Recommending WSL for Windows 10

AJ · **Posted:** Fri Jan 12, 2018 5:59 am

Hi All,

I've put a note in the discussion page of GCC Cross-Compiler saying about making WSL the default recommendation for Windows 10 users (rather than MinGW / Cygwin). If I get no objections, I will start updating the page.

WSL has now been out of beta for a while and also includes options other than Ubuntu. The apt-get system works very well and I have always found it (since the start of the beta) faster, more compatible and reliable than Cygwin, which now seems a distant memory for me.

If nobody objects, I will update the Cross-Compiler page to recommend this system and will also add a new page about how to optimise WSL for OS Dev after the cross-compiler has been compiled (stuff which is outside the scope of the basic article).

Cheers,
Adam

iansjack · **Posted:** Fri Jan 12, 2018 11:32 am

Good idea. I'm a big fan of WSL.

Korona · **Joined:** Thu May 17, 2007 1:27 pm **Posts:** 999

I have never used WSL so I might be completely off here but: I agree that Cygwin should not be recommended as it is basically a giant hack. But what is so bad about MinGW? If gcc builds correctly on MinGW, I see no reason not to recommend it. Maybe just recommend both MinGW and WSL.

AJ · **Posted:** Mon Jan 15, 2018 6:53 am

Hi,

Thanks for the feedback so far. I have started creating the very basic supplementary page at http://wiki.osdev.org/User:Aj/WSL with a couple of pointers. I'll soon start work on the GCC Cross-Compiler page.

Korona wrote:

But what is so bad about MinGW? If gcc builds correctly on MinGW, I see no reason not to recommend it. Maybe just recommend both MinGW and WSL.

Probably all that's wrong with it is my ignorance

. When I started this kind of development back in 2000 using GCC 2.x, I just got in to Cygwin and always found it integrated better for me. I haven't even tried MinGW since then and am probably unfairly tarring it with the same brush.

Cheers,
Adam

bluemoon · **Posted:** Mon Jan 15, 2018 6:56 am

I suppose cross compiler in docker could be configured in similar manner? (or someone could make an image)

AJ · **Posted:** Mon Jan 15, 2018 7:00 am

Someone is welcome to, but it won't be me

FallenAvatar · **Joined:** Mon Jan 03, 2011 6:58 pm **Posts:** 283

I'm also slowly working on a guide for WSl as well.

http://wiki.osdev.org/User:Tjmonk15/WSL_Notes

- Amy

AJ · **Posted:** Mon Jan 15, 2018 4:50 pm

Ah - OK.

Sorry I had no idea you were working on similar. Perhaps we could merge parts of the articles?

For one, your package list is much better (although I've deliberately left out items installed by following the default GCC Cross-Compiler article).

The point that stands out as needing some adjustment in your article is that the current version of WSL (only available on the latest Windows 10 build) no longer states "beta" and now you have to install WSL, reboot and then download an actual Linux environment from Windows Store (the default Ubuntu is no longer automatically installed).

However we merge this, I'm certain it will be useful to have something on the wiki!

Cheers,
Adam

Kazinsal · **Joined:** Wed Jul 13, 2011 7:38 pm **Posts:** 558

I've been using WSL as my OS dev build environment since release and I can confirm it is miles ahead of cygwin and mingw. I've got a couple notes that I can put up on the wiki as well.

IMO now that WSL exists and is usable we should straight up discourage the use of cygwin.

AJ · **Posted:** Tue Jan 16, 2018 4:07 am

Octocontrabass · **Joined:** Mon Mar 25, 2013 7:01 pm **Posts:** 4940

Instructions for using MSYS2 may be helpful as well, for those who decided not to upgrade to Windows 10 but would still like a build environment that isn't as horrible as Cygwin. (I would offer to provide them myself, but I don't have time to sit down and write it out.)

LazyKitty · **Joined:** Wed Mar 28, 2018 6:33 am **Posts:** 5

bluemoon wrote:

I suppose cross compiler in docker could be configured in similar manner? (or someone could make an image)

I've made a docker image for this a couple of months ago, since I couldn't seem to get it to work on Cygwin (on my previous attempt).
https://hub.docker.com/r/jdesmedt/cross ... -i686-elf/

Here's also the github link for it, in case someone wants to adapt it for x86_64 or something else. I haven't gotten around to that yet, since I'm still figuring out the basics for x86.
https://github.com/jornedesmedt/crosscompile-i686-elf

It does have some issues when newlines are done with carriage returns.

pat · **Joined:** Tue Apr 03, 2018 2:44 pm **Posts:** 36

I can definitely vouch for WSL, as that's been my dev environment for the past year. I'd suggest mentioning that you now get a choice of what Linux distro you want, currently you can get Ubuntu, openSUSE, Debian and Kali, with apparently more planned. And you can have multiple independent distros installed. Seeing not just one but multiple Linux distros available for download on the Microsoft Store... that's just weird.

thumble · **Joined:** Thu May 25, 2017 10:41 pm **Posts:** 29

WSL is amazing. I do most of my OS development (along with other stuff like working with other stuff like UNIX sockets, etc.) and it works like a charm, and I have yet to encounter a problem with it. It lets you run Linux binaries without any modification which is also very convenient.

prajwal · **Joined:** Sat Oct 23, 2004 11:00 pm **Posts:** 154

+1
Building on WSL and using CLion https://github.com/prajwal83/upanix

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