Setting Up WSL2

Author

Anwesh

Published

February 27, 2026

WSL2

Not required for those who have a Mac or Linux OS.

Windows 10 and 11 support Windows Subsystem for Linux, allowing users to try Linux OS within Windows itself, without dual-booting.

Setup instructions

Check WSL status

Click on “Start Menu” or “Windows” button, and search for WSL, if there is a blue+white coloured penguin icon, your WSL is up to date, and you can go ahead with OS installation.

If you see a yellow+black coloured penguin icon, you have an older version of WSL, upon clicking, it will ask you to update. Perform the update.

Installing Linux OS

  1. Open PowerShell or Command Prompt
  2. Type wsl
  3. If you have never used WSL, you should see Windows Subsystem for Linux has no installed distributions.
  4. List out the available options by typing wsl --list --online
  5. Install latest Ubuntu by typing wsl --install Ubuntu-24.04
  6. Depending on the internet speed, it may take 5-15 mins
  7. After installation, it asks to create a username and password. Keep these simple. Retype the password to confirm.
  8. Once done, this will take you to the Linux terminal
  9. You can close it by typing exit twice, once for the Linux terminal, second time for the Windows terminal.
  10. Search the Start menu for Ubuntu. Clicking that will open a Linux terminal.
Tip

You can open multiple terminals.
Type exit to close a terminal window

Update the OS

$ sudo apt update
$ sudo apt upgrade

Press y to proceed with the update installation (up to 15 mins)

Install packages

Install a few packages using apt

$ sudo apt install gedit htop bpytop nemo vim firefox
  • gedit - Text editor
  • htop & bpytop - System monitoring tools
  • nemo - file manager
  • vim - terminal-based text editor
  • firefox - Browser (optional)

Installing Conda & Mamba

Create a directory called downloads and navigate into it

$ mkdir downloads
$ cd downloads

Use wget to download the miniforge package from this link

$ wget https://github.com/conda-forge/miniforge/releases/latest/download/Miniforge3-Linux-x86_64.sh
Note

There are multiple versions for Linux. Check your CPU’s architecture by typing lscpu. The first line should have the CPU type. Download the corresponding version.

Change file permissions

$ chmod +x Miniforge3-Linux-x86_64.sh

Run it

$ ./Miniforge3-Linux-x86_64.sh
  • Press ENTER to continue
  • Type yes to accept terms
  • Accept the default location to install by pressing ENTER
  • Type yes to initialize conda
  • Close the terminal and re-open

Now you should see (base) in the terminal, which means base environment is activated

  • To deactivate any env, type - conda deactivate
  • To activate base env, type - conda activate
  • To activate any other env, type - conda activate env_name

Only conda is initiated, to initiate mamba, run

$ mamba shell init

Re-open the terminal and try mamba activate and mamba deactivate

By default, we will not install any packages in base env, that is just for conda and mamba. And it is recommended to keep it as such, so there is no need to activate it by default. Let’s configure it to keep deactivated when we open a terminal

$ conda config --set auto_activate false

Re-open the terminal. Now, base is not activated by default, and conda/mamba still work as expected.

To list out the existing envs, type - mamba env list

On Windows Desktop create a folder - ws_2026 and folder named files within it. Download the following files into that folder

Open Linux terminal and copy ws_2026 folder to the HOME directory

# If you are not in HOME directory, type cd
$ cp -rv /mnt/c/Users/user_name/Desktop/ws_2026 ./

This should copy the contents as such.

Now navigate to ws_2026/files directory and install the packages. Press Y when asked

$ cd ws_2026/files
$ ./install_bga_tools.sh
# After completion, run the other two files in similar way