Did you know you can take a docker container and WSL it?

We won’t go over installing WSL here, but either 1 or 2 works.

Quick How To

Lets say we want debian bookworm

1. export CONTAINER='debian:bookworm'
2. podman run -t $CONTAINER bash ls
3. export CONTAINER_ID=$(podman container ls -a | grep -i $CONTAINER | awk '{print$1}')
4. podman export $CONTAINER_ID > /mnt/c/Users/$USER/$(echo $CONTAINER | sed s/:/-/).tar

Then from Windows/Powershell

1. wsl.exe --import --version 2 debian-bookworm 'C:\Users\$USER\debian-bookworm' 'C:\Users\$USER\debian-bookworm.tar'

First arg is the distro name

Second arg is the folder in which to store the distro

Third arg is the source .tar file for the distro

Setting a different User

export NEW_USER=imranh
useradd -m -G sudo -s /bin/bash "$NEW_USER"
passwd "$NEW_USER"

echo -e "[user]\ndefault=$NEW_USER" >> /etc/wsl.conf

Useful WSL Commands

List all WSL Instances/Distros

wsl --list --all --verbose

Shutdown an instance

wsl --shutdown <name>

OR

wsl --terminate <name>

Delete WSL Instance

wsl --unregister <name>