In some companies, App Defender/AppLocker makes the entire Windows OS practically unusable. EXEs are blocked, and the virus scan slows any build to a crawl. Nevertheless, we still need to work, and WSL is often the only feasible solution. But how can we start, for example, Eclipse or any other application in WSL that requires a screen?

Solution

We might wither build on x11 (steps 4 and 5) or use the build in WSLg which should run out of the box:

1. Install eclipse or STS in Linux
2. Export the DISPLAY env variable export DISPLAY=:0
3. Run eclipse or any other application in Linux
4. (optional) Install x11 in Linux sudo apt install x11-xserver-utils
5. (optional) Install VcXsrv on windows

Install eclipse or Spring STS in Linux

We might either install eclipse with sudo apt install eclipse or as many other of us choose to install a different IDE here an example for spring sts (update the URL as needed to the current version):

wget https://cdn.spring.io/spring-tools/release/STS4/4.25.0.RELEASE/dist/e4.33/spring-tool-suite-4-4.25.0.RELEASE-e4.33.0-linux.gtk.x86_64.tar.gz
tar -xvf spring-tool-suite-4-4.25.0.RELEASE-e4.33.0-linux.gtk.x86_64.tar.gz
rm -rf spring-tool*
ln -s sts-4.25.0.RELEASE/SpringToolSuite4 sts

Export the DISPLAY env variable

In order to find our windows screen we have to define the DISPLAY destination with the same named environment variable. The simplest way is to extend the .profile that it is automatically exported on each shell start (or .zprofile if zsh is used).

export DISPLAY=:0

Run eclipse or any other application

Now we can either start eclipse using ./eclipse or the spring STS using ./sts.

In case of any issues the x11 app might help you e.g. using xeyes:

sudo apt install x11-apps
xeyes

Install x11 in Linux

x11 tools on Linux are responsible to send the screen information from our Linux system to windows and on the other hand receive mouse and keyboard commands. In ubuntu the tools can be installed by using:

sudo apt install x11-xserver-utils

This step is not need anymore on a newer WSL as by default windows support UI apps in the WSL using WSLg.

If x11 is used the DISPLAY variable has to be adjusted to point to the Windows Host machine.

Install VcXsrv on windows

In order to receive the screen information from Linux in Windows and to display the application started in Linux we need an x11 client here too. First we have to install VcXsrv and start it using XLaunch which will prompt us of the settings:

1. Multiple windows in the display settings, which allows us to start more than one app
2. Start no client which of course requires us to start the app in Linux manually later on

Everything else may stay in the default settings.

This step is not need anymore on a newer WSL as by default windows support UI apps in the WSL using WSLg.

Alternatives

• https://github.com/microsoft/wslg

Startup Guide

Auto Install

1. Check that your CPU virtualization is enabled
2. Download minishift and extract it into a folder
3. Add your user to the Hyper-V Administrators
4. Open Command-Line as Admin User
5. Execute minishift Install
6. Reboot
7. Configure network
8. Start (use optional --cpus and --memory)

The network install doesn’t always work, see manual install, step 4 and the following, to setup the network in case the following message is encountered [Virtual Switch not found] in step 7.

 # 5. run install as admin in the folder minishift was extracted
 minishift setup
 # 5. reboot, no admin mode needed anymore
 # 7. configure network
 minishift config set hyperv-virtual-switch minishift-external
 # 8. start minishift
 minishift start

Manual install

1. Enable Virtualization in the Bios
2. Download minishift and extract it into a folder
3. Enable Hyper-V in Windows 10 Pro
4. Create a virtual network
5. Add the Hyper-V Administrators role to your user account
6. Update minishift config to use the network
7. Start minishift

# Requires admin permissions
# 3. enable hyper-V
Enable-WindowsOptionalFeature -Online -FeatureName Microsoft-Hyper-V -All

# 4. create virtual network
Get-NetAdapter
# Select the adapter and provide the name in this line
$net = Get-NetAdapter -Name 'Ethernet 2'
New-VMSwitch -Name "minishift-external" -AllowManagementOS $True -NetAdapterName $net.Name

# 6. update minishift config and use the network
minishift config set hyperv-virtual-switch "minishift-external"
# 7. start minishift
minishift start

Troubleshooting

Checking if Hyper-V driver is installed … FAIL

This error can occur e.g.:

• Hyper-V Service is not running
• Virtualization in the firmware isn’t enabled
• Hyper-V isn’t supported

Run the following command to check the virtualization settings:

# following command should return true
@(Get-Wmiobject Win32_ComputerSystem).HypervisorPresent
# show all CPU settings
gwmi Win32_Processor | fl *

The following settings should be both true. Most likely the first one which means the Bios settings aren’t set to enabled – (SVM Mode for Ryzen CPUs).

