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On WSL

خطر

This setup is mainly meant for local testing by advanced users. Due to limitations on WSL's side (changing IP address, notably), selfhosting from it can be tricky and will not be described here.

Pre-requisites​

  • Windows 10 and above
  • Administration rights
  • Windows Subsystem for Linux, installed from the Optional Features menu of Windows
  • Recommended: Windows Terminal (Preview) app, installed from the Microsoft Store. Much better than the standard Terminal, as it offers shortcuts to the WSL distros.
  • A computer or a smartphone to read this guide and access your server.

Introduction​

WSL is a nice feature of Windows 10, making Linux pseudo-distributions available through command line. Let's say pseudo, because even though they are not really like virtual machines, they rely on virtualization capacities that make their integration with Windows almost seamless. Docker for Windows can now rely on WSL instead of Hyper-V, for example.

warning

Bear in mind, this setup itself is not a container of any kind. If something breaks, there is no rollback capability.
You may need to delete the Debian distro altogether and restore it whole.

Install Debian 12​

Let's install YunoHost into its own distro, not altering the default one. In a PowerShell terminal:

# Let's go in your home directory and prepare the working directories
cd ~
mkdir -p WSL\YunoHost
# Download the Debian appx package and unzip it
curl.exe -L -o debian.zip https://aka.ms/wsl-debian-gnulinux
Expand-Archive .\debian.zip -DestinationPath .\debian
# Import the Debian base into a new distro
wsl --import YunoHost ~\WSL\YunoHost ~\debian\install.tar.gz --version 2
# Cleanup
rmdir .\debian -R

You can now access it: run wsl.exe -d YunoHost

It is under Debian 9 Stretch, so let's upgrade it:

# In WSL
sudo sed -i 's/stretch/bookworm/g' /etc/apt/sources.list`
sudo apt update
sudo apt upgrade
sudo apt dist-upgrade

Prevent WSL from tweaking configuration files​

Edit /etc/wsl.conf and put the following code in it:

[network]
generateHosts = false
generateResolvConf = false

Force the use of iptables-legacy​

Somehow the YunoHost post-installation does not like nf_tables, the new software replacing iptables. We can still explicitely use the good ol' iptables though:

# In WSL
sudo update-alternatives --set iptables /usr/sbin/iptables-legacy
sudo update-alternatives --set ip6tables /usr/sbin/ip6tables-legacy

Install Systemd​

Debian on WSL does not have systemd, a service configuration software. This is a key element for YunoHost, and for any decent Debian distro (seriously MS, what the heck). Let's install it:

  1. Install dotNET runtime:

    # In WSL
    wget https://packages.microsoft.com/config/debian/12/packages-microsoft-prod.deb -O packages-microsoft-prod.deb
    sudo dpkg -i packages-microsoft-prod.deb
    sudo apt update
    sudo apt install -y apt-transport-https
    sudo apt update
    sudo apt install -y dotnet-sdk-3.1

  2. Install Genie:

    # In WSL
    # Add their repository
    echo "deb [trusted=yes] https://wsl-translinux.arkane-systems.net/apt/ /" > /etc/apt/sources.list.d/wsl-translinux.list
    # Install Genie
    sudo apt update
    sudo apt install -y systemd-genie

Install YunoHost​

# In WSL
# Let's switch to the root user, if you were not already
sudo su
# Initialize the Genie bottle to have systemd running
genie -s
# Your hostname should have been appended with "-wsl"
# Install YunoHost
curl https://install.yunohost.org | bash -s -- -a

Access the command line​

Always call genie -s while starting your distro.

wsl -d YunoHost -e genie -s

Backup and restore the distro​

Make your first distro backup​

As said before, there is no rollback capability. So let's export your fresh distro. In PowerShell:

cd ~
wsl --export YunoHost .\WSL\YunoHost.tar.gz

In case of crash, delete and restore the whole distro​

cd ~
wsl --unregister YunoHost
wsl --import YunoHost .\WSL\YunoHost .\WSL\YunoHost.tar.gz --version 2