Linux distributions running on Windows in WSL2 virtual machines can now use the init system.
This week, Microsoft and Canonical jointly announced the news that the latest versions of the Windows subsystem for Linux 2 (version 0.67.6 and later) have been modified to support systemd. The Canonical blog post contains some technical details and an opportunity to promote something out of the LXD container.
The corresponding Microsoft ad is less technical, and the YouTube demo video is less technical, but states that there are several alternative third-party solutions that have achieved the same thing.
registration He predicted this about a year ago, and we think this may have something to do with System CEO Lennart Pottering, who joined the Windows giant a few months ago.
sudo systemctl stop grinning… Lennart Poetting May 2015
For clarity, this is for WSL2, the second generation of the Windows subsystem for Linux. WSL2 uses a subset of the integrated Hyper-V capabilities of the Windows operating system to run an entire Linux kernel inside a dedicated virtual machine. The original version 1 of WSL was an entirely different tool that did not include a full Linux kernel.
In the joint Microsoft/Canonical demo video, Linux features that require systemd functionality include MicroK8s (pronounced “small cases” and does not mention Kubernetes), NextCloud, and the Canonical Shared Package Format. Examples of tools such as Snap are shown.
Previously, we were using Microsoft software running as PID 1 to integrate with the host OS, so doing this required changing the way WSL2 worked. As such, changes to systemd support will not be pushed automatically, as this could be a problem for existing users. To enable it, you will need to install or upgrade to the required version of WSL2 from the Microsoft Store.
This has been an open issue for a long time and is causing problems for some users. For this Linux veteran, systemctl It doesn’t seem like a huge flaw, but it’s confusing for young system administrators who haven’t seen a distro without Poettering’s brainchild.
Other veterans may see the lack of Containers, Snaps, Flatpaks, and in fact systemd itself as an added advantage, but that’s a culture gap between generations and it won’t be narrow. I can’t guess that Microsoft’s adoption, optimization, and then deprecation of the system can be considered a good thing. ®