WSL

Building your own WSL 2 kernel with additional drivers

Update WSL:

wsl --update

List your distributions.

wsl --list --verbose

Verify that your target distribution is version 2; see WSL documentation for instructions on how to set the WSL version.

Export current distribution to be able to fall back if something goes wrong.

wsl --export <current-distro> <temporary-path>\wsl2-usbip.tar

Import new distribution with current distribution as base.

wsl --import wsl2-usbip <install-path> <temporary-path>\wsl2-usbip.tar

Run new distribution.

wsl --distribution wsl2-usbip --user <user>

Update resources (assuming apt, you may need to use yum or another package manager).

sudo apt update
sudo apt upgrade

Install prerequisites.

sudo apt install -y git build-essential flex bison libssl-dev libelf-dev libncurses-dev autoconf libudev-dev libtool bc pahole dwarves

Note

Depending on the drivers you will select below, additional packages may be required.

Clone kernel that matches WSL version. To find the version you can run.

uname -r

The kernel can be found at: https://github.com/microsoft/WSL2-Linux-Kernel

Clone the kernel repo, then checkout the branch/tag that matches your kernel version; run uname -r to find the kernel version.

git clone https://github.com/microsoft/WSL2-Linux-Kernel.git
cd WSL2-Linux-Kernel
git checkout linux-msft-wsl-5.10.43.3
gunzip -kc /proc/config.gz |>/dev/null sudo tee .config
make menuconfig

Add additional features, e.g.
Device Drivers -> USB Support -> USB Mass Storage support

CORE=$(getconf _NPROCESSORS_ONLN)
make -j $CORE && sudo make modules_install -j $CORE && sudo make install -j $CORE

From the root of the repo, copy the image.

cp arch/x86/boot/bzImage /mnt/c/Users/<user>/

Create a .wslconfig file on /mnt/c/Users/<user>/ and add a reference to the created image with the following.

[wsl2]
kernel=c:/users/<user>/bzImage

Your WSL distro is now ready to use!