Today I set about trying to bring a little linux joy into my Windows work life. Although Windows 10 is the world’s most popular operating system, it isn’t mine! 😊

If you can, work in a linux, it’s free, open-source, and powerful - putting you in complete control of your computer. 💻 If you can’t, and you are stuck on a Windows 10 computer at work, then this post is for you!

Microsoft, recognising the brilliance of linux, created the Windows Subsystem Linux (WSL) to allow a linux subsystem to work within your Windows computer. Essentially a linux terminal can be used to install and run linux tools on your Windows file system! 📁

Linux comes in many flavours, one of the most popular (and my favourite) is Ubuntu.

Today, I am going to walk through the steps I took to install Ubuntu on my Windows 10 machine:

  1. Enable the Windows Subsystem Linux (WSL) by typing the following into your command line (or powershell): 
     dism.exe /online /enable-feature /featurename:Microsoft-Windows-Subsystem-Linux /all /norestart

    ⚠️ With the a Windows update after May 2020 run the following instead:

     dism.exe /online /enable-feature /featurename:VirtualMachinePlatform /all /norestart


  2. Install the Ubuntu App - I couldn’t download the app via Microsoft store so I did the following:
    • Selected “Ubuntu 20.04” from here
    • Then used the following command to install the file in the command line: 
       Add-AppxPackage .\[insertFileNameHereWithoutSuffix].appx


  3. Start the Ubuntu app (I typed “Ubuntu” into the Windows search and double clicked Ubuntu to start)

  4. Create a username and password (doesn’t need to match Windows credentials)

  5. Added cd /mnt/c/Users/username/ to .bashrc so my Ubuntu terminal always starts in Windows file system (replace "username" with your Windows username). To edit your .bashrc file, open it with the following: 
     nano -c ~/.bashrc

    Make your way to the end of the file (use the down arrow or Ctrl + V). Add the following text:

     # Move to the Windows file system
 cd /mnt/c/Users/username/

    Press Ctrl + X then Y to save changes and exit.

Now you’re all set! 👍

Note that you’ll find your Windows file system at /mnt/c/Users/yourWindowsUsername/ - you’re welcome! 😉

Lastly, I wanted to use my Ubuntu terminal to work with git so I did a few extra steps:

Importantly, to work with git in the Windows Subsystem Linux, I needed to use SSH based repositories. This meant I had to make new clones of my repos, which were set up as https!

  1. Set up your global configuration parameters: 
     $ git config --global user.name "Joseph Crispell"
 $ git config --global user.email "myemail@hero.com"

    Skip to step 6. if you use SSH for git repositories on your Windows machine

  2. I created a new ssh key with the following: 
     cd ~
 mkdir .ssh
 cd .ssh
 ssh-keygen -t ed25519 -C "your_email@example.com"

    Create a name for your key. I called mine id_rsa, not sure why!

  3. Added my SSH key to my ssh-agent: 
     eval $(ssh-agent -s)
 ssh-add ~/.ssh/id_rsa

    Change id_rsa to whatever you called your SSH key.

  4. Add the new SSH key to GitHub account:
    • Head to github
    • Click into your settings
    • Select SSH and GPG keys
    • Click “New SSH Key”
    • Create a name for your SSH key and paste the contents of id_rsa.pub into the box provided
  5. Copy your SSH key from Ubuntu to Windows: 
     cd ~/.ssh
 cp id_rsa* /mnt/c/Users/username/.ssh/

    Again, remember to change id_rsa to whatever you named your key. You also need to change "username" in the path to your Windows username.

  6. [OPTIONAL] If you already used ssh on your Windows computer for git repositories, you can copy the Windows SSH key onto your Ubuntu system with: 
     cd ~
 mkdir .ssh
 cd .ssh
 cp /mnt/c/Users/username/.ssh/id_rsa* .

    Remember to change "username" in the path to your Windows username.

I must admit that it took me much longer than it should of to figure out the above steps, despite a lot of useful resources online:

For the moment, I’m mainly going to use my Ubuntu terminal for managing my git repositories. So really it isn’t too necessary but I wanted to get Ubuntu back into my life and the linux terminal is incredibly helpful for developing code and I’m sure to use it more and more from now on! 🐧 🎉