microsoft / microsoft/WSL

"wsl --import" should include regular user setup, and not default to root user.

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#4,999 6 comments 4 reactions 0 assignees View on GitHub

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feature
Dominant language
C++
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Merged PRs (30d)
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Description

Is your feature request related to a problem? Please describe.
My goal was to take a stock Ubuntu-18.04 WSL instance and clone it with a custom name and logo, for differentiation. When I took an import of the distro from its snapshot, it set up the only the root user. This completely breaks the Remote-WSL workflow from VS Code. Git ops are happening as root, when you want them to happen as the regular user.

You can create a new user from CLI, in your new distro. However, there's no way to tell VS Code at present, when using the "Remote-WSL: New window using distro…" workflow, which user you want it to open with.

Describe the solution you'd like
When you have downloaded a distro from the Microsoft Store, and you open it the first time, you're asked to specify a username and password. This then becomes the default account you log in with.

When you use wsl --import akulbe C:\WSLdistros\akulbe\ ubuntu.tar.gz --version 2, to set up a new distro from a snapshot, it will only have the root user, but it should be asking you to specify a username/password, just like the same process from the Store does.

Describe alternatives you've considered
Only using stock distros.

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First steps

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  3. Fork the repository and make your change on a branch.
  4. Open a pull request that references the issue number.

Research direction

The issue identifies the wsl --import command and contrasts it with first-run setup for Store-installed Ubuntu, but it names no implementation files or tests. Start by tracing the import path and existing distribution user-setup flow; done means an imported distro can configure a regular user and use it as the default instead of root.

Written by the indexing model from the issue text.

Assessment

Tech stack
linux, ubuntu, vscode
Domain
cli, operating-systems
Issue type
Feature
Difficulty
4/5
Estimated time
3-5 days
Activity status
Stale
Clarity
Mostly clear
Newbie friendliness
35/100

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