VirtualizationFirmwareEnabled           : False
VMMonitorModeExtensions                 : True

.SSH cmd err, output: exit status 255

During the start of minishift following error often occur on Windows:

# during normal start "minishift start"
Error starting the VM: Error creating the VM. Error creating machine: Error detecting OS: Too many retries waiting for SSH to be available.

# with logging the details
minishift start --show-libmachine-logs -v5

About to run SSH command:
exit 0
.SSH cmd err, output: exit status 255:
Error getting ssh command 'exit 0' : ssh command error:
command : exit 0
err     : exit status 255

The main problem here is the SSL client version 0.0.1.0 from Microsoft which as to be uninstalled. After that, the minishift start works fine.

Remove-WindowsCapability -Online -Name OpenSSH.Client~~~~0.0.1.0

Useful shell Commands

# delete VM, delete the ssh identities after that, as the SSH key will change
minishift delete
# delete everything
minishift delete --force --clear-cache

# set auto start for Hyper-V Manager Service 
sc config vmms start=auto
# start Hyper-V Manager Service
sc start vmms

# start minishift with log output
minishift start --show-libmachine-logs -v5

Useful Power Shell Commands

# check if Hyper-V is running well
@(Get-Wmiobject Win32_ComputerSystem).HypervisorPresent

# output ip of the minishift VM
echo (( Hyper-V\Get-VM minishift ).networkadapters[0]).ipaddresses[0]

Useful Links

• https://www.okd.io/minishift/
• https://docs.okd.io/3.11/minishift/using/profiles.html
• https://docs.okd.io/3.11/minishift/using/basic-usage.html
• https://github.com/minishift/minishift/issues/2568
• https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/virtualization/hyper-v-on-windows/quick-start/connect-to-network

• Java:
  • https://adoptium.net/
  • https://www.graalvm.org/downloads/
  • https://jdk.java.net/
• Visual Studio Code:https://code.visualstudio.com/
  • Plugins
    • GitLens
    • Angular Language Service
    • Docker
    • Kubernetes
    • ESLint
• Java Eclipse STS: https://spring.io/tools
  • PlantUML: https://marketplace.eclipse.org/content/plantuml-plugin
• Git: https://git-scm.com/

Tools

• Docker Desktop: https://www.docker.com/products/docker-desktop
• Insomnia: https://insomnia.rest/

Tools for Linux / MAC

• Java SDK Management: https://sdkman.io/sdks
• Node version management: https://github.com/nvm-sh/nvm

Tools for Windows

• Command Line: http://cmder.net/
• Text Editor: https://notepad-plus-plus.org/

Database Tools

• Graphical DB client for Eclipse https://dbeaver.io/
• Oracle Developer https://www.oracle.com/de/database/technologies/appdev/sqldeveloper-landing.html

Java Test Libs

• https://github.com/awaitility/awaitility

Visual Studio Code & Windows

Install PowerShell 7.x.x

Check the current version $PSVersionTable.PSVersion

This requires admin permissions on the windows system.

winget install --id Microsoft.Powershell --source winget

Configure PowerShell 7 as CMD default

Open the windows shell, select in the menu the drop down and settings, select powershell and save.

Configure PowerShell 7 as VS Code default

There is also now a plugin available: https://code.visualstudio.com/docs/languages/powershell

Open the user Settings settings.json to add the new shell, you can see all Settings (read only) in the Default Settings (JSON).

• ctrl+p
• type Open Settings

Add the new install PowerShell 7 and set it as the new default.

"terminal.integrated.profiles.windows": {
    "PowerShell_7": {
        "source": "PowerShell",
        "icon": "terminal-powershell",
        "path": "C:\\Program Files\\PowerShell\\7\\pwsh.exe"
    },
},
"terminal.integrated.defaultProfile.windows": "PowerShell_7",

Eclipse ini settings

Memory settings G1 or ZGC

Where the G1 is optimized for shorter GC pause, which maybe is good too (default with Java 17), adjust the Xmx as you see fit eclipse.ini:

-Xms512m
-Xmx2048m
-XX:+UseG1GC
-XX:MaxGCPauseMillis=50
-XX:+UnlockExperimentalVMOptions
-XX:+UseStringDeduplication
-XX:+OptimizeStringConcat
-Dfile.encoding=UTF-8
-Dorg.eclipse.swt.internal.gtk.cairoGraphics=false
-Dorg.eclipse.swt.internal.gtk.useCairo=false

adjust the following settings based on your CPU count

-XX:ParallelGCThreads=6
-XX:ConcGCThreads=4

Increase icon size for large screens

-Dswt.autoScale=quarter

Eclipse autoscale comes with some examples. Basically quarter means leave it to the system to scale in 25% steps. Alternatively, use integers like 200 to scale to 200%.

-Dswt.autoScale=200

Miscellaneous

• Autogenerate Getter/Setter: https://projectlombok.org/
• Angular Browser Plugin: https://augury.rangle.io
• https://google.github.io/styleguide/javaguide.html