Announcement

Collapse
No announcement yet.

Microsoft Begins Rolling Out Windows Subsystem For Linux 2

Collapse
X
 
  • Filter
  • Time
  • Show
Clear All
new posts

  • #11
    Originally posted by swittmer View Post
    There is this recurring still not yet answered question: Will it be possible to install a Nvidia GPU driver and run CUDA applications in WSL2? Please be the first to answer that! I am aware of the fact, that the drivers for some Nvidia cards do not allow running in a virtual system, but at least for the known supported ones (like Tesla drivers with K80, V100, etc.) it would be good to know. Thanks!
    Yes, it should be possible in the future. They have already said that they are working on it.

    After announcing WSL 2 last week, we have had an amazing response from the community and received many great questions about the details surrounding this new architecture. We love answering your questions and want to make sure these answers reach as many WSL users as possible.

    Originally posted by Microsoft
    Can I access the GPU in WSL 2? Are there plans to increase hardware support?
    In initial releases of WSL 2 hardware access support will be limited, e.g: you will be unable to access the GPU, serial or USBs . However, adding better device support is high on our backlog, as this opens many more use cases for developers that wish to interact with these devices. In the meantime, you can always use WSL 1 which has serial port and USB access. Please stay tuned to this blog and WSL team members on Twitter to stay informed about the latest features coming to insider builds and reach out to give us feedback on what devices you’d like to interact with!
    Please note that WSL2 is basically a lightweight virtual machine (based on Hyper-V) with some additional software that helps to integrate the linux guest system with the host, so it would be a lot easier to access GPU here than in WSL1.


    Originally posted by Microsoft
    It will not initially be available in WSL 2, but this work makes it significantly easier to add that support in the future

    Comment


    • #12
      Originally posted by Nille View Post
      WSL2 is "just" a VM. Why should i use WSL2 and not any other VM Solution to Run Docker Containers?
      The main reason is easy, fast sharing files between the host and the VM.
      If you use Hyper-V there is no "default" way to do this, you will need to manually setup samba/nfs mounts inside the VM or setup a reverse samba/nfs server. The other VM solution's have better sharing support, but all lack the needed compatibility to actually run any advanced docker image with bind mounts that point to the host filesystem. The main problem is fully working locking, chattr and special read/write flags support, so sqlite+WAL will work, which is how many images store its persistent config data.

      So i'm eager to see what WSL2 can bring to this mess, i already read that for "best performance" you want your files on the VM "root", yet it is browse-able by the explorer, so i have no clue if this is a virtual mounted disk or some "special" handled folder structure on a NTFS partition.

      What i hope will work in the end is having a docker deamon in WSL2, while having the client tools on Windows and docker containers can run normally with fully working bind mounts from the W10 host.
      Last edited by andy22; 13 June 2019, 09:45 AM.

      Comment


      • #13
        Ok going by the documentation to WSL2 we have this:
        WSL 2 uses a VHD to store your files and if you reach its max size you may need to expand it
        yet

        We have also made it possible for Windows apps to access the Linux root file system (like File Explorer! Try running: explorer.exe / in your bash shell and see what happens) which will make this transition significantly easier.
        So there is some "magic" (hopefully not the buggy 9p or samba mount) going on to have this special VHD root-filesystem shared for WSL2 and Win10. I just wonder how exactly this VHD is actually shared for the linux VM and Win10 point of view?
        This should mean sqlite+wal should work on this VHD, since its a normal ext4 FS from the VM/Docker daemon viewpoint.


        WSL 2 uses a lightweight utility VM on a real Linux kernel to provide great file system performance and full system call compatibility while still being just as light, fast, integrated and responsive as WSL 1. This utility VM has a small memory footprint and will allocate Virtual Address backed memory on startup. It is configured to start with a small proportion of your total memory.
        This raises the question how is memory allocated in this WSL2-VM? In docker-lcow they implemented OpenGCS to have docker memory settings work correctly in the mini docker VM.


        You will notice slower file speeds compared to WSL 1 when accessing Windows files from a Linux application, or accessing Linux files from a Windows application. This is a result of the architectural changes in WSL 2, and is something that the WSL team is actively investigating on how we can improve this experience.
        This is a real bummer, so it seems we have to choose between fast VHD "shared" i/o access or "slow" external host filesystem access. I was really hoping that they improved external i/o speed for WSL2 and not regressed performance over WSL1...
        Last edited by andy22; 13 June 2019, 10:29 AM.

        Comment


        • #14
          Finally!! The year of the Linux Desktop is here!!

          Comment


          • #15
            Microsoft is going to adopt Linux as operating system.

            Comment


            • #16
              What is even the point of this?

              We want LSW not WSL.

              Comment


              • #17
                Originally posted by rabcor View Post
                We want LSW not WSL.
                proton is enough, thank you

                Comment


                • #18
                  Originally posted by Azrael5 View Post
                  Microsoft is going to adopt Linux as operating system.
                  Embrace, Extend, Extinguish.

                  I'm concerned about them, they aren't really friendly towards free software.

                  Comment


                  • #19
                    Originally posted by rabcor View Post
                    What is even the point of this?

                    We want LSW not WSL.
                    The point of this is to stop Linux Server developers from also running Linux Desktops and make sure that they all are running Windows Desktops instead.

                    Comment


                    • #20
                      I'll stick to running Windows in VMs on Linux hosts.

                      Headless KVM or VMware Linux host paired with a trial version Windows 10 Enterprise guest and FreeRDP + Remote App is where it's at. Seamless Windows application windows on the Linux desktop. Lutris+Wine Staging or Proton for Windows gaming on Linux.

                      Comment

                      Working...
                      X