Windows 10 GUI for WSL2.....

priort · May 20, 2021, 6:03pm

I may have to see if I can get this up and running. It will be an upgrade from the xserver/WSL2 work around to get Linux GUI running on the Windows 10 desktop…darktable ran fine there so it should even be smoother here…

github.com

microsoft/wslg/blob/main/README.md

# Welcome to WSLg
WSLg is short for *Windows Subsystem for Linux GUI* and the purpose of the project is to enable support for running Linux GUI applications (X11 and Wayland) on Windows in a fully integrated desktop experience. 

WSLg provides an integrated experience for developers, scientists or enthusiasts that prefer or need to run Windows on their PC but also need the ability to run tools or applications which works best, or exclusively, in a Linux environment. While users can accomplish this today using a multiple system setup, with individual PC dedicated to Windows and Linux, virtual machine hosting either Windows or Linux, or an XServer running on Windows and projected into WSL, WSLg provides a more integrated, user friendly and productive alternative.

WSLg strives to make Linux GUI applications feel native and natural to use on Windows. From integration into the Start Menu for launch to appearing in the task bar, alt-tab experience to enabling cut/paste across Windows and Linux applications, WSLg enables a seamless desktop experience and workflow leveraging Windows and Linux applications.

![WSLg Integrated Desktop](/docs/WSLg_IntegratedDesktop.png)

# Installing WSLg

## Pre-requisites

- Windows 10 Insider Preview build 21362+
   - WSLg is going to be generally available alongside the upcoming release of Windows. To get access to a preview of WSLg, you'll need to join the [Windows Insider Program](https://insider.windows.com/en-us/) and be running a Windows 10 Insider Preview build from the dev channel.

- It recommended to run WSLg on a system with virtual GPU (vGPU) enabled for WSL so you can benefit from hardware accelerated OpenGL rendering. You can find preview driver supporting WSL from each of our partners below.

   - [AMD GPU driver for WSL](https://community.amd.com/community/radeon-pro-graphics/blog/2020/06/17/announcing-amd-support-for-gpu-accelerated-machine-learning-training-on-windows-10)
   - [Intel GPU driver for WSL](https://downloadcenter.intel.com/download/29526)

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Entropy512 · May 20, 2021, 7:14pm

Nice to see it’s making progress - although the requirements for a Windows Insider build mean it’s going to be another 2-3 years before I see this as an option in my primary Windows use cases.

Heck, as it is, I’m still considered a “beta tester” for 1909 rollout on my work laptop

(Although strangely, they rolled out 20H2 to someone which REALLY surprised me… But that person is located in a different site that has their own local IT staff who might not have properly communicated with the mothership)

paperdigits · May 20, 2021, 7:19pm

I’d be really really surprised if color management works at all with WSL, under the hood it is RDP any Wayland.

priort · May 20, 2021, 7:29pm

I just got 21H1…the WSLg should come this fall I think to non insiders. I did lapse my insider membership as I was away on an extended trip an number of years back and my version expired…it basically meant my PC was bricked…

Entropy512 · May 21, 2021, 2:21pm

Yeah, in my case, my main use case for WSL is on a corporate machine, and corporate IT departments typically wait quite a while.

As I said - 1909 is literally still in beta test here.

jorismak · May 21, 2021, 3:03pm

Color management under Windows is handled by the application. When you load a profile (either through something like the DisplayCal profile loader or the native way), the VCT tables are loaded into the videocard. The matrix/lut/‘other’ part of the profile is then handled by the application. The desktop is not color managed at all.

So you need to tell darktable to use the exact same profile, and you have a very good chance for it to work OK. Time will tell though.

I’m very interested in this, and they seem to set it up pretty well (probably OpenCL acceleration might even be possible) but I’m not turning my work machine into an Insiders machine just to get early access. I’ll wait patiently to have a play with it :P.

priort · May 21, 2021, 3:09pm

Ya they posted some virtual GPU numbers and they are not bad… I am not sure of the metric but the number for native was around 500 and 350 for vGPU and like 5 for no vGPU so not too bad. If the intent is to support linux development I think they will have to make it work well or it will be a big bust…being able to easily go between the OS will be nice.

paperdigits · May 21, 2021, 5:28pm

Its more about the underlying technologies. I don’t know if RDP is color managed and some quick searching didn’t reveal any answers. I’d suspect because of its age and intended uss that it is not capable of being color managed.

They are also using Wayland, which currently has no color managent support, so unless Microsoft adds this, it won’t work.

jorismak · May 21, 2021, 5:51pm

But rdp doesn’t need to be color managed… the applications you run inside of it must be. The same goes for Wayland… darktable itself must be able to map its working space to the display profile, and as far as I know it can (it does under windows ).

Windows doesn’t have do any color management. It only allows applications to request the profile that is chosen for a certain display. Its then up to the applications to do something with that profile (the reason why you have applications that are not color managed at all under windows… on a Mac, the os is doing (some) of the mapping).

So as long as you say to darktable 'this is my display profile to use I see no reason why it won’t work.
Maybe different profiles for different monitors will be an issue, but I could live with that.

paperdigits · May 21, 2021, 7:35pm

Please let me know when you have it working in practice!