mwp in WSL win10
Unmaintained Article
As a result of user interest in running mwp on Windows 10 / WSL (see RC Groups and Github issue), here's an experiment to see if it's possible. By a Windows neophyte, so if I can install mwp on WSL, anyone can.
NOTE This article refers to Win10/WSL2. mwp may also be installed in Win11/WSL-G.
- Win11/WSL-g is a much better solution, if you can meet the Win11 hardware requirements. Pretty much everything works in Win11/WSL-g without the limitations listed below.
Windows 10 VM hosted on Arch Linux.
The VM came with WSL / Ubuntu 18.04-2 already installed. The installation / invocation of WSL in native Windows 10 is well documented, so there's nothing more to add here.
As mwp requires a X server, it is necessary to install a Windows' X server. MobaXterm or Vcxsvr.
For this experiment:
- MobaXterm cau use hardware OpenGL; alternatively
- Vcxsrv was configured as:
- disable native OpenGL
- Multiple Windows
- Start no client
Allow connections in the Windows firewall for the local network. Do this for any subsequent Windows firewall dialogues as well.
As a result of the decision to disable native OpenGL, the following package was installed in the WSL instance:
sudo apt install mesa-utils
(note: this may or may not be the best solution)
In order to address some issues of WSL v. a native / VM Linux install, the following packages were installed in WSL/Linux:
sudo apt install dbus-x11
sudo apt install libxml2-utils
The Microsoft VM had git pre-installed in WSL, if this is not the case, then it will be necessary to install it.
sudo apt install git
Note: /etc/sudoers (via visudo) was edited to allows the WSL user to run commands as root without asking for a password.
Then it was just a case of cloning the mwp repository and following mwp's instructions (mwptools/docs/debian-ubuntu-dependencies.txt), to install the dependencies, thusly:
cp mwptools/docs/debian-ubuntu-dependencies.txt /tmp/u.sh
chmod +x /tmp/u.sh
# edit /tmp/u.sh for any optional items ...
sudo /tmp/u.sh Y # 'Y' bypasses interactive query / responses
Then build and install mwp and optionally the blackbox tools (as mwptools/docs/debian-ubuntu-dependencies.txts.txt).
There are a couple of things that are necessary, either a one-off or on each restart of WSL.
Set the DISPLAY (you can add this to .bashrc).
export DISPLAY=WINDOWS_HOST_IP:0
It appears necessary to manually start the dbus service:
sudo service dbus start
Note: There are various hacks described on the internet to automate this.
Due to limitations of the Windows window manager running X applications, and in particular font differences, it is necessary to reduce the font scaling in the mwp 'Flight View' docklet.
gsettings set org.mwptools.planner font-fv 10
# if you still have resizing problems, try 9 ....
Note: Contrary to the reports in #52, this works (at least if you've started the dbus service).
It is probably also wise to remove the NetworkManager dependency:
gsettings set org.mwptools.planner ignore-nm true
Then you can run mwp.
mwp
The screenshot shows it replaying a blackbox log.
- Bugs in WSL/Ubuntu (that are not in native Ubuntu), causing crashes.
- Interaction with the UI sucks, in particular resizing dock panels is a bit 'hit and miss'
- Auto-detection of serial devices is unlikely to work; in WSL2 even using a serial port may not be possible. See the mwp Win11/WSL-g installation article for the
ser2udpworkaround. This should work in Win10 as well. - If you want audio, please research the well documented Windows's pulseaudio hacks --- it works (sort of).
- Compared to native Linux (or even a Linux guest VM in a Windows host or Cygwin), it's a frustrating experience, largely due to interaction with the window manager (which is not a advertised / vendor supported WSL capability), audio etc.
- Ultimately, interesting experiment, but not usable for anything serious.
- Cygwin is a better solution for running mwp in Windows 10.
- Win11 / WSL2-g is a much better option than Win10 /WSL.