Gentoo on windows subsystem for linux

[aliceinwire]

Gentoo on windows subsystem for linux

any idea?

looks like they already did for fedora
https://www.variantweb.net/blog/running-fedora-on-windows-10-using-wsl/

[chithanh]

I looked a bit into it. Deleting all the Ubuntu stuff and replacing it with a stage3 (akin to what Fedora did) is one possibility.

The Ubuntu on Windows development unfortunately was done in secret. And despite promises of technical details, not much has been released publicly yet.
http://www.hanselman.com/blog/DevelopersCanRunBashShellAndUsermodeUbuntuLinuxBinariesOnWindows10.aspx
http://blog.dustinkirkland.com/2016/03/ubuntu-on-windows.html

[iprice]

I actually had a go at this.

You can do the swapping of the root's pretty much, install WSL, run 'bash', install its ubuntu base, unarchive the stage 3 into a directory (i called /s3) and basically swap the file systems over.

You have some problems because of what I presume is the way windows implements file locking... I think you can specify what command to 'start' as a parameter to 'the windows 'bash' executable', so something like "bash /s3/bin/busybox etc etc" might be useful

Essentially mv everything from / into /old, rm -rf sensibly whatever's left (ignore sys proc mnt dev), you'll need to use busybox probably to do this because of the static linking. rm -rf any 'safe' folders that remain (usr, bin, sbin etc), it might complain about purging some parts of /usr or /bin but persistence paid off (!)

Once done you can mv or cp the stage3 from /s3 into the root. You'll need to move "init" from the old install back into the root. (dont know what happens if you dont, actually).

Set your /etc/locale.gen and locale-gen ... resolver doesn't seem to matter thus far (or is auto configured, i didn't even look). ICMP doesn't work.



You might need to use "lxrun /setdefaultuser root" (or may just find this useful).



None of the above is particularly of note, it's a bit fudgy but i've actually done this on real linux machines recently (swapping remote operating systems), it's a little more fudgey for reasons of windows locking i guess but it works still.

I suggest you "su -" after you run bash, i dont think the default init thing properly sets up bits of the environment, i get locale errors sometimes etc etc.




The reason I'm making this post, aside from having the time while my machine does some building, was to share the next "hurdle" I came across and it's resolution.

The problem is emerging anything fails pretty early on (after the unpacking of the source) with some error about "ebuild-ipc daemon process not detected". At first I was worried there was some limitation in the filesystem implementation that was being tripped, but I manually compiled bash (as a test package) so it seemed like in theory trying to build stuff oughta be possible.


The problem comes down to a file called "build-ipc.py". this is located on my system at /usr/lib64/portage/python3.5/build-ipc.py , though your lib directory may change, as may your python version directory (python 2.7 on my other machines mostly)...

In here you can find "def _daemon_is_alive(self)" which 'tries' to do something to do with locking, which fails miserably (i guess). If you delete this entire try/except/else and just replace it with "return True" (with the correct level of indentation, cant remember but python cares I believe), then ebuild commands run and complete.

I'm no gentoo expert, and worry a bit about the problem being to do with locking, since such things are sometimes used as guards, but if I look at this segment of code, not only is it only supposed to "check if something is running", which presumably it is since the builds succeed, and thus its just the check thats defective....
but also the whole check is centered around trying to FAIL to do something - it tries to get the lock, and if it fails, it assumes the daemon has the file open and says "all good here!". if the lock succeeds, it unlocks it again and says the daemon isn't running..... so i guess the locking code doesn't properly enforce something in microsoft's implementation here...

anyone know if this is likely to be an issue somewhere? I'm pretty sure bodging this check is fine, but are there any well known problems with locking not functioning properly and always returning the "OK" state? I know this is a bit of an old gripe for unix anyway as various NFS setups have 'struggled' with this and caused issues for things like MTAs (i think, its been a long time since i did nfs-root work, and i imagine the support/code has progressed in the decade gone by).




Mostly just sharing progress, I'm currently updating world, and i'll probably do an 'emerge -e @world' at some point for lulz, and to see what breaks.

[eddy89]

Hi,

[brokenHeart]

Hi,

I actually doing some experiments with WSL and Gentoo.
The "_default_lock_fn = fcntl.lockf to fcntl.flock" trick have not solved the problem for me.
When using stage3 and basically follows install handbook this allows you to pass "emerge --config sys-libs/timezone-data" but the first "real" emerge fails with another IPC relative error ...

[eddy89]

Hi,
Sorry for upping this post, but I think that a lot of problems in new WSL (Windows 1709) has been solved and Gentoo could run smoothly. Moreover, they added the ability to install different distros via the app store, we could try to prepare and propose a Microsoft Store version of Gentoo!

[Yamakuzure]

[krinn]

[Zucca]

[eddy89]

Sorry krinn, I get your point(s) but I'm not saying that Gentoo could be *only* obtained via Microsoft store. If you want to get Gentoo for free, you still can, also if it's on the store. If you want the ability (and the comfort) to get it from the store, you should be able to, if it's doable. All the restrictions you mentioned of the store are applied to the comfort part, but no one is forcing you to use the store.
About the Debian social contract, I think you're confusing the *requirement* of a non-free component with the ability to have it over one of these. Correct me if I'm wrong.
I'm a Gentoo user too, but I'm also a Windows user, and although I'm not a philosopher, I'm a user of whatever I think it's useful. And I think that Gentoo on WSL could be useful. End of story.
You really think that's about making Windows shine? I'm sorry, but again, here's nothing about shining IMHO.

[Ant P.]

[The Doctor]

Whatever the philosophy angle, krinn is very much correct that branding a non-Gentoo product with the Gentoo name and logo would be in violation of Gentoo copywrite.

[Yamakuzure]

Sorry if this sounds stupid, but what the hell would anybody want to install a WSL instance of Gentoo via the Microsoft App Store in the first place? That instance would be out-of-date the day after it got released anyway.

If you really must have Gentoo within a WSL instance, just install a stage3 tarball using legacy WSL like in the thread linked above shows.

...hell, such an App Store instance would be out-of-date even before it would hit the store...
_________________
Important German:

1. "Aha" - German reaction to pretend that you are really interested while giving no f*ck.
2. "Tja" - German reaction to the apocalypse, nuclear war, an alien invasion or no bread in the house.

[Zucca]

So if installed via M$ App Store you cannot emerge -u @world?
_________________
..: Zucca :..
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[Yamakuzure]

[Zucca]

[krinn]