Preface#
WSL developed by Microsoft is very useful. However, because they use a custom init startup, using systemd will result in the following error:
System has not been booted with systemd as init system (PID 1). Can’t operate.
Using systemd with genie#
genie creates a PID namespace to enable the use of systemd on WSL.
genie is built on .NET Core 3 and requires the installation of the .NET Core runtime environment before use. Installation instructions can be found in Microsoft's official documentation.
Afterwards, genie can be installed as follows:
curl -s https://packagecloud.io/install/repositories/arkane-systems/wsl-translinux/script.deb.sh | sudo bash
sudo apt install systemd-genie
Using genie is quite simple:
# Start the systemd environment
genie -i
# Start the systemd environment and open a shell in the environment
genie -s
# Start the systemd environment and run a command in the environment
genie -c command
Boot Startup#
Simply configuring the above is not enough to enable services to start at boot. Further configuration for startup is required.
First, enter the WSL environment and create a /etc/init.wsl file with the following content:
#!/bin/bash
/usr/bin/genie -i
Then return to Windows, use the Win + R key combination to open the Run dialog, enter shell:startup to access the startup directory.
Create a vbs file with any name and the following content:
Set ws = CreateObject("Wscript.Shell")
ws.run "wsl -d Debian -u root /etc/init.wsl", vbhide
Note: Replace
Debianin the parameter with the name of the WSL distribution you are using.