Tag Archives: wsl

Ping on WSL

Do we really need to be root to simply to a ping from your WSL on Windows?
Apparently yes.
You have probably faced the following error:

ping: socktype: SOCK_RAW
ping: socket: Operation not permitted
ping: => missing cap_net_raw+p capability or setuid?

Wanna fix it?

sudo setcap cap_net_raw+ep /bin/ping

Run this command once, and the command ping will be “usable” again 😉

Happy ping’ing! 😉

Mount Windows Network drives in WSL

In Windows WSL, you can access the local disk navigating the path /mnt/c/ for the C: drive, for example.

Sometimes, network drives mounted on boot aren’t automatically mounted within your WSL Linux shell. You can do it manually using the following commands:

# For a drive already mapped in Windows (e.g. Z: drive)
$ sudo mkdir /mnt/z
$ sudo mount -t drvfs Z: /mnt/z

# For a network drive accessible via \\myserver\dir1 in Explorer
$ sudo mkdir /mnt/dir1
$ sudo mount -t drvfs '\\myserver\dir1' /mnt/dir1

Migrate Linux Subsystem from one PC to another

Are you enjoying your favorite Linux distro running within the Windows 10 Linux Subsystem?

Have you configured all nicely?

What happened if you get a new pc and you’d like to migrate your VM across?

This is what happened to me. And looking around, I found this post that gave me this kinda-dirty way, but did work!

After that, I decided to review the steps, and I’ve added these directories in the exclude’s list, to make clearer the process of export/import:

/dev
/proc
/sys
/run
/tmp
/media
/mnt
/var/cache
/var/run

Of course, if you have important data in these folders and you want to move across too, just update the one-liner below accordingly. 😉

On your OLD PC

  • Open your Linux VM
  • Get inside your Downloads directory (replace <user> with your username):

    cd /mnt/c/Users/<user>/Downloads
  • Make sure to be root (sudo su -)
  • Run:

    tar -cvpzf backup.tar.gz --exclude=/backup.tar.gz --exclude=/dev --exclude=/proc --exclude=/sys --exclude=/run --exclude=/tmp --exclude=/media --exclude=/mnt --exclude=/var/cache --exclude=/var/run --one-file-system /

    NOTE: you could achieve the same using the option --exclude-from=file.txt, and having the list of exclusions in this file. I used a one-liner as it’s quicker to copy and paste.
  • Once done, close your Linux VM
  • Verify that you have a new file called backup.tar.bz in Downloads

On your NEW PC

  • Install from Microsoft Store the same Linux VM (or reinstall in the same way you have done originally on your old pc)
  • Copy across your backup.tar.bz within your new Downloads folder
  • Open the VM that you’ve just installed (minimal setup – this will be completely overwritten, so don’t be bothered too much)
  • Once you’re inside and your backup.tar.bz is in Download, run the following (replace <user> with your username):

    sudo tar -xpzf /mnt/c/Users/<user>/Downloads/backup.tar.gz -C / --numeric-owner
  • Ignore the errors
  • Close and re-open the VM: DONE! 🙂

Happy migration! 😉