Evaggelos Balaskas - System Engineer

This article will show how to install Archlinux in Windows 10 with Windows Subsystem for Linux.

WSL

If you dont already have enabled WSL on your Win10 then you have to enable it and reboot your machine.

You can enable WSL by following this:

• Windows Settings
• Apps
• Apps & features
• Related settings -> Programs and Features (bottom)
• Turn Windows features on or off (left)

Store

After rebooting your win10 , then you can use the Microsoft Store to install a Linux distro like Ubuntu as Archlinux is not an official supported linux distribution.

Launcher

The most easy way to install Archlinux is to download the WSL Launcher.exe from github and rename it to Archlinux.exe

Here are my notes:

ebal@myworklaptop:~$ mkdir -pv Archlinux
mkdir: created directory 'Archlinux