
Microsoft adds a Linux kernel to Windows 1
This feature is part of the new version of WSL in Insider Preview Build 18945. This is a 20H1 build, which means that it is expected to be released in April 2020 – it is unclear whether this feature will work on 19H2 will be available, which is expected to be released in October 2019.
Microsoft has already added the Linux kernel, but now WSL 2 looks even more powerful than we originally thought. Now you can do anything you want with the Linux kernel, including adding kernel modules. Next, specify the path to your kernel file in a .wslconfig
file on your system. Windows automatically loads it when you start a Linux system. You do not need to load a custom kernel. Otherwise, Windows uses only the built-in kernel.
Craig Loewen of Microsoft, program manager for the Windows Developer Platform, explains:
We provide the following A Linux kernel with WSL 2 shipped in Windows. However, you may need a specific kernel that powers your WSL 2 distributions, such as: You can now specify the option
kernel
in the file.wslconfig
to specify a path to a kernel on your computer. This kernel is loaded into the WSL 2 VM at startup. If not specified, reuse the Linux kernel provided with Windows as part of WSL 2.
Also at WSL there are further improvements. The entire global configuration file .wslconfig
is new, and WSL users can now connect to Linux servers on their system with localhost
.
The latest insider preview has also been redesigned Cortana experience, optimized file search in file explorer, and customizable text cursor display.
CONNECTION: Windows 10 receives a built-in Linux kernel