ubuntu_desktop_on_windows

Run Ubuntu WSL (Windows Subsystem for Linux) with a desktop environment on Windows 10 with a single click.

Project maintained by antonhoess Hosted on GitHub Pages — Theme by mattgraham

Use Ubuntu with Desktop on Windows

With the right setup it is possible to use Ubuntu WSL (= Windows Subsystem for Linux) on Windows not just using the terminal, but also a desktop environment. All this with only a single click (or double click ;)).

Used versions:

Plan of attack

Sounds good? So let’s get started…

Install Ubuntu on Windows

Steps to perform:

Activate the Developer Mode (if not yet done)

  1. If not yet done, activate the Developer Mode:
    • Open the Start menu.
    • Type Settings and click on the appearing entry.
      Settings
    • Click on Update & Security.
      Update & Security
    • On the left, choose For Developers.
      For Developers
    • If the Developer Mode option is activated, there’s nothing to do here. Otherwise click on it.
      Developer Mode Off
    • You’ll be asked if you are sure to turn the developer mode on and install it’s components. Click on Yes, which will trigger the installation. Wait until the installation has completed.
      Use Developers Features
  2. Install Windows Subsystem for Linux
    • Open the Start menu.
    • Type Windows Features and click on the appearing entry.
      Windows Features
    • Scroll down to the entry Windows Subsystem for Linux and click the checkbox if not yet activated.
      Windows Subsystem for Linux
    • Click on OK. Grant administrator rights if asked for.

  3. Reboot Windows.

  4. Install Ubuntu:
    • Open the Start menu.
    • Type Store and click on the appearing entry.
      Microsoft Store
    • Click the Search field in the top right corner, type in Ubuntu, and hit enter.
    • Choose the newest Ubuntu version and click on it.
      Newest Ubuntu
    • Click on Get and wait until the download has finished.
    • When the download has completed, click on Launch.
    • (For starting Ubuntu at a later time, you can open the start menu, type Ubuntu and clock on the appearing entry, which might not yet available yet.)
      Ubuntu
    • Now the Ubuntu terminal windows should have opened.
      Ubuntu Install Terminal
    • Enter your desired Ubuntu username (which does not need to be the same as your Windows username).
    • Enter the desired password for your new Ubuntu user. Repeat the password entry.
    • Now you should see a linux prompt waiting for your commands.
      Congratulations, you’ve just installed Ubuntu on your Windows machine!
  5. Install system components
    • System, XFCE, xrdp ``` bash # Update the system. sudo apt update && sudo apt -y upgrade

    # Install the (lightweight) XFCE desktop environment. sudo apt -y install xfce4

    # Install remote desktop (RDP) server. sudo apt-get install xrdp

    # Configure the RDP server. sudo cp /etc/xrdp/xrdp.ini /etc/xrdp/xrdp.ini.bak sudo sed -i ‘s/3389/3390/g’ /etc/xrdp/xrdp.ini sudo sed -i ‘s/max_bpp=32/#max_bpp=32\nmax_bpp=128/g’ /etc/xrdp/xrdp.ini sudo sed -i ‘s/xserverbpp=24/#xserverbpp=24\nxserverbpp=128/g’ /etc/xrdp/xrdp.ini

