In this post I will demonstrate how to run Linux GUI (Graphical User Interface) applications on Windows Desktop platform.
For now, it is necessary to install a third-party App to run the GUI Apps, but Microsoft announced on //build 2020 that they will release soon an improvement that will not require any third-party component to run Linux GUI Apps on Windows Desktop.
Pre-requirements:
- Windows 10
- WSL
If you want to know how to install WSL on Windows 10, please check the following post:
It will be demonstrated the three ways to run the Linux GUI Apps on Windows 10 through:
- VcXsrv Windows X Server (free)
- X410 App available on Microsoft Store (paid app)
- Kali App available on Microsoft Store (free)
First option: VcXsrv Windows X Server
The X server is a provider of graphics resources and keyboard/mouse events. I am using the VcXsrv Windows X Server that is open-source and is frequently update.
The first step is to install the third-part display manager called VcXsrv Windows X Server available at:
https://sourceforge.net/projects/vcxsrv/
During setup is important to disable the access control to avoid the permission denied error when trying to run a GUI application:
To warranty that the “Disable access control” will be always checked, save the configuration and always launch VcXsrv using the configuration file (config.xlaunch) :
NOTE: Don't forget to allow VcXsrv in the Windows firewall settings.
Windows Security -> Firewall & network protection -> Allow an app through firewall -> make sure VcXsrv has both public and private checked.
The next step is to set the DISPLAY environment variable on Linux to use the Windows host's IP address as WSL2 and the Windows host are not in the same network device. It is necessary to set the DISPLAY environment variable with the correct IP address on launch. There are different ways to set the DISPLAY variable, thank you @ZeevS and @Barry_Bazza for the updates.
Follows some ways that you can choose:
export DISPLAY="`grep nameserver /etc/resolv.conf | sed 's/nameserver //'`:0"
export DISPLAY="`sed -n 's/nameserver //p' /etc/resolv.conf`:0"
export DISPLAY=$(ip route|awk '/^default/{print $3}'):0.0
Running the following command, it is possible to see that the $DISPLAY environment variable now has the Windows Host’s IP set:
Echo $DISPLAY
To avoid having to run that command every time that WSL is launched, you can include the command at the end of the /etc/bash.bashrc file:
UPDATE: I would like to thank @samuel_skeen for let me know that now it is also necessary to create a .xsession file in the user's home directory (/home/<user>/.xsession) with the content xfce4-session:
echo xfce4-session > ~/.xsession
Done! Now you can run the Linux GUI Apps on Windows desktop.
Let’s try this out!
Follows some Apps that you can use to test:
Install Chromium Dev :
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:saiarcot895/chromium-dev
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install chromium-browser
Install GEDIT:
sudo apt install gedit
gedit
Install x11-apps:
sudo apt install x11-apps
xeyes
xcalc
Make sure that XLaunch is running and before calling the Linux GUI Apps on Windows Desktop environment.
What about running Windows 10 Apps and Linux GUI Apps in the same Desktop?
Run the following command to launch the xfce-panel:
xfsettingsd --sm-client-disable; xfce4-panel --sm-client-disable --disable-wm-check &
What about accessing the Linux Desktop Environment via RDP?
The first thing that you need to do is to install a Linux Desktop Environment. I will user Xfce as it is a lightweight one.
Run the following commands to install Xfce:
sudo apt install xfce4
The next step is to install the xrdp that provides a graphical login to remote machines using RDP (Microsoft Remote Desktop Protocol).
sudo apt install xrdp
Type the following command to get the WSL IP address:
ip a
Make sure that xrdp service is running:
Run the Remote Desktop Client (MSTSC) and type the WSL IP address to connect to xfce4:
Done! Now you can access your favorite Linux IDE on WSL.
Second option: X410 App
The app is available on Microsoft Store:
https://www.microsoft.com/store/productId/9NLP712ZMN9Q
In the image below I am using the the X Server X410 App available in the Windows 10 store, that has a better graphic performance:
Enabling Sound
X410 X Server App, as well as XLaunch, supports sound on Ubuntu (18;04 and 20.04). If you are using X410, please following the steps available at:
https://x410.dev/cookbook/wsl/enabling-sound-in-wsl-ubuntu-let-it-sing/
I only had to change the third step to use auth-anonymous instead of the auth-ip-acl:
load-module module-native-protocol-tcp auth-anonymous=1
More details here: https://github.com/microsoft/WSL/issues/4205
I defined the PULSE_SERVER environment variable too, as:
export PULSE_SERVER=tcp:$(grep nameserver /etc/resolv.conf | awk '{print $2}')
Thank you @Barry_Bazza, for letting me know that the following Pulse Audio version also works: pulseaudio-5.0-rev 18 .
This is the code bat file that I am using to load X410:
@echo off
start /B x410.exe /wm
start "" /B "C:\wsl\pulseaudio\bin\pulseaudio.exe"
ubuntu2004.exe run "if [ -z $(pidof xfce4-panel) ]; then export DISPLAY=$(cat /etc/resolv.conf | grep nameserver | awk '{print $2; exit;}'):0;export PULSE_SERVER=tcp:$(grep nameserver /etc/resolv.conf | awk '{print $2}'):0; cd ~; xfsettingsd --sm-client-disable; xfce4-panel --sm-client-disable --disable-wm-check; taskkill.exe /IM x410.exe;taskkill.exe /IM pulseaudio.exe /F; fi;"
For more details about how to enable the xfce-panel steps, please check:
https://x410.dev/cookbook/wsl/xidekick/
Follows a great thread about how to fix sound issues:
No sound in wsl2 · Issue #4205 · microsoft/WSL (github.com)
Third option: Kali App
Kali Linux Windows Application is available on Microsoft Store:
https://www.microsoft.com/store/productId/9PKR34TNCV07
Once installed, after having providing the credentials, run the following command to install Win-KeX to allow running GUI Linux Apps on KALI for Windows:
sudo apt update && sudo apt install kali-win-kex
Run the following command to run Kali:
kex wstart
The KALI environment will be loaded:
With Kali, you don't have to worry about setting environment variables or starting services.
Follows the Kali page with more details:
Kali Linux in the Windows App Store | Kali Linux
Win-KeX Version 2.0 | Kali Linux
In this post we see how to run GUI Linux Apps using XServer on Windows Desktop environment and how to access the full WSL Linux desktop environment.
I hope you liked!