Environment specifics: WSL v2

Backend.AI supports running on WSL (Windows Subsystem for Linux) version 2. However, you need to configure some special options so that the WSL distribution can interact with the Docker Desktop service.

Configuration of Docker Desktop for Windows

Turn on WSL Integration on Settings → Resources → WSL INTEGRATION. For the most cases, this should be already configured when you install Docker Desktop for Windows.

See also

https://docs.docker.com/desktop/wsl/

Configuration of WSL

1. Create or modify /etc/wsl.conf using sudo in the WSL shell.

2. Write down this and save.

   [automount]
   root = /
   options = "metadata"
   

3. Run wsl --shutdown in a PowerShell prompt to restart the WSL distribution to ensure your wsl.conf updates applied.

4. Enter the WSL shell again. If it is applied, your path must appears like /c/some/path instead of /mnt/c/some/path.

5. Run sudo mount --make-rshared / in the WSL shell. Otherwise, your container creation from Backend.AI will fail with an error message like aiodocker.exceptions.DockerError: DockerError(500, 'path is mounted on /d but it is not a shared mount.').

Installation of Backend.AI

Now you may run the installer in the WSL shell.