    # Start the xrdp server (manually). sudo /etc/init.d/xrdp start

             * Adapt xrdp configuration file
 ``` bash
 sudo sed -i 's%\(test -x /etc/X11/Xsession && exec /etc/X11/Xsession\)%#\1%g' /etc/xrdp/startwm.sh
 sudo sed -i 's%\(exec /bin/sh /etc/X11/Xsession\)%#\1%g' /etc/xrdp/startwm.sh
 echo -e "\n# xfce\nstartxfce4" | sudo tee -a /etc/xrdp/startwm.sh > /dev/null
  6. Start Windows remote desktop:
    • Open the Start menu.
    • Type Remote and click on the appearing entry.
      Remote Desktop Connection
    • Click on Show Options in the bottom left corner to expand the window.
    • Enter the connection information as follows:
      RDP Settings
    • Computer: localhost:3390
    • User name: <USER>
    • Allow me to save credentials: Check if it’s okay for you to store the password. This allows for logging in directly. * Click on Connect.
      • If the Allow me to save credentials option is active, a Windows prompt will appear to ask for the Ubuntu user’s password. Windows will store this password for future logins.
        RDP Enter Credentials
      • If the Allow me to save credentials option is not active, the xrdp prompt will appear and ask for your Ubuntu user’s password. This window will appear on each login.
        xrdp Login Prompt * Now you should see the full screen XFCE desktop environment.

Starting Ubuntu with desktop environment

This seems to be the most tricky part of this whole setup. Fortunately it is possible to execute commands on Ubuntu using the Windows command line:

wsl.exe <command>

Or for short:

wsl <command>

Challenges

Keeping in mind that our goal is to use just use a single click (or execution of a single command) to start Ubuntu with a desktop environment, we face following challenges:

Close the opened Ubuntu WSL terminal

So how to start Ubuntu without leaving a command line opened?

At this point it’s important to understand the mechanism.

Since running wsl.exe is the only way to boot the system and this command opens a terminal window, we need to close this window automatically. Therefore, we need an exit command in the ~/.bashrc, which has the downside that if we open an Ubuntu terminal later on, it will close immediately.

To solve this, the most straight forward solution seems to be using a flag. This flag can be implemented using a file within Ubuntu, as it can be accessed by Windows and Ubuntu. The existence if this file means that the flag is set, otherwise it’s not set.

When running our start script on Windows (see below), this flag needs to be set using wsl.exe touch /tmp/wsl_flag and after starting Ubuntu, the flag needs to be reset using rm /tmp/wsl_flag.

Start the remote desktop server (xrdp)

So how to get the remote desktop server (xrdp) started when there’s no startup system on the Ubuntu WSL?

To solve this problem we just hook the solution of the first problem and start the server on the first login (i.e. after booting Ubuntu) using sudo /etc/init.d/xrdp start.

Did you recognize the sudo? This is necessary if you want to start a service as a regular user. But to use it, there need’s to be an appropriate entry in the sudoers config. We’ll make use of the /etc/sudoers.d/ system, which means that we create a new file called xrdp in this folder, which gets analysed automatically by the sudoers system. This approach is more flexible, since there’s no more need to modify the /etc/sudoers file.

To create this sudoers entry, run

sudo vi /etc/sudoers.d/xrdp

Then paste the following config text in it and replace <USER> with your Ubuntu username.:

# Allow xrdp server to work with sudo

<USER>   ALL=(ALL) NOPASSWD: /etc/init.d/xrdp

Save the file and then change the file mode as follows:

sudo chmod 440 /etc/sudoers.d/xrdp

Attention:

Bringing it all together

To perform all these action at once, we need some scripts. Note, that some commands below may run asynchronously.

Starting script on Windows

Create a new file which might be called Start Ubuntu 20.04 LTS WSL VM.bat and paste this code in it:

@echo "Starting Ubuntu 20.04 LTS WSL VM..."
@echo off
wsl touch /tmp/wsl_flag
wsl
start /B mstsc /f /v:localhost:3390

Executing this script perform these actions:

To prevent the terminal window shows up until the system has started, just create a shortcut to the batch script and in the settings go to “Run” and select “Minimized”.

Starting script on Ubuntu

Add the following code block to the very end of ~/.bashrc:

# Exit from login if just used to start WSL
flag="/tmp/wsl_flag"

if [ -f "${flag}" ] ; then
  rm "${flag}"

  # Start xrdp server
  sudo /etc/init.d/xrdp start

  # Wait for service is running
  while ! service --status-all 2>&1 | grep xrdp | grep + >/dev/null ; do
    sleep 1
  done

  echo "Cancelling from login"
  exit
fi

When the user logs in, this code checks if the flag is set.

Test

On clicking the script Start Ubuntu 20.04 LTS WSL VM.bat on Windows, you should see the Ubuntu terminal opening, printing some output on it and closing automatically. Then the remote desktop client starts and connects to the server. You should now see the XFCE desktop from Ubuntu in full screen.

Congratulations!

Additional commands

Conclusion

After installing the necessary software, the whole mechanism comes down to:

Notes