance.

Also, if you use Docker Desktop (windows), and want to backup your wsl2 ubuntu with the wsl --export command, make sure you shutdown docker first. Here's a repo I have with docker, backup, restore scripts and right-click windows options for restoring. . It's nothing fancy but I like it way better than trying to use an app or manually doing everything.

Huh thought I did.. however.. here it is! Repository

You should learn how to backup wsl ubuntu and restore it. Then you can start a process like this and if it doesn't work, you can restore it back without loss of work. Here are some ideasyou can use to implement this..

This is all available from my Github Repository

Take a look at this github repository.. this is the scripts I have for backup / restore of wsl, stopping / restarting docker for windows. Wrote most of it, but some I just found on the web and copied. NO idea who the original author is. So, I use Executor (it's a windows app) to make some shortcut keys to stop/restart docker. Another to backup the current wsl2 ubuntu. I also have a reg file that installs a windows context menu (right-click) to restore a backup. You right-click on the backup file and select the restore option. It's all simple to use. You will have to read each one and make sure it fits your configuration. The .reg file works on windows 11 but I haven't tested it on windows 10.

I saved this tidbit in my files for future use. I just use one instance right now so I wrote scripts to backup to a directory with a hotkey. I can also restore by right-clicking on a vhdx file and selecting restore. I wrote a registry hack to make that happen. Since I use Docker for Windows (from within ubuntu) I wrote a restart script for that as well and assigned a hotkey. I keep this stuff in my github repository if you should want to look at it. It's nothing amazing but sure makes my life easier.

Also if you are interested in some Windows Utilities (just batch and ps1 files) for backup/restore, here' a git repository .