Is Usb Supported on Bash on Ubuntu on Windows 10

Is usb supported on Bash on Ubuntu on Windows 10?

Good news, it is now possible to mount USB media (including FAT formated) and network shares with drvfs on Windows 10:

Mount removable media: (e.g. D:)

$ sudo mkdir /mnt/d
$ sudo mount -t drvfs D: /mnt/d

To safely unmount

$ sudo umount /mnt/d

You can also mount network shares without smbfs:

$ sudo mount -t drvfs '\\server\share' /mnt/share

You need at least Build 16176 so you might have to opt-in to the Windows Insider programm and then update Windows. Source: https://blogs.msdn.microsoft.com/wsl/2017/04/18/file-system-improvements-to-the-windows-subsystem-for-linux/

External HDD on bash on ubuntu on windows

The Ubuntu on Windows on the current build (Build 14393, a.k.a. anniversary update) doesn't support accessing external drive. This feature is on their backlog for future consideration.

Source: https://wpdev.uservoice.com/forums/266908-command-prompt-console-bash-on-ubuntu-on-windo/suggestions/13355724-unable-to-access-usb-devices-from-bash

Edit: Mounting removable drives are supported since Build 16176. [1][2]

1. https://blogs.msdn.microsoft.com/wsl/2017/04/18/file-system-improvements-to-the-windows-subsystem-for-linux/
2. https://stackoverflow.com/a/44001783/643011
3. https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/wsl/wsl2-mount-disk

Move WSL (Bash on Windows) root filesystem to another hard drive?

If you are using Windows 10 version 1903 (April 2019 Update) or later, you can try the WSL command line tool with the export and import options. If you are using an older Windows 10 version, you can move the distribution to another drive using lxRunOffline.

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Using the WSL command line tool

In Windows 10 version 1903 (April 2019 Update) or later, you can use the wsl.exe command line tool.

1. Export the distribution. Create a .tar file with the distribution to move using wsl.exe --export

wsl.exe --export <DistributionName> <Tar-FileName>

For instance, to export an Ubuntu distribution, you can use

C:\> wsl.exe --export Ubuntu c:\data\ubuntu.tar

2. Import the distribution into the target folder. Then, you can import the exported distribution into another folder

wsl.exe --import <DistributionName> <Folder-To-Install> <Tar-FileName>

For instance, to import the exported Ubuntu into a new UbuntuCustom distribution, you can use

C:\> wsl.exe --import UbuntuCustom d:\wsl\UbuntuCustom c:\data\ubuntu.tar

NOTE: You may check an script for moving WSL distros that use these commands at https://github.com/pxlrbt/move-wsl

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Using LxRunOffline

In any Windows 10 version, you can move the distribution to another drive using lxRunOffline.

1. Set permissions to the target folder. First, I think you must set some permissions to the folder where the distribution will be moved. You may use icacls <dir> /grant "<user>:(OI)(CI)(F)" to set the proper permissions.

C:\> whoami
test\jaime

C:\> icacls D:\wsl /grant "jaime:(OI)(CI)(F)"

NOTE: In addition to the above permissions, I have activated the long path names in Windows.

2. Move the distribution. Using lxrunoffline move.

C:\wsl> lxrunoffline move -n Ubuntu-18.04 -d d:\wsl\installed\Ubuntu-18.04

You may check the installation folder using

C:\wsl> lxrunoffline get-dir -n Ubuntu-18.04
d:\wsl\installed\Ubuntu-18.04

3. Run the distribution. after moving the distribution, you can run the distribution using wsl or the same lxrunoffline

C:\wsl> lxrunoffline run -n Ubuntu-18.04 -w
user@test:~$ exit
logout

C:\wsl> wsl
user@test:/mnt/c/wsl$ exit
logout

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