Background & Functionality

It is very easy to run a complete Linux environment including its graphical user interface on a Windows computer. Windows Remote Desktop is used as a client to access the graphical user interface of Linux based on the installed desktop environment (e.g. “Xfce”¹). It feels as if Linux and its desktop environment are installed directly on the computer. The following features are supported:

• Copy & paste files between the Windows desktop and the Linux desktop environment
• Multi-monitor operation
• Video-Streaming, e.g. YouTube
• Preview: Connecting USB devices, e.g. audio/video via “usbipd-win”²

Prerequisites

• At least Windows 11³ is installed
• WSL2⁴ must be enabled on Windows 11
• Curl⁵ must be present on Windows 11 (Installed by default since Windows 10)

Steps

1. Download the rootfs-image for WSL of a Linux distribution - in our case we are using Noble Numbat LTS⁶

   - inside Windows Command Prompt -

   • Press the keyboard shortcut Windows-Key + R-Key
   • Type cmd in the small window and confirm with the Return key or click OK
   • Creating a Folder

     mkdir "%userprofile%\mylinux"
     

   • Download Distribution

     curl https://cloud-images.ubuntu.com/wsl/noble/current/ubuntu-noble-wsl-amd64-ubuntu24.04lts.rootfs.tar.gz --output "%userprofile%\mylinux\mylinux-rootfs.tar.gz"
     

2. Import the downloaded rootfs-image

   - inside Windows Command Prompt -

   • Start the import process

     wsl --import mylinux "%userprofile%\mylinux\vhdx" "%userprofile%\mylinux\mylinux-rootfs.tar.gz"
     

3. Check the Import

   - inside Windows Command Prompt -

   • List the installed subsystems

     wsl -l -v
     

   • The import was successful if “mylinux” appears in the list of distributions

     NAME       STATE           VERSION
     mylinux    Stopped         2
     

4. Launch Linux Distribution

   - inside Windows Command Prompt -

   • Launch the installed subsystem

     wsl -d mylinux
     

   • Note: The Windows Command Prompt switches to the terminal of the Linux distribution for the first time

5. Check the Distribution inside the Terminal of the Linux Distribution

   - inside Linux Terminal -

   • Show release information

     lsb_release -a
     

   • The resulting output should look like this

     No LSB modules are available.
     Distributor ID: Ubuntu
     Description:    Ubuntu 24.04.1 LTS
     Release:        24.04
     Codename:       noble
     

   • Assign a password for the user “root”

     passwd root
     

   • Note: The password must be entered twice in a row
   • Important: Within the Xrdp environment, the user “root” is required for security-critical processes such as mounting drives

6. Install the desktop environment “Xfce” and “Xrdp”⁷

   - inside Linux Terminal -

   • Install the needed packages

     apt update && apt install -y xfce4 xrdp
     

   • The technical user “Xrdp” must be assigned to the group “ssl-cert”

     adduser xrdp ssl-cert
     

   • Create a new user “tux” for the login via “Xrdp”

     useradd -m -G users,sudo tux
     

   • Assign a password for the new user “tux”

     passwd tux
     

   • Note: The password must be entered twice in a row

7. Prepare the custom X-Session

   - inside Linux Terminal -

   • Switch to the user “tux” previously created

     su - tux
     

   • Edit the x-session configuration

     echo xfce4-session >> ~/.xsession
     

   • Leave the tux user session

     exit
     

8. Configuring the Linux distribution to use “systemd”

   - inside Linux Terminal -

   • Edit the configuration for WSL

     echo -e "[network]\nhostname=mylinux\n[boot]\nsystemd=true" > /etc/wsl.conf
     

   • Leave the terminal of the Linux distribution afterwards

     exit
     

9. Shut down WSL and restart the Linux distribution

   - inside Windows Command Prompt -

   • The subsystem must first be terminated to initiate a reboot afterwards

     wsl -t mylinux
     

   • Very important Note: If another subsystem is running, under which another Xrdp server is active on the default port 3389, it is mandatory to reboot Windows at this point!
   • Boot the Linux distribution

     wsl -d mylinux
     

   • Note: The Windows Command Prompt switches back to the terminal of the Linux distribution

10. Check if Xrdp is started

    - inside Linux Terminal -

    • Check if Xrdp is running correctly

      systemctl status xrdp
      

    • The first two lines of the resulting output should look like this

      ● xrdp.service - xrdp daemon
      Loaded: loaded (/lib/systemd/system/xrdp.service; enabled; preset: enabled)
      Active: active (running) since ...
      .
      .
      .
      

11. Important: It is required to start a separate Windows Command Prompt

    • The Linux Terminal must remain open
    • Press the keyboard shortcut Windows-Key + R-Key
    • In the small window, type cmd and confirm with the Return key or click OK

12. Identify IP address used by WSL

    - inside Windows Command Prompt -_

    • Check IP addresses used by WSL

      wsl hostname -I
      

    • Possibly the resulting output are multiple IP addresses, e.g.

      172.25.107.5 172.18.0.1 172.20.0.1
      

13. Access the remote desktop by using the first IP address displayed

    - inside Windows Command Prompt -

    • Start a new remote desktop session

      mstsc /v:"172.25.107.5"
      

14. Log in via the Remote Desktop Client

    - inside Windows Remote Desktop -

    • Enter tux as username
    • Log in with the password previously set for the tux user
    • The desktop of Xfce will be displayed

Optional: Complete uninstallation of the Linux distribution

Attention: Removes everything that has been downloaded or created in the previous steps

• Downloaded root-fs-image “mylinux-rootfs.tar.gz”

• Created virtual disk “ext.vhdx”

• Stored data within the Linux distribution

• The following steps are needed

  - inside Windows Command Prompt -

  • Press the keyboard shortcut Windows-Key + R-Key
  • In the small window, type cmd and confirm with the Return key or click OK

    wsl --unregister mylinux
    

    rmdir /s /q "%userprofile%\mylinux"
    

See also

1. → ics2csv4win - Transform iCalendar resources (ics) to character-separated values (csv)