microsoft / microsoft/WSL

Mount partitions and skip HyperV limitations

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#9,283 10 comments 18 reactions 0 assignees View on GitHub

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feature
Dominant language
C++
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Description

Is your feature request related to a problem? Please describe.
https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/wsl/wsl2-mount-disk#limitations

At this time, only entire disks can be attached to WSL 2, meaning that it's not possible to attach only a partition. Concretely, this means that it's not possible to use wsl --mount to read a partition on the boot device, because that device can't be detached from Windows.

  1. We cannot mount Linux partitions that share the disk with Windows main partitions
  2. We cannot mount Linux partitions that share any Windows mounted partition
  3. We cannot mount specific partitions - just whole disks

We cannot mount our own Linux partitions if we have them, if they share the same drive as Windows

Describe the solution you'd like

  • Be able to mount my Linux partitions that share the disk with Windows
  • Be able to mount other partitions without requiring to mount an entire disk
  • Not needing to waste an isolated SSD/HDD for installing my native Linux distro solely to share with my WSL

Describe alternatives you've considered

  • There are no alternatives

#8954 #6415 #4699

DiskPart_output

WSL_0x80070020

Contributor guide

Open the contributing guide

First steps

  1. Read the whole issue, then the project's contributing guide.
  2. Comment on the issue to say you are picking it up — it saves two people doing the same work.
  3. Fork the repository and make your change on a branch.
  4. Open a pull request that references the issue number.

Research direction

Start by reviewing the linked WSL mount limitations and related issues #8954, #6415, and #4699. The work would be complete when WSL can mount individual Linux partitions, including partitions sharing a disk or Windows-mounted partition, without requiring the entire disk to be attached.

Written by the indexing model from the issue text.

Assessment

Tech stack
cpp, linux
Domain
operating-systems
Issue type
Feature
Difficulty
5/5
Estimated time
Over a week
Activity status
Active
Clarity
Needs clarification
Newbie friendliness
32/100

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