Hi everyone,

Over the last little while I've been inspired to improve the Gentoo WSL experience. My end goal here is to get a Gentoo image distributed via
the Windows Store which can be installed with minimal user interaction.

So far it's looking pretty successful: using the stage3-openrc-desktop
as a base I've produced a stage4-wsl image that includes required WSL configuration, along with QoL changes, like a Logo,
out-of-box-experience script (user creation), etc.

Images have been tested in a VM, and by several volunteers on real
hardware (thanks!), the only known caveat is that an existing WSL container/distro named "Gentoo" may need to be exported and reimported
with a different name.

Testing WSL images can be found here: https://wsl.gentoo.zip/
arm64 images "soon".

Modern (>=2.4.4) versions of WSL can just double-click the archive, and
older versions can install it via PowerShell. The wiki has been updated,
see:
https://wiki.gentoo.org/wiki/Gentoo_in_WSL#Importing_Gentoo_via_stage_file

What do I need right now?

* End user testing and feedback: If anyone with access to Windows 10 or
11 is willing to try installing the tarball (.tar.xz masquerading as
.wsl) and pointing out any rough edges I would really appreciate it

* Code review: Have I missed anything in the OOBE script?

* Spec customisations: I've only included mesa and the WSL OOBE script,
but are there any common WSL workflows that the image should cater
for?

* Expressions of interest in systemd-based images: The OOBE script would
need to change, but there's nothing stopping us from publishing them.
OpenRC images would likely be published to the store as there are
caveats with running certain systemd units on WSL

* Help updating the wiki: The documentation for Gentoo in WSL could
stand to be improved.

The WSL configuration can be found here:
* https://github.com/kangie/gentoo-wsl-config

The specs used to build the wsl images can be found here:
* https://github.com/Kangie/releng/tree/wsl

I'll shortly push gentoo-wsl-config into ::gentoo so that those
specs are usable, but it's trivial to package into a standalone
testing repo.

Cheers,

Matt

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)

On 5/23/2025 7:45 PM, Matt Jolly wrote:

Hi everyone,

Over the last little while I've been inspired to improve the Gentoo WSL experience. My end goal here is to get a Gentoo image distributed via
the Windows Store which can be installed with minimal user interaction.

I was thinking about looking into this myself during some upcoming time
off. Fantastic timing. Have you thought about making a WSL project?
Either way I'm in :).

So far it's looking pretty successful: using the stage3-openrc-desktop
as a base I've produced a stage4-wsl image that includes required WSL configuration, along with QoL changes, like a Logo,
out-of-box-experience script (user creation), etc.

Images have been tested in a VM, and by several volunteers on real
hardware (thanks!), the only known caveat is that an existing WSL container/distro named "Gentoo" may need to be exported and reimported
with a different name.

FWIW https://gist.github.com/akordowski/871c5fbdbd128090cbc3d964ec35cfa0
worked for me.

Testing WSL images can be found here: https://wsl.gentoo.zip/
arm64 images "soon".

Modern (>=2.4.4) versions of WSL can just double-click the archive, and
older versions can install it via PowerShell. The wiki has been updated,
see: https://wiki.gentoo.org/wiki/Gentoo_in_WSL#Importing_Gentoo_via_stage_file

What do I need right now?

* End user testing and feedback: If anyone with access to Windows 10 or
  11 is willing to try installing the tarball (.tar.xz masquerading as
  .wsl) and pointing out any rough edges I would really appreciate it

I already broke it! See: https://usercontent.irccloud-cdn.com/file/aU2KI8xl/image.png -- I've not
yet done significant troubleshooting -- I'll PR the repo with a fix to
oobe.sh if I find one.

* Code review: Have I missed anything in the OOBE script?

* Spec customisations: I've only included mesa and the WSL OOBE script,
  but are there any common WSL workflows that the image should cater
  for?

* Expressions of interest in systemd-based images: The OOBE script would
  need to change, but there's nothing stopping us from publishing them.
  OpenRC images would likely be published to the store as there are
  caveats with running certain systemd units on WSL

I have a manually-imported systemd WSL I've been using for ages. I'd
prefer a systemd image :).

* Help updating the wiki: The documentation for Gentoo in WSL could
  stand to be improved.

The WSL configuration can be found here:
* https://github.com/kangie/gentoo-wsl-config

I skimmed the OOBE. It looks OK but will take a closer look.

I'll shortly push gentoo-wsl-config into ::gentoo so that those
specs are usable, but it's trivial to package into a standalone
testing repo.

Good Stuff!

-JayF

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)

On 5/24/2025 2:05 PM, Jay Faulkner wrote:

I already broke it! See: https://usercontent.irccloud-cdn.com/file/aU2KI8xl/image.png -- I've
not yet done significant troubleshooting -- I'll PR the repo with a
fix to oobe.sh if I find one.

This was with the 5/24/2025 dated image -- with the 5/22/2025 image it
appears to be working as intended.


-JayF

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)