win 10

Created on - Aug 3rd 2023. 

WSL - Windows Subsystem for Linux

Scenario #1 - After installation of ubuntu on windows and working for few days hapily in ubuntu, I realized that drive C is getting full. Now I wanted to move my ubuntu to some other drive that has enough free space.

Solution - Sources - https://dev.to/equiman/move-wsl-file-system-to-another-drive-2a3d

Steps: 

1. get into exisitng ubuntu terminal and check current user
   whoami  #In my case it's rohitverma

2. switch to powershell onwards ; Identify which instance we want to move.
   wsl --list --verbose  # this should show instances and their state, In my case instance was 'Ubuntu'
   wsl --shutdown Ubuntu  # Shutdown instance that we want to move.

3. Create backup of current ubuntu installation.
   mkdir D:\wsl_bak   #here we would save/backup of our ubuntu instance
   wsl --export Ubuntu D:\wsl_bak\Ubuntu_bak.tar  #It takes few minutes to complete, depending on files available in ubuntu to backup. Exports instance to single file as backup. Ensure backup file was created after this command completes and before you move to next one. 

4. unregister backed-up ubuntu
   wsl --unregister Ubuntu  # Removes instance from current/default directory in drive C

5. import ubuntu instance from backed up file
   mkdir D:\WSL # new location for installation
   wsl --import Ubuntu D:\WSL D:\wsl_bak\Ubuntu_bak.tar #imports instance in new location 

6. configure default user to some other than root.
   cd C:\Users\rohit\AppData\Local\Microsoft\WindowsApps\
   ubuntu config --default-user rohitverma  # sets default user
   wsl --distribution Ubuntu --user rohitverma --cd /home/rohitverma #This will launch ubuntu and switch to current prompt to ubuntu default prompt.