Kia Zhi Tang (Ryen Tang)

Kia Zhi Tang (Ryen Tang)

Technology Evangelist, Infrastructure as Code Developer, Automation Guru

To find out more about me.

Getting openSUSE distro environment on Windows for DevOps

7 minute read

Previously, I blogged about Getting Ubuntu distro environment on Windows for DevOps and some may wonder if Ubuntu the only option for Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL) since there are tons of blog post about it.

As such, I will share my experience on how you can obtain openSUSE distro for Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL) and addresses the following questions below.

  • Can I have other linux distro?
  • Can it be deployed on a Windows Server?
  • Can it be upgraded so that it does not reach end of life?

I decided to blog this walk-through on how you can enable the Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL), maintain your linux distro environment and upgrade the linux distro instance to stay ahead. Let’s get started with command lines.

Getting Started with openSUSE on Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL)

In this blog post, I will be documenting the basic steps in getting Bash and other common linux tools from openSUSE distro working on Windows 10 using Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL) feature.

What is actually Windows Subsystem for Linux? In short, it is a Windows feature on Windows 10 that allows developers to run linux environment directly on Windows without deploying a virtual machine. That means you get to use Bash and many other tools that focus primarily on linux first to work on Windows.

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Pre-requisite requirements

  • Windows 10 Build 16215 or later
  • Windows Server 1709 or later

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Enable Windows Subsystem for Linux feature on Windows 10

To enable the Windows Subsystem for Linux Feature on Windows 10 and reboot the Windows 10 using PowerShell.

Note: A reboot of the Windows 10 operating system is required after enabling the Windows Subsystem for Linux feature

  • Launch Windows PowerShell with elevated privileges
  • Use the Enable-WindowsOptionalFeature PowerShell cmdlet to enable the feature
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Enable-WindowsOptionalFeature `
    -FeatureName "Microsoft-Windows-Subsystem-Linux" `
    -Online `
    -NoRestart:$False ;

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How to obtain openSUSE distro instance for Windows

Once you have verified that your current environment meets the pre-requisite requirements and you have enabled the Windows Subsystem for Linux feature.

Let’s get started with obtaining openSUSE distro instance with Windows Subsystem for Linux for Windows 10 or Windows Server.

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Downloading openSUSE distro instance

In this example, we will use Invoke-WebRequest PowerShell cmdlet to download the linux distro application package to your home folder.

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# Download openSUSE WSL application
Invoke-WebRequest `
    -Uri "https://aka.ms/wsl-opensuse-42" `
    -OutFile "~\openSUSE-42_v1.appx" `
    -UseBasicParsing ;

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Installation for Windows 10

Natively, you can use Add-AppxPackage PowerShell cmdlet to add the linux distro application package to your Windows 10.

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# Install the openSUSE Leap 42 WSL application
Add-AppxPackage `
    -Path "~\openSUSE-42_v1.appx" ;

During your initial launch of openSUSE on Windows 10, you will be requested to configure your new UNIX username and password.

Note: This setup a normal non-administrative user account that will login by default when you launch the distro. The username and password does not require to be same as your Windows user account. To elevate privileges in the distro instance, use sudo and input your password. For more information, you are refer to this documentation here.

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Installation for Windows Server

For Windows Server, you will have use Rename-Item PowerShell cmdlet to rename the linux distro application package extension to a compressed file extension.

Since the file has been renamed to a compressed file extension, you will use Expand-Archive PowerShell cmdlet to expand the compressed file to your home folder or ~\.wsl\distro\ custom home folder location.

After the file has been expanded to the destination, use the Start-Process PowerShell cmdlet to launch the executable to begin the initial configuration of the linux distro instance.

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# Rename the file extension to compressed file extension
Rename-Item `
    -Path "~\openSUSE-42_v1.appx" `
    -NewName "openSUSE-42_v1.zip" ;

# Expand the compressed file to destination
Expand-Archive `
    -Path "~\openSUSE-42_v1.zip" `
    -DestinationPath "~\.wsl\distro\openSUSE" ;

# Launch the distro setup
Start-Process `
    -FilePath "~\.wsl\distro\openSUSE\openSUSE-42.exe" ;

Once the openSUSE-42.exe is running, the installation will begin and you will be requested to configure your new UNIX username and password.

