Convert the Linux sub-system WSL version from 1 to version 2

November - 2021 3-minute read

Tutorial • Post

In this guide we are going to change the WSL to any versions based on requirements. In this demo we are going to upgrade WSL version 1 to 2.

Prerequisties:

Windows 10 build 18917 or higher
Powershell (with Administrator access)
Linux sub-system for Windows (with any distro)

Steps

We are going to enableLinux sub-system in Windows machine if this is already not enabled. Open Powershell as Administrator and run this command in the shell:

> Enable-WindowsOptionalFeature -Online -FeatureName Microsoft-Windows-Subsystem-Linux

Output:
  
Path          :
Online        : True
RestartNeeded : False

Then you need to run this:

> Enable-WindowsOptionalFeature -Online -FeatureName VirtualMachinePlatform

Now you can upgrade/change WSL version of your distro. In this demo we are going to use Ubuntu-20.04 as distro, but you can use any distro you would prefer (how to).
- If you already have a sub-system isntalled on your Windows machine and you would like to upgrade the version of that particular system you can do that as well. Find your available Linux sub-system distro list in verbose mode:
```
> wsl -l -v
  
Output:
  NAME                   STATE           VERSION
* Ubuntu-20.04           Running         1
  docker-desktop-data    Running         2
  docker-desktop         Running         2
```
Now run the following command in Powershell to set the WSL version of the distro to version 2
```
> wsl --set-version <Distro> 2    
  
Ex:
> wsl --set-version Ubuntu-20.04 2
The operation completed successfully.
```
This might take few minutes before its completed, size of the distro.
If you don’t run the following command the WSL version for all the future distro will be installed as version 1. Lets change it:
```
> wsl --set-default-version 2
```
Run the list command to see if this worked:
```
> wsl --list --verbose
```

You might loose the internet connection on Linux sub-system once you upgrade it to WSL v.2. Do the following setup to fix the issue:

Remove the resolv.conf file in the Linux sub-system:
```
# sudo rm /etc/resolv.conf
```

Now add this to the resolv.conf file:

# sudo bash -c 'echo "nameserver 1.1.1.1" > /etc/resolv.conf'

Now run these following lines to add to the wsl.conf file in order to make WSL make changes to the resolv.conf file in the future:
```
sudo bash -c 'echo "[network]" > /etc/wsl.conf'
sudo bash -c 'echo "generateResolvConf = false" >> /etc/wsl.conf'
```
To make the resolv.conf file immutable to changes and deletion, even by superuser (in our demo WSL):
```
sudo chattr +i /etc/resolv.conf
```

Test the connectivity:

# nslookup google.com
Server:         1.1.1.1
Address:        1.1.1.1#53

Non-authoritative answer:
Name:   google.com
Address: 142.250.74.14
Name:   google.com
Address: 2a00:1450:400f:802::200e

Convert the Linux sub-system WSL version from 1 to version 2

Prerequisties:

Steps

Voila! You are done.

Note: You might also make it work by just simply uninstalling ufw from Linux sub-system instead of making changes on resolv.conf. Do a restart after.