NixOS on WSL

Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL)

How to setup NixOS on Windows Subsytem for Linux.

Enable WSL

Run the following command from an admin shell:

Using PowerShell

Enable-WindowsOptionalFeature -Online -FeatureName Microsoft-Windows-Subsystem-Linux -All
Enable-WindowsOptionalFeature -Online -FeatureName VirtualMachinePlatform -All
Enable-WindowsOptionalFeature -Online -FeatureName Microsoft-Hyper-V -All

Or using Command Prompt and DISM

Run the following command from an admin shell:

DISM /Online /Enable-Feature /All /FeatureName:Microsoft-Windows-Subsystem-Linux /norestart
DISM /Online /Enable-Feature /All /FeatureName:VirtualMachinePlatform /norestart
DISM /Online /Enable-Feature /All /FeatureName:Microsoft-Hyper-V /norestart

Install WSL

Run the following command from a non-admin shell:

wsl --install

Updating WSL

Run the following command from a non-admin shell:

wsl --update --web-download

Running WSL

To enter the WSL environment simply execute:

wsl

This will launch the default linux OS.

---

wsl --install
wsl --update --web-download

If you run wsl and nothing happens (no errors reported, but WSL does not launch). Then run the above commands again.

Installing NixOS-WSL

1. First, download the latest release.
2. Import NixOS-WSL (run these commands in the same folder where the release nixos-wsl.tar.gz was downloaded):
   • Using PowerShell:

     wsl --import NixOS $env:USERPROFILE\NixOS\ nixos-wsl.tar.gz
     

   • Using Command Prompt:

     wsl --import NixOS %USERPROFILE%\NixOS\ nixos-wsl.tar.gz
     

3. Enter the NixOS environment

   wsl -d NixOS
   

4. After the initial installation, you need to update your channels once, to be able to use nixos-rebuild:

   sudo nix-channel --update
   

To optionally set NixOS as the default for WSL:

wsl -s NixOS

Enable flakes

In order to use Nix flakes you need to add the following line to your System Configuration:

    nix.settings.experimental-features = [ "nix-command" "flakes" ];