Note: This setup a normal non-administrative user account that will login by default when you launch the distro. The username and password does not require to be same as your Windows user account. To elevate privileges in the distro instance, use sudo and input your password. For more information, you are refer to this documentation here.

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How to update the openSUSE distro instance

When you switched into the linux distro for the first time, you will need to use the linux distro’s preferred package manager to update and upgrade those installed packages. This is because most of the linux distro are shipped with an empty/minimal package catalog.

For openSUSE, we will use zypper removerepo command to remove existing repository uri and perform zypper addrepo command to add new repository uri to the package manager configuration.

Once the package manager is configured properly, we will use zypper refresh to initiate a refresh and apply the new packages using the zypper update command. For more information about zypper, you can refer to the documentation here.

Note: Microsoft does not maintain those linux distro and the linux distro instance running on Windows Subsystem for Linux are not maintained by Windows Updates.

Note: You can obtain openSUSE repository uri for the specific distribution and update releases from https://download.opensuse.org/.

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# Remove old repository uri
sudo zypper removerepo oss oss_update

# Add openSUSE Leap 42.3 repository uri
sudo zypper addrepo --check --refresh --name 'oss_42.3' http://download.opensuse.org/distribution/leap/42.3/repo/oss/suse/ oss
sudo zypper addrepo --check --refresh --name 'oss_42.3_update' http://download.opensuse.org/update/leap/42.3/oss/ oss_update

# Refresh and update openSUSE
sudo zypper refresh && sudo zypper update

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How to switch into openSUSE distro shell environment

After you have configured and updated your openSUSE distro instance, you can always quickly switch into the linux distro shell environment by doing the following below.

  • Launch Command Prompt or PowerShell Console
  • Input wsl or bash to switch into openSUSE distro shell environment

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How to validate openSUSE distro instance version

To check the openSUSE distro instance version, use the cat command with /etc/os-release path.

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# Display openSUSE version
cat /etc/os-release

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How to perform an in-place upgrade to openSUSE Leap 15.0

If you are still using openSUSE Leap 42.3 distro instance and wanted to use openSUSE Leap 15.0, you can use zypper removerepo command to remove those old repository uri and use zypper addrepo to add new repository uri to configure the package manager.

After the package manager is configured, use zypper refresh to initiate a refresh of the packages index and use zypper dist-upgrade to perform the distro upgrade to openSUSE Leap 15.0.

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# Remove old repository uri
sudo zypper removerepo oss oss_update

# Add openSUSE Leap 15.0 repository uri
sudo zypper addrepo --check --refresh --name 'oss_15.0' http://download.opensuse.org/distribution/leap/15.0/repo/oss/ oss
sudo zypper addrepo --check --refresh --name 'oss_15.0_update' http://download.opensuse.org/update/leap/15.0/oss/ oss_update

# Refresh and upgrade openSUSE
sudo zypper refresh && sudo zypper dist-upgrade

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How to update the openSUSE distro instance to openSUSE Leap 15.1

To update openSUSE Leap 15.0 to openSUSE Leap 15.1, we will use zypper removerepo command to remove existing repository uri and perform zypper addrepo command to add new repository uri to the package manager configuration.

Once the package manager is configured properly, we will use zypper refresh to initiate a refresh and apply the new packages using the zypper update command. For more information about zypper, you can refer to the documentation here.

Note: openSUSE Leap 15.1 does not have an update repository uri at the time when the blog post is published and therefore you will notice that we did not include the step to use zypper addrepo to add oss_15.1_update repository name.

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# Remove old repository uri
sudo zypper removerepo oss oss_update

# Add openSUSE Leap 15.1 repository uri
sudo zypper addrepo --check --refresh --name 'oss_15.1' http://download.opensuse.org/distribution/leap/15.1/repo/oss/ oss

# Refresh and update openSUSE
sudo zypper refresh && sudo zypper update

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Conclusion

There you have it. You can deploy this feature on Windows 10 or Windows Server and keep the instance up to date with that linux distro before it reaches end of life.

If you find that this information useful, feel free to bookmark this or share it with your colleagues and friends.

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References

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