Re: [PLUG] Running WSL2 in VirtualBox

[David Collins via plug <plug@lists.phillylinux.org>]

Walt,

This may simply be due to differences in the VirtualBox UI between versions but look in the System->Acceleration tab in your VM settings. There used to be checkboxes in that tab to enable virtualizing VT-x/AMD-V. I don't use VirtualBox that often so they may have simply moved that checkbox into the Processor tab.

Virtualizing VT-x and AMD-V should be the key to getting WSL 2 working under VirtualBox. Unlike WSL 1, WSL 2 uses virtualization to run a full Linux kernel. In order for that to work efficiently the hypervisor that the Windows guest is running in (in this case, VirtualBox) has to virtualize the hardware for VT-x and AMD-V (it has to virtualize the virtualization-enabling hardware :) ).

One thing you could do is use the option to boot into the UEFI setup in the VM guest. VMware has an option like that so VirtualBox probably does as well. Make sure that you don't need to enable it there for some reason. Also look at whether VirtualBox supports virtualizing VT-x/AMD-V using BIOS or UEFI or both. If you installed your guest using BIOS and VirtualBox only supports VT-x/AMD-V virtualization with UEFI then that could be the issue (or vice versa, depending on what VirtualBox supports).

Also, FYI, I noted in your other email you mentioned using WSL for running ssh. Win 10 now includes native openssh by default. You can run it directly from the PowerShell command-line. That's what I've been using when I need to ssh from a Windows box.

--
Dave Collins

‐‐‐‐‐‐‐ Original Message ‐‐‐‐‐‐‐
On Tuesday, June 2, 2020 9:26 AM, Walt Mankowski via plug <plug@lists.phillylinux.org> wrote:

> Hi everyone,
>
> I'm running Ubuntu 20.04, and on it I'm running Windows 10 in
> VirtualBox 6.1.6. Over the weekend I updated Win10 to the latest
> release and I'm having trouble getting WSL2 to work.
>
> When I try to switch Ubuntu from WSL 1 to 2 in PowerShell I'm getting
> this message:
>
> PS C:\WINDOWS\system32> wsl --set-version Ubuntu 2
> Conversion in progress, this may take a few minutes...
> For information on key differences with WSL 2 please visit https://aka.ms/wsl2
> Please enable the Virtual Machine Platform Windows feature and ensure virtualization is enabled in the BIOS.
> For information please visit https://aka.ms/wsl2-install
>
> I've enabled the Virtual Machine Platform feature. In fact, I had to
> do that to get WSL1 to work. I'm assuming virtualization must be
> enabled in my computer's BIOS in order for me to be running Win10 in
> VirtualBox in the first place.
>
> A Google search suggested I needed to enable nested VMs. A further
> search suggested I needed to set the "Enable Nested VT-x/AMD-V" check
> box on the Processor tab in VirtualBox settings. I've tried that but
> I'm still getting the same error.
>
> Has anyone else managed to get this to work?
>
> Walt
>
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