I’ve blogged earlier than on how you can simply transfer WSL distributions between Home windows 10 machines with import and export. I lately did a full recent set up of Home windows 11 and wished to convey my current extremely custom-made Ubuntu set up together with me.
You may tar up (zip up) the user-mode elements of your WSL2 distributions like this:
wsl --export Ubuntu-20.04 c:TempUbuntuBackup.tar
The half after –export is the distribution title which you could see from working wsl --list -v. The final argument is a full path and filename for the archive you need created.
Subsequent, on the machine you’ve got moved to, you will do the reverse. Discover that I’ve modified the Distro title right here, and you may if you’d like. Keep in mind additionally which you could have as many Linux Distros put in as you need.
wsl --import Ubuntu c:Linux c:TempUbuntuBackup.tar
The Linux file system is saved in a VHDX (digital onerous drive), often deep in AppData/Native/YadaYada, however this import is a chance for me to retailer it in C:Linux which may also make it simpler to do upkeep on like Compact-VHD which shrinks your WSL2 disks.
This is the bizarre half. If you import a WSL2 distro manually, working that distro on the brand new machine will find yourself logging you in as root. It is forgotten that I am “scott.”
There’s numerous methods to repair this that contain the registry or passing in arguments to wsl, however I simply need it to work once I run “wsl” or “wsl -d distroname.”
Run your distro, after which edit /and so forth/wsl.conf and add a [user] part like this:
[user]
default=scott
That is the perfect strategy to set your WSL distro’s default consumer for imported tars as a result of it is saved contained in the Linux file system and the setting will stick round once you export/import afterward.
Hope this helps!
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About Scott
Scott Hanselman is a former professor, former Chief Architect in finance, now speaker, advisor, father, diabetic, and Microsoft worker. He’s a failed stand-up comedian, a cornrower, and a guide creator.
