WSL Fedora 42 - Windowed (GUI) apps -- Success !!!

Hi folks
This seems much easier now -- for W11 Pro versions at least

Simply a) create a file called .wslconfig at c:\users\youruserid (don't forget the '.').
[wsl2]
guiapplications=false

b) install the application with sudo dnf install <application>

c) start it in the wsl console window <application> &

ignore all the console messages = you should see your app

e.g Dolphin (KDE filemanager)




or if you like old solitaire type games

sudo dnf install kpat

kpat &

then I selected Spider solitaire



I haven't yet got "Multiple windows" so far - each windowed app has to be closed before another one can be initiated -- but I'm working to see if I can get a "Workspace" desktop e.g kde plasma or Gnome etc.

I think also you can't get access to this wsl from elsewhere in your network - it's host only sharing -- (remember it's not a VM !!). Still a lot of experimenting to do but seems fun -- the trick initially was that .wslconfig file -- But Ms has never been that great on documentation !!!!!

Cheers
jimbo

jimbo45 said:

Hi folks
This seems much easier now -- for W11 Pro versions at least

Simply a) create a file called .wslconfig at c:\users\youruserid (don't forget the '.').
[wsl2]
guiapplications=false

Click to expand...

Hi jimbo45,

Actually you should set guiapplications to true, if you want to run Linux GUI software in WSL2.

johnp said:

Hi jimbo45,

Actually you should set guiapplications to true, if you want to run Linux GUI software in WSL2.

Click to expand...

Typo

Cheers
jimbo