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WSL support
Tip
These instructions have changed since version 4.0.0; you no longer have to install any client-side tooling.
The command usbipd list
lists all the USB devices connected to Windows.
From an administrator command prompt on Windows, run this command.
> usbipd list
BUSID DEVICE STATE
1-7 USB Input Device Not shared
4-4 STMicroelectronics STLink dongle, STMic... Not shared
5-2 Surface Ethernet Adapter Not shared
The command usbipd bind
shares a device, allowing it to be attached to WSL. This requires administrator privileges.
Select the bus ID of the device you would like to use in WSL and run this command.
> usbipd bind --busid 4-4
Verify that the device is shared.
> usbipd list
BUSID DEVICE STATE
1-7 USB Input Device Not shared
4-4 STMicroelectronics STLink dongle, STMic... Shared
5-2 Surface Ethernet Adapter Not shared
Note that sharing a device is persistent; it survives reboots. You will have to do it only once, per device.
Close the administrator command prompt; further commands do not require special privileges.
Open a normal command prompt on Windows. Additionally, ensure a WSL command prompt is open; this will keep the WSL 2 lightweight VM active.
The command usbipd attach --wsl
attaches a USB device to WSL.
As long as the device is attached to WSL, it cannot be used by Windows. Once attached to WSL, you can use the device in any WSL 2 distribution.
From the Windows command prompt run this command.
> usbipd attach --wsl --busid 4-4
Verify that the device is attached.
> usbipd list
BUSID DEVICE STATE
1-7 USB Input Device Not shared
4-4 STMicroelectronics STLink dongle, STMic... Attached
5-2 Surface Ethernet Adapter Not shared
From within WSL, run lsusb
to list the attached USB devices. You should see the device you just attached and be able to interact with it using normal Linux tools.
$ lsusb
Bus 002 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0003 Linux Foundation 3.0 root hub
Bus 001 Device 002: ID 0483:374b STMicroelectronics ST-LINK/V2.1
Bus 001 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub
The command usbipd detach
detaches a device from WSL. Once detached, the device can be used by Windows again.
The device will also be detached when it is unplugged or when WSL is restarted.
> usbipd detach --busid 4-4
> usbipd list
BUSID DEVICE STATE
1-7 USB Input Device Not shared
4-4 STMicroelectronics STLink dongle, STMic... Shared
5-2 Surface Ethernet Adapter Not shared
Use the --help
option to learn more about these commands.
Depending on your application, you may need to configure udev
rules to allow non-root users to access the device. Rules to enable a device must be in place before attaching the device. As a common example, for using embedded devices with openocd
, copy share/openocd/contrib60-openocd.rules
to the /etc/udev/rules.d
folder.
After updating your rules run sudo udevadm control --reload
. If you get an error like "Failed to send reload request: No such file or directory", run sudo service udev restart
.
Note
Recent versions of Windows running WSL kernel 5.10.60.1 or later already include support for common scenarios like USB-to-serial adapters and flashing embedded development boards. Only if you require special drivers will you need to build your own kernel for WSL 2.
Update WSL:
wsl --update
List your distributions.
wsl --list --verbose
Verify that your target distribution is version 2; see WSL documentation for instructions on how to set the WSL version.
Export current distribution to be able to fall back if something goes wrong.
wsl --export <current-distro> <temporary-path>\wsl2-usbip.tar
Import new distribution with current distribution as base.
wsl --import wsl2-usbip <install-path> <temporary-path>\wsl2-usbip.tar
Run new distribution.
wsl --distribution wsl2-usbip --user <user>
Update resources (assuming apt
, you may need to use yum
or another package manager).
sudo apt update
sudo apt upgrade
Install prerequisites.
sudo apt install build-essential flex bison libssl-dev libelf-dev libncurses-dev autoconf libudev-dev libtool
Note
Depending on the drivers you will select below, additional packages may be required.
Clone kernel that matches WSL version. To find the version you can run.
uname -r
The kernel can be found at: https://github.com/microsoft/WSL2-Linux-Kernel
Clone the kernel repo, then checkout the branch/tag that matches your kernel version; run uname -r
to find the kernel version.
git clone https://github.com/microsoft/WSL2-Linux-Kernel.git
cd WSL2-Linux-Kernel
git checkout linux-msft-wsl-5.10.43.3
Copy current configuration file.
cp /proc/config.gz config.gz
gunzip config.gz
mv config .config
You may need to set CONFIG_USB=y in .config prior to running menuconfig to get all options enabled for selection.
Run menuconfig to select kernel features to add.
sudo make menuconfig
These are the necessary additional features in menuconfig.
Device Drivers -> USB Support
Device Drivers -> USB Support -> USB announce new devices
Device Drivers -> USB Support -> USB Modem (CDC ACM) support
Device Drivers -> USB Support -> USB/IP
Device Drivers -> USB Support -> USB/IP -> VHCI HCD
Device Drivers -> USB Support -> USB/IP -> Debug messages for USB/IP
Device Drivers -> USB Serial Converter Support
Device Drivers -> USB Serial Converter Support -> USB FTDI Single port Serial Driver
Note
These instructions have changed.
Debug messages have a huge negative performance impact on bulk transfers. Enabling debug
messages is no longer recommended.
In the following command the number '8' is the number of cores to use; run getconf _NPROCESSORS_ONLN
to find the number of cores.
sudo make -j 8 && sudo make modules_install -j 8 && sudo make install -j 8
From the root of the repo, copy the image.
cp arch/x86/boot/bzImage /mnt/c/Users/<user>/usbip-bzImage
Create a .wslconfig
file on /mnt/c/Users/<user>/
and add a reference to the created image with the following.
[wsl2]
kernel=c:\\users\\<user>\\usbip-bzImage
Your WSL distro is now ready to use!