WSL Ubuntu Terminal

[Joe Caverly]

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TCC  24.02.49 x64   Windows 10 [Version 10.0.18362.116]

I have WSL Ubuntu Terminal pinned to my taskbar. I click it once, and it opens in TCMD as;

The next time I click WSL Ubuntu Terminal, it opens in TCMD as;

...or...

I have Auto Attach Consoles enabled;

Note also the tab titles, each launched by clicking on Ubuntu Terminal from my taskbar.

The results I get from opening a Ubuntu Terminal are not consistent, that is, one prompt works fine, the other is displaying ANSI Codes, the next prompt may or may not work fine, etc.

Note also that I have tried Ubuntu Terminal with legacy console enabled and disabled;

What other options are there to try?

Joe

 

[Joe Caverly]

If I disable TCMD Auto attach consoles, then when I run WSL Ubuntu Terminal, the prompt is as it should;

However, trying to attach them to TCMD via Tabs -> Attach, it does not work, as each WSL Ubuntu Terminal is two programs;

Joe

 

[Joe Caverly]

When I try to launch wsl Ubuntu Terminal from TCC inside TCMD, I get;

When I launch wsl Ubuntu Terminal from CMD inside TCMD, I get;

...and when I launch wsl Ubuntu Terminal from PowerShell inside TCMD, I get;

Joe

 

[samintz]

I am running a Docker shell inside of a Git Bash prompt. If I detach then re-attach, ANSI is no longer working similar to what you see.

Also, I prefer a black background with yellow text. Yet, if I start it in a tab, it keeps changing to white background and black text. If I set TCMD's settings to default, the window opens white. If I change the settings to be yellow on black, the window opens correctly, but as soon as I do a colorized directory listing it reverts to white background.

-- Update --
Apparently, there was a recent Windows update that updated the console. If I check the "Use legacy console..." checkbox, things start working correctly again.

 

[Steve Pitts]

@Joe Caverly I see the same error as you when trying to use the ubuntu command (this is with 'TCC 20.11.46 x64 Windows 10 [Version 6.3.17763]') but both wsl and bash work to start an Ubuntu instance (it is the only distro I have installed). This happens under both Take Command and a stand-alone TCC instance but works fine from CMD. Strangely, if you do a DIR of that file that TCC identifies in the error message then it shows as a SYMLINK to itself?! whereas CMD shows it as a file of zero bytes. Colour me confused.

 

[Joe Caverly]

From my research, it is known as an execution alias.

Ubuntu.exe is implemented as a custom reparse point.

"And all this science I don't understand
It's just my job five days a week "

- Bernie Taupin

 

[Steve Pitts]

Interesting Joe, thanks for that. At least on my system I can make this work using

alias ubuntu=`"C:\Program Files\WindowsApps\CanonicalGroupLimited.UbuntuonWindows_1804.2019.521.0_x64__79rhkp1fndgsc\ubuntu.exe"`

but given that folder name YMMV.

I found that name using this PowerShell script: Simple script which uses NtObjectManager to extract information about UWP execution aliases from insider build 16226 and above. - which itself requires NtObjectManager 1.1.21 - to extract the information from the reparse point. There may be other ways of doing so.

@Rex any chance of native TCC support for this weird new aliasing mechanism from MS?

 

[Joe Caverly]

Well, that works!

c:\program files\windowsapps\canonicalgrouplimited.ubuntuonwindows_1804.2019.521.0_x64__79rhkp1fndgsc>dir

Volume in drive C is unlabeled    Serial number is acb2:6a48
Directory of  C:\Program Files\WindowsApps\CanonicalGroupLimited.UbuntuonWindows_1804.2019.521.0_x64__79rhkp1fndgsc\*

2019-06-12  11:39         <DIR>    .
2019-06-12  11:39         <DIR>    ..
2019-06-12  11:38         <DIR>    AppxMetadata
2019-06-12  11:38         <DIR>    Assets
2019-06-12  11:38         219,034  AppxBlockMap.xml
2019-06-12  11:38           3,790  AppxManifest.xml
2019-06-12  11:38          11,212  AppxSignature.p7x
2019-06-12  11:39     231,179,584  install.tar.gz
2019-05-19   0:36           5,384  resources.pri
2019-06-12  11:39         211,968  ubuntu.exe
         231,630,972 bytes in 6 files and 4 dirs    231,641,088 bytes allocated
     357,809,844,224 bytes free

c:\program files\windowsapps\canonicalgrouplimited.ubuntuonwindows_1804.2019.521.0_x64__79rhkp1fndgsc>ubuntu.exe
jlc@DESKTOP-H2JFFTF:~$

Something that I should have thought of earlier;

e:\utils>which /a ubuntu.exe
ubuntu.exe is an executable extension : start /pgm C:\Users\Joe Caverly\AppData\Local\Microsoft\WindowsApps\ubuntu.exe
ubuntu.exe is associated with : C:\Users\Joe Caverly\AppData\Local\Microsoft\WindowsApps\ubuntu.exe
ubuntu.exe is an executable extension : start /pgm C:\Program Files\WindowsApps\CanonicalGroupLimited.UbuntuonWindows_1804.2019.521.0_x64__79rhkp1fndgsc\ubuntu.exe
ubuntu.exe is associated with : C:\Users\Joe Caverly\AppData\Local\Microsoft\WindowsApps\ubuntu.exe

Joe

 

[rconn]

@Rex any chance of native TCC support for this weird new aliasing mechanism from MS?

Sure, if you can point me at the Microsoft documentation.

 

[rconn]

The results I get from opening a Ubuntu Terminal are not consistent, that is, one prompt works fine, the other is displaying ANSI Codes, the next prompt may or may not work fine, etc.

TCMD and TCC have no control over whether a WSL console has ANSI enabled.

 

[Joe Caverly]

ConEmu also has a problem with WSL and ANSI.

An explanation, and a work around, are discussed at this link.

Joe

 

[Joe Caverly]

Best solutions for me (so far) to start Ubuntu.exe from TCC/TCMD;

e:\utils>powershell ubuntu.exe
jlc@DESKTOP-H2JFFTF:~$

...or...

e:\utils>cmd /c ubuntu.exe
jlc@DESKTOP-H2JFFTF:~$

...or...

Joe

 

[Joe Caverly]

Another method to start Ubuntu from TCC;

e:\utils>wsl -d Ubuntu
jlc@DESKTOP-H2JFFTF:/mnt/e/Utils$

Joe