Windows Subsystem for Linux 2 available for Windows Server 2022 — Redmondmag.com

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Windows Subsystem for Linux 2 available for Windows Server 2022

Microsoft said this week that Windows Subsystem for Linux version 2 (WSL2) is now available for installation on Windows Server 2022.

WSL is a component that supports running Linux development tools (but not workloads) on Windows systems. Originally, this was an installation option for Windows client systems. The Ubuntu Linux distribution is installed by default with these WSL2 installations on Windows Server 2022.

The official installation guide is not yet updated to describe how to install WSL2 on Windows Server 2022, the announcement notes. As of press time, the guide has just outlined the installation process for WSL for Windows Server 2019.

“However, the Install Linux on Windows with WSL documentation works perfectly fine as long as you’ve enabled the optional ‘Windows Subsystem for Linux’ feature and rebooted first,” the announcement reads.

The announcement lists PowerShell commands to install WSL2 on Windows Server 2022. The Linux Bash CLI tool can also be used.

Using WSL2 on Windows Server 2022 requires installing update KB5014021, which is a preview of a non-security update. The server must also have previously installed a particular August update.

“In the patch notes it is mentioned that you to have to Install KB5005039, dated August 10, 2021, before installing the latest cumulative update (LCU),” the announcement explained.

Microsoft’s plan was to make WSL2 “widely available in June” for installation on Windows Server 2022. Using it requires having “Hyper-V and virtualization enabled on your computer.”