WSL and Miniconda

WSL

Install WSL

Open PowerShell or Windows Command Prompt in administrator mode by right-clicking and selecting "Run as administrator", enter the wsl --install command, then restart your machine. This command only works if WSL is not installed at all.

Change the default Linux distribution installed

1. To install additional distributions, enter: wsl --install -d <Distribution Name>. Replace <Distribution Name> with the name of the distribution you would like to install.
2. To see a list of available Linux distributions available for download through the online store, enter: wsl --list --online or wsl -l -o.
3. If you want to install additional distributions from inside a Linux/Bash command line (rather than from PowerShell or Command Prompt), you must use .exe in the command: wsl.exe --install -d <Distribution Name> or to list available distributions: wsl.exe -l -o.
4. To install a Linux distribution that is not listed as available, you can download from microsoft store. Or you can import any Linux distribution using a TAR file. Or in some cases, as with Arch Linux, you can install using an .appx file. You can also create your own custom Linux distribution to use with WSL.

• Helper article, Before proceeding with wsl installation
• If you run into an issue during the install process, check the installation section of the troubleshooting guide.
• If you are on earlier versions please see the manual install page.

wsl1 and wsl2

Fire the below commands in Powershell

1. To see whether your Linux distribution is set to WSL 1 or WSL 2, use the command: wsl -l -v.
2. To change versions, use the command: wsl --set-version <distro name> 2 replacing <distro name> with the name of the Linux distribution that you want to update. If you want to change to 1, replace 2 by 1.
3. To set the default Linux distribution used with the wsl command, enter: wsl -s <DistributionName> or wsl --set-default <DistributionName>, replacing <DistributionName> with the name of the Linux distribution you would like to use.
4. For more basic commands for WSL, you can visit

Other WSL Commands

• wsl --list --verbose
  Lists all installed WSL (Windows Subsystem for Linux) distributions with detailed information, including their state (running/stopped) and version.

• wsl --update
  Updates the WSL kernel to the latest version available from Microsoft.

• wsl --shutdown
  Shuts down all running WSL instances and the WSL system itself, freeing up resources.

• wsl --unregister command
  wsl --unregister <Distribution Name> Uninstalls and removes the specified WSL distribution from your system. Replace <Distribution Name> with the actual name of the distribution (e.g., Ubuntu).

Troubleshooting WSL

If you encounter an error when running wsl or wsl --install, it may be due to a previous WSL installation that is corrupted or has existing issues.

# error installing wsl
C:\Windows\System32>wsl
The system cannot find the path specified.

Then, Please install Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL) using winget, execute the following command in an elevated command prompt or PowerShell

winget install Microsoft.WSL

winget install --id=Microsoft.WSL -e

• winget install: This is the basic command to install a package using winget.
• --id=Microsoft.WSL: This specifies the exact ID of the WSL package in the winget repository.
• -e or --exact: This flag ensures that winget installs the package with the exact ID provided, preventing potential ambiguity with similar package names
• UI for winget: https://winget.run/

Comparing WSL Versions

Checking Ubuntu Version

Fire the below commands in ubuntu (WSL)

1. lsb_release Command to Show Ubuntu Versio - Linux Standard Base(LSB)
   • lsb_release -a (all), lsb_release -d (description), lsb_release -dc
2. cat /etc/lsb-release is another way
3. cat /etc/*release to print full lineup
4. cat /etc/os-release to display the contents of the os-release file
5. hostnamectl to show the host machine’s details
6. When you connect to a remote machine via SSH, the remote system often prints a message that’s stored in the /etc/issue file. If you have access to the machine, you can display the contents of this file to get the Ubuntu version
   • cat /etc/issue and cat /etc/issue.net
7. screenfetch is a very interesting script that displays system information in the terminal. It’s popular because of the concise information output and a great-looking ASCII image.

   sudo apt install screenfetch -y
   screenfetch

8. neofetch is a more modern version of the screenfetch Bash script. In addition to showing system information, it also displays a color palette underneath the itemized list.

   sudo apt install neofetch -y
   neofetch

Checking CPU Information

lscpu
# or
cat /proc/cpuinfo

• Processor Architecture: uname -m
• Processor Model: lscpu | grep -i "Model name:" | cut -d':' -f2- -

Setting up nodejs with nvm on WSL

Install NVM via bash shell (WSL) as below:

curl -o- https://raw.githubusercontent.com/nvm-sh/nvm/v0.39.7/install.sh | bash

wget -qO- https://raw.githubusercontent.com/nvm-sh/nvm/v0.39.7/install.sh | bash

( Note: instead of v0.38.0 Use the latest version of nvm from GitHub)

Verify your installation using

command -v nvm

• nvm install --lts to install the latest LTS, nvm install node to install the latest version
• nvm ls or nvm list to check all the installed node versions
• nvm install 12.18.3 or nvm install 20 to install particular versions
• nvm use 20 to change to node version 20
• nvm ls-remote to list available versions online to be installed

• Set default node version

nvm alias default node # this refers to the latest installed version of node
nvm alias default 18 # this refers to the latest installed v18.x version of node
nvm alias default 18.12  # this refers to the latest installed v18.12.x version of node

For more help related to nvm

Then we can use node as normally as below:

• npm install --global yarn or npm i -g yarn to install yarn globally
• npm install -g @angular/cli to install Angular CLI globally
• npm install <package-name> --save-dev or npm i -D <package-name>, yarn add <package-name> –dev or yarn add -D <package-name> to install package under devDependencies
• npm install or npm i or yarn install or yarn to install all dependencies present in package.json
• consider the belowpackage.json.

{
  "name": "wiki",
  "version": "0.0.0",
  "scripts": {
    "docusaurus": "docusaurus",
    "start": "docusaurus start",
    "serve": "docusaurus serve",
  }
}

• npm run serve or yarn serve or yarn run serve to execute serve command present inside the file. Other commands also follow the same way.

Miniconda

Some of the popular virtual environment implementations for Python are:

• Virtualenv, Conda, pipenv, venv and several others exist. However the most popular ones are Conda, Pipenv and venv as well. Specifically, Conda is popular amongst Data Scientists whereas pipenv is popular amongst software engineers.
• Conda is a package manager and a virtual environment and it provides the convenience of allowing you to manage what version of Python the virtual environment (and as a result your project) uses as well. So naturally, conda is very convenient and I use it my projects as well.

Install miniconda

1. Download Miniconda Installer

wget https://repo.anaconda.com/miniconda/Miniconda3-latest-Linux-x86_64.sh -O /opt/miniconda-installer.sh

sudo wget https://repo.anaconda.com/miniconda/Miniconda3-latest-Linux-x86_64.sh -O /opt/miniconda-installer.sh

The Miniconda installer script has been downloaded and saved as miniconda-installer.sh at the location /opt

2. Install Miniconda

bash /opt/miniconda-installer.sh

Follow the instructions shown on the screen. We need to press ENTER to review the license agreement. Keep pressing ENTER or SPACE to finish it. , At the end of the agreement, you will be asked to accept the license terms or not. Type yes to accept and continue. And continue till you see Thank you for installing Miniconda3!

3. Configure Miniconda

After the Miniconda installation, we need to apply the changes made to ~/.bashrc file. Miniconda installer modified the file during the installation. Let’s execute the command.

source ~/.bashrc

Now, at this point, you can run this command to check your Miniconda information.

conda info

• conda install package-name to install a Python package. So, if you want to install pandas, you can run conta install pandas
• to exit from the conda environment, conda deactivate

Create conda environment

Conda centrally manages the environments you create, so, you don’t have to bother about creating a folder for specific environments yourself. You can either start by creating an empty environment or mention the python version and packages you need at the time of creation itself.

• Create an empty environment

conda create --name {env_name}
conda create --name myenv

• Create an environment + specific python version

conda create --name {env_name} {python==3.7.5}
conda create --name myenv python==3.7.5

This will also install packages like pip, wheel, setuptools. You can then activate the environment (see below) and

• Create an environment + specific Python version + packages

conda create --name env_name python==3.7.5 package_name1 package_name2

example

conda create --name myenv python==3.7.5 pandas numpy

Activate the environment

conda activate {env_name}

To deactivate whichever you are currently in, use:

conda deactivate

Install more packages

Once activated you can install more packages using either conda or with pip.

With Conda

conda install pkg_name1==1.x.y pkg_name2==1.x.y

With pip

pip install pkg_name2==1.x.y pkg_name2==1.x.y

or install multiple packages from requirements.txt.

pip install -r requirements.txt

Channel in Conda

A channel is the location where packages are stored remotely. When you install Conda for the first time, it comes with a channel called default. You can check that using the command below:

conda config --show channels

1. To install a package using the default channel, you use the conda install command followed by the <package_name>. That is: conda install package-name

Although numerous packages can be installed from the default channel, it's possible to come across packages that are not accessible from it.

In cases like this, you'd usually get the "PackagesNotFoundError: The following channels are not available from current channels" error message.

2. How To Install a Package in Conda Using a Channel Name

conda install -c some-channel packagename
# or
conda install some-channel::packagename

examples

conda install -c conda-forge matplotlib
conda install scipy --channel conda-forge --channel bioconda

You may specify multiple channels by passing the argument multiple time Priority decreases from left to right - the first argument is higher priority than the second.

• The -c or --channel flag denotes the word channel.

• conda-forge denotes the name of the channel where matplotlib was installed from.

• Although we installed Matplotlib from conda-forge, conda-forge will not be added to our list of channels.

• So if you run the conda config --show channels command, you'd only see the default channel.

• You can add a channel to the list of channels using the conda config --add channels channel-name command. That is:

conda config --add channels conda-forge

The command above will add conda-forge to the list of Conda channels. This means that you don't have to specify the channel name if you are installing a package that is available from the conda-forge channel.

Some of the channels are: anaconda, conda_forge, r, bioconda and defaults

Check the list of packages and environments

• See list of environments

conda env list
# or
conda info --envs

• Show list of packages in current environment conda list
• See list of packages in specific environment conda list -n myenv
• Rename an existing environment

conda rename -n old_env new_env

Change 'base' environment permanently to a different environment 'myenv' at startup

conda create --name myenv
conda activate myenv
echo "conda activate myenv" >> ~/.bashrc

Generating a new SSH key

1. Open Terminal
2. Paste the text below, replacing the email used in the example with your GitHub email address

ssh-keygen -t ed25519 -C "your_email@example.com"

Note: If you are using a legacy system that doesn't support the Ed25519 algorithm, use:

ssh-keygen -t rsa -b 4096 -C "your_email@example.com"

3. At the prompt, type a secure passphrase

> Enter passphrase (empty for no passphrase): [Type a passphrase]
> Enter same passphrase again: [Type passphrase again]

4. Copy the SSH public key to your clipboard

cat ~/.ssh/id_ed25519.pub

If your SSH public key file has a different name than the example code, modify the filename to match your current setup. When copying your key, don't add any newlines or whitespace.

Resources

1. How to Install Miniconda on Ubuntu 22.04
2. Conda create environment and everything you need to know to manage conda virtual environment
3. Anaconda change 'base' environment permanently to a different environment 'myenv' to startup at terminal openings
4. Using default repositories - official
5. Explanation of different conda channels - stackoverflow
6. Generating a new SSH key and adding it to the ssh-agent