{"id":43402,"date":"2022-02-07T11:40:16","date_gmt":"2022-02-07T03:40:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/version-2.com\/?p=43402"},"modified":"2022-02-07T16:38:10","modified_gmt":"2022-02-07T08:38:10","slug":"advice-on-camera-and-microphone-in-wsl2-ubuntu","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/version-2.com\/zh\/2022\/02\/advice-on-camera-and-microphone-in-wsl2-ubuntu\/","title":{"rendered":"Advice on camera and microphone in WSL2 Ubuntu"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t
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At the time of writing these lines, almost everything we connect to our devices is through the so-called Universal Serial Bus<\/em><\/a> (USB): cameras, microphones, external storage\u2026 It\u2019s the fastest and safest way to synchronize and backup information between our mobile phone and computer! But what does all this have to do with the Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL2 Ubuntu)? Let\u2019s have a look.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Study in WSL2 with Ubuntu: proprietary and free software<\/strong><\/strong><\/h2>\n

To begin with, I will leave you a link to an article<\/a> published in this blog, in order to facilitate knowledge of the technology I will be discussing. I will add more of them throughout the text. We have quite a bit to go through, so I recommend a nice, steaming cup of black coffee in your hands before we start.<\/p>\n

*The Last tests I have carried out have been on virtual machines<\/a> (VirtualBox\u00ae: they may be created, erased, modified, etc. on Solid State Drive<\/a>).<\/em><\/p>\n

Brief retrospective<\/strong><\/strong><\/h2>\n

I always say that \u201cin order to know where we are going, we need to know where we come from.\u201d<\/em> Since 1989, I have worked with the products sold by the Microsoft Corporation: first the MS-DOS operating system and its only form of command-line interaction, and then Microsoft Windows, which also<\/strong> uses the graphical environment. Yes, I am well aware, MS-DOS\u00ae as such was eliminated, but its commands remain. It was replaced with Powershell\u00ae, which we have already talked about<\/a>, and it is important for today\u2019s topic.<\/p>\n

At the end of 2016, Microsoft surprised us with the news that its SQL Server\u00ae could be run on GNU\/Linux<\/a>. For me, who for many years worked installing and maintaining data servers for my clients, this was shocking news. But wait, there\u2019s more, on my journey, I discovered that   BASHware<\/a> can<\/strong> affect a Windows system via WSL. Which brings us to today\u2019s article, where we\u2019ll go into handling USB devices, with particular attention to microphones and webcams, under WSL2 with Ubuntu 20.04<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

WSL and WSL2<\/strong><\/strong><\/h2>\n

I recommend, again, the excellent article on WSL2<\/a>. Although time has passed and there are some significant changes. At that time, WSL2 was installed by means of commands. Now, and I want to emphasize it, I notice that by MS Windows Control Panel, \u201cPrograms and Features\u201d, we can add the two key components that are Virtual Machine Platform<\/strong> and obviously Windows Subsystem for Linux<\/strong> in the section of \u201cTurn Windows features on or off\u201d:<\/p>\n

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After this, the operating system must be restarted, this is already an idiosyncrasy of the house of Redmond! <\/a>(There will be many more resets later that I will leave out. They will be implied.)<\/p>\n\n

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Another aspect that was added in July 2021 is the possibility of adding the Linux distributions that one wishes, directly, through the command line in Powershell (depending on the version and type of MS Windows that you have installed).<\/p>\n

To see the available distributions:<\/p>\n

wsl --list --online<\/code><\/p>\n

To install Ubuntu 20.04:<\/p>\n

wsl --install -d Ubuntu-20.04<\/code><\/p>\n\n

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After some time, depending on your Internet download speed, it will ask for username and password. It will immediately display the status of updates for Ubuntu.<\/p>\n

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To set WSL2 as default:<\/p>\n

wsl --set-default-version 2<\/code><\/p>\n

The option to download and use from the Microsoft Store<\/strong> is still valid and available, for Ubuntu 20.04 it takes almost half a gigabyte of space.<\/p>\n

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The fundamental difference between WSL and WSL2 is that the latest download is a complete Linux kernel, but not just any kernel, it is one specially designed<\/a> to be coupled with the Windows kernel. This means that applications running on WSL2 will always<\/strong> have to be \u201cpassed through\u201d -but not interpreted, as it was in WSL- before interacting with any hardware, USB included.<\/p>\n

The only thing WSL does better than WSL2 is file sharing between the two operating systems. Apart from that, WSL2 offers many more advantages and improvements in WSL2.<\/p>\n

Podman in WSL2<\/strong><\/strong><\/h2>\n

To give you an idea of how useful it is to include a full Linux kernel in MS Windows, the Podman software (Docker\u2019s successor) can be run on WSL2. If you still don\u2019t know what Podman is, make more coffee and read another of our articles<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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Developer mode<\/strong><\/strong><\/h2>\n

A feature that Powershell offers that you may use to your advantage, once you have installed and configured WSL2, is the developer mode<\/strong>. It is accessed by pressing the Windows start key, typing \u201cPowershell\u201d and choosing the developer settings. The first thing is to activate the developer mode and wait for the necessary software to finish installing.<\/p>\n

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This consists of two main components: <\/p>\n