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Preparing WSL for plan9port

Plan 9 from User Space (a.k.a. plan9port) can be installed within the Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL). I have only tried this on WSL 2 (which runs a virtualized Linux kernel), not the older WSL 1 (which merely emulates Linux).

Install WSL if you have not already done so. I have only used Ubuntu (the default Linux distribution for WSL) but other supported distros (e.g., openSUSE or Debian) will probably work also.

X11 in WSL

While it is possible to install plan9port without X11, Acme is a GUI program and on Linux it will need X11.

With WSLg

WSLg (Windows Subsystem for Linux GUI) has support for X11 or Wayland GUI applications. WSLg was released as part of Windows 11 and was also available in Windows 10 insider builds. With WSLg, all you need to do is install Xorg (and its development package, to provide the headers needed to build X11 applications). For example, on Ubuntu:

sudo apt install xorg xorg-dev

Once Xorg is installed, test that you can launch an X11 application:

xcalc &

If that works (and it should work), then that's it, WSL setup is complete. Proceed with plan9port installation.

Without WSLg

Windows 10 (except for certain insider builds) does not have WSLg, and thus out-of-the-box it only supports terminal applications. It is possible to run X11 applications (like plan9port Acme) with a pre-WSLg version of WSL, but it requires manual installation of a third-party Xorg server:

  • Download and install VcXsrv, which is a version of the Xorg server that has been ported to Windows. The installation defaults are fine.
  • An "XLaunch" item will have been added to the Start Menu. Open it. Change two of the default settings:
    • On the first screen, the "Display number" must be 0.
    • On the third screen, "Disable access control" must be selected.
    • See here for screenshots of launching VcXsrv with these settings.
  • When VcXsrv is running, there will be an X logo icon in the system tray. To close VcXsrv, right click on its icon and select "Exit...".

Open WSL. Install Xorg and the X11 development headers. For example, on Ubuntu:

sudo apt install xorg xorg-dev

Test that you can launch an X11 application:

export DISPLAY=$(/sbin/ip route | awk '/default/ { print $3 }'):0
xcalc &

Add the export DISPLAY line to your shell's initialization file (e.g., ~/.bashrc or ~/.zshrc). For example:

# If running in WSL...
if [ -d /mnt/c/Windows ]; then
	# Set DISPLAY for VcXsrv
	export DISPLAY=$(/sbin/ip route | awk '/default/ { print $3 }'):0
fi

That's it. Adapted from: VcXsrv & Win10 "Alternative Setup".

Install plan9port in WSL

Once WSL 2 is installed, and X11 is working (either via WSLg or via a third-party X server, as detailed above), plan9port can be installed as it would be on Linux. See setup.md for details.