Install Archlinux on WSL

A brief guide to install Arch linux or any other distros linux on Windows WSL.

Required Steps

1. download and unzip LxRunOffline
2. download archlinux-bootstrap

3. install in powershell:

   LxRunOffline i -n <distro-name> -f <archlinux-bootstrap.tar.gz> -d <install_DIR> -r root.x86_64
   

   you may need to upgrade the new distro to wsl2:

   wsl.exe --set-version <distro name> 2
   

4. add an admin user

   groupadd wheel
   useradd -m -G users,wheel <username>
   
   # if you want to grant wheel group nopasswd sudo
   # add the following line code to wheel config in /etc/sudoers.d/
   %wheel ALL=(ALL:ALL) NOPASSWD: ALL
   

5. enable systemd and set default user in /etc/wsl.conf

   [boot]
   systemd = true
   
   [user]
   default = <your-username>
   

6. set pacman mirror-list in /etc/pacman.d/mirrorlist

7. pacman-key init

   pacman-key --init && pacman-key --populate
   

8. install dev packages if you need

   yes | pacman -S archlinux-keyring base-devel inetutils git wget
   

Optional

• add your admin user to sudoers, or add the wheel group if you want.

  %wheel ALL=(ALL:ALL) NOPASSWD: ALL
  

• if you want to share the proxy with the Win, add config in to your profile file.

  export ALL_PROXY=$(tail -1 /etc/resolv.conf | awk '{print $2}'):<win-proxy-port>
  

• to check wsl’s eth0 info in Powershell

  wsl -- ifconfig eth0
  

Other details or cmd please check WSL Doc