Giveaway of the Day Forums

1. 

   mikiem2
   Moderator

   learn.microsoft[.]com/en-us/windows/wsl/install

   It would be hard to make it easier -- just open PowerShell, type wsl --install, and press Enter. The setup routine adds & turns on the parts of Hyper-V that WSL2 needs. After a necessary restart, if you have Terminal installed [it's included in Win11 by default] it'll open with the Linux command prompt, asking you to set your user name & password. Note: when you type your password it looks like Terminal is dead, since nothing at all happens -- instead of showing your password or asterisks as you type, it shows nothing. Next you'll want to update the installed software packages -- for the default Ubuntu distro: sudo apt update & sudo apt upgrade .

   novicedev[.]com/blog/how-update-linux-packages-command

   I have an old NAS [Network Attached Storage] that I use to store the backups of all of our devices [overkill, but long story short, I had a $300 credit at Dell I had to spend]. It might be starting to give me trouble -- too soon to say if the problem I had this week was a fluke or a new trend. Like I think most NAS units, it uses a Linux file system, so you need Linux to read the disks to copy the stored data elsewhere. With WSL2, reading external drives connected via USB is a bit involved, but doable:

   learn.microsoft[.]com/en-us/windows/wsl/connect-usb

   Note: Win11 is advised. Also note that the instructions to install the USBIP tools and hardware database in Linux did not work -- follow the directions [use the commands] at the linked page:

   github[.]com/dorssel/usbipd-win/wiki/WSL-support#usbip-client-tools

   Also see: learn.microsoft[.]com/en-us/windows/wsl/wsl2-mount-disk?source=recommendations

   A note for NAS owners: like all electronics, eventually something will break. If you want/need to get the data stored on one or more disks, if you do the normal thing & Google, you'll be assaulted by ads & articles saying you need to spend sometimes big bucks on recovery software. Far as I can tell that's pretty much BS.

   Posted 1 year ago #
2. 

   mikiem2
   Moderator

   I felt it was only fair to give Linux a try as a V/Box VM for comparison. By all accounts WSL2 is faster, more powerful & efficient that any Linux VM, especially Hyper-V, but if my current goal is to get files off a Linux disk, does that matter? WSL2 also integrates with Windows, so once a disk is mounted you can use Windows Explorer to copy/move them around -- balancing that it's a bit of extra work to mount a USB drive. Arguing against V/Box, it takes more RAM than WSL2, which is better at sharing Windows resources. Using V/Box you have to set up a network file share, so you can put the files on a Windows disk, & it was surprising to me to find I couldn't connect a USB 3.0 drive unless the USB 3.0 driver was selected in the VM's settings -- Windows VMs have backwards compatibility.

   I went with Linux Mint, which is one of the Linux distros [brands] more suitable for beginners -- it's been a Looong time since I spent much time in Linux. Installing it in a V/Box VM could hardly be easier -- IMHO the V/Box devs spent/spend a lot more effort on Linux than Windows. Installing Linux, updating software & drivers, and connecting to both a USB drive & a Windows disk, I only had to use Terminal [the command prompt] twice, one to set the password, and once to grant permission to access the Windows disk. Both the USB & Windows disks show up as folders on the graphical desktop. One difference with Linux vs. Windows VMs is changing disks or attached ISOs didn't work with the VM running... to install the guest extensions for example I had to attach the V/Box ISO, then start the VM, but after that it was simply a matter of clicking the V/Box menu item to install. Linux Mint is not a bare-bones Linux install -- after compacting [shrinking to eliminate free space] it takes up more room than Win11, at 18.5GB vs. 10GB.

   Posted 1 year ago #

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