Getting started on Linux / WSL2

This page provides instructions for installing the necessary dependencies to build OpenVMM or OpenHCL on Linux / WSL2.

[WSL2] Installing WSL2

To install Windows Subsystem for Linux, run the following command in an elevated Powershell window:

PS> wsl --install

This should install WSL2 using the default Ubuntu linux distribution. You can check that the installation completed successfully by running the following command in a Powershell window.

PS> wsl -l -v
  NAME            STATE           VERSION
* Ubuntu          Running         2

Once that command has completed, you will need to open WSL to complete the installation and set your password. You can open WSL by typing wsl or bash into Command Prompt or Powershell, or by opening the "Ubuntu" Windows Terminal profile that should have been created.

All subsequent commands on this page must be run within WSL2.

Installing Rust

To build OpenVMM or OpenHCL, you first need to install Rust.

The OpenVMM project actively tracks the latest stable release of Rust, though it may take a week or two after a new stable is released until OpenVMM switches over to it.

Please follow the official instructions to do so.

[Linux] Additional Dependencies

On Linux, there are various other dependencies you will need depending on what you're working on. On Debian-based distros such as Ubuntu, running the following command within WSL will install these dependencies.

In the future, it is likely that this step will be folded into the cargo xflowey restore-packages command.

$ sudo apt install \
  binutils              \
  build-essential       \
  gcc-aarch64-linux-gnu \
  libssl-dev

Cloning the OpenVMM source

If using WSL2: Do NOT clone the repo into Windows then try to access said clone from Linux. It will result in serious performance issues.

$ cd path/to/where/you/clone/repos
$ git clone https://github.com/microsoft/openvmm.git

Next Steps

You are now ready to build OpenVMM or OpenHCL!