Moving WSL2 (Windows 10, build 18917) virtual harddisks are not yet supported

[noctarius]

Using lxrunoffline with a WSL2 environment, the rootfs is not found for moving it, which is obviously because it's in a virtual hard disk.

C:\>LxRunOffline.exe m -n Ubuntu -d z:\wsl
[ERROR] Couldn't open the directory "\\?\C:\Users\...\AppData\Local\Packages\CanonicalGroupLimited.UbuntuonWindows_79rhkp1fndgsc\LocalState\rootfs\".
Reason: The system cannot find the file specified.

The actual virtual hard disk image path is: C:\Users\...\AppData\Local\Packages\CanonicalGroupLimited.UbuntuonWindows_79rhkp1fndgsc\LocalState\ext4.vhdx

Happy to help with more information to support WSL2 :)

[DDoSolitary]

Thanks for reporting. I was quite busy in the past few months so I'll focus on dealing with the backlog accumulated during that time (like #81) to provide a better support for WSL1 and introduce support for WSL2 some time later.

[teepean]

I converted an existing machine and it runs with a following command line:

LxRunOffline.exe run -w -n BionicX /setdefaultuser user1

[DDoSolitary]

@teepean In theory the run command should work because it simply calls WslLaunchInteractive() which is provided by Windows. However, why did you append /setdefaultuser user1 in your command? It's not a valid argument and will be simply ignored.

[teepean]

However, why did you append /setdefaultuser user1 in your command? It's not a valid argument and will be simply ignored.

That is a good question. Looks like I have used it with lxrun and for some reason used it with lxrunoffline.

@noctarius You should try running WSL2 with the following command:
LxRunOffline.exe run -w -n Ubuntu

[noctarius]

Not trying to run a WSL2 shell, I tried moving it, in which the rootfs cannot be found, since it's a single file and not a directory anymore.

Maybe I wasn't clear enough.

[DDoSolitary]

Basic WSL2 support is ready now. Please note that features related to reading/writing the contents of the VHDX image will not be supported. You can use the official wsl tool instead in that case.

[noctarius]

Nice! Thanks a lot, moving support is all what is necessary :) 👍

[xeijin]

@DDoSolitary stupid question but a WSL2 distro which has been run through lxRunOffline won't work on older builds of Windows 10, right?

[DDoSolitary]

@xeijin WSL2 distros won't work on older builds that don't support WSL2. FWIW you can always convert a WSL2 distro back to WSL1 using wsl --set-version.

[kapilgorve]

TLDR: Convert your distro to v1 . Then move and convert again to v2.
I added a small note on how to do this.
https://www.jskap.com/notes/how-to-move-wsl2-disto/

[DDoSolitary]

@kapilgorve Moving A WSL2 distro with the latest version of LxRunOffline is expected to work. Please let me know if it doesn't.

[kapilgorve]

Right I had an older version installed. I will try with latest version. If there are any issues. I will post here. Thanks.