Rolling Release Stable Kernel for WSL2

Maintainer: Yang Jeong Hun (Nevuly)

Current Kernel Status

Kernel Version	Status
Linux 6.14.x	Stable Support

Introduction

The WSL2-Linux-Kernel-Rolling repo contains the latest stable kernel source code and configuration files for the WSL2.

This kernel is automatically built via Github Actions CI whenever a newer stable kernel is released.

Install Instructions

1. Kernel Image

1-1. Manual Installation

1. Download kernel image from releases page.
2. Place it to somewhere appropriate. (e.g. D:\WSL2\Kernel\bzImage-x86_64)
3. Save the .wslconfig in current user's home directory with following content:

[wsl2]
kernel=the\\path\\to\\bzImage
; e.g.
; kernel=D:\\WSL2\\Kernel\\bzImage-x86_64
;
; Note that all `\` should be escaped with `\\`.

4. Reboot your WSL2 and check kernel version using uname -a in WSL2 terminal.

1-2. Install via Scoop

NOTICE

• You have to reboot your WSL2 system using wsl --shutdown after install or update kernel with using scoop.

Scoop is a command-line installer on windows. If you have scoop installed, then you can install this kernel with following commands:

scoop bucket add frostbite https://github.com/Nevuly/frostbite

scoop install frostbite/wsl2-rolling-kernel-stable

Scoop will automatically set kernel in .wslconfig.

1-3. Update Kernel Image

• If you installed kernel via scoop, you can use scoop update * in Powershell.
• If you installed kernel manually, download kernel image from releases page, and replace it.

2. Kernel Additional Package

NOTICE

• This guide must be proceed in your WSL2 system.
• Kernel additional package is optional. If you don't need it, just skip this guide.
• Additional package contains kernel modules, headers and documents.
• If you try to use VHDX image, you must use WSL version 2.5.1 or later.

2-1. Install Additional Package in WSL2 Directly

# Please change latest version of kernel and select your architecture
wget https://github.com/Nevuly/WSL2-Linux-Kernel-Rolling/releases/download/linux-wsl-stable-**x.x.x**/bzImage-**arch**-addon_install.tar.gz

tar -xzvf bzImage-**arch**-addon_install.tar.gz

cd bzImage-**arch**-addon_install

sudo ./addon-install.sh

After execute installation script, please reboot your WSL2 system to load kernel modules correctly.

2-2. Install Additional Package using VHDX Image

1. Download kernel additional package VHDX image from releases page.
2. Place it to somewhere appropriate. (e.g. D:\WSL2\Kernel\bzImage-x86_64-addon.vhdx)
3. Save the .wslconfig in current user's home directory with following content:

[wsl2]
kernelModules=the\\path\\to\\bzImage-addon.vhdx
; e.g.
; kernelModules=D:\\WSL2\\Kernel\\bzImage-x86_64-addon.vhdx
;
; Note that all `\` should be escaped with `\\`.

Reporting Bugs

If you discover an issue relating to WSL or the WSL2 kernel, please report it on the Issues tab.

Feature Requests

If you want to fix a bug or add new features, Please use the Pull Request.

Build Instructions

Instructions for building WSL2 kernel with an Arch Linux distribution are as follows:

1. Install the build dependencies (Arch Linux):
   $ sudo pacman -S aarch64-linux-gnu-gcc bc bison curl flex gcc git pahole python unzip wget zip

2. Build the kernel using the WSL2 kernel configuration (x86):
   $ make KCONFIG_CONFIG=arch/x86/configs/config-wsl-x86

3. Build the kernel using the WSL2 kernel configuration (arm64):
   $ export ARCH=arm64 && export CROSS_COMPILE=aarch64-linux-gnu-
$ make KCONFIG_CONFIG=arch/arm64/configs/config-wsl-arm64

4. Save the module to a separate folder (Optional. Only for local build):
   $ sudo make modules_install

Credits

• The Linux community who created a awesome kernel.
• Microsoft which produced WSL2 and dxgkrnl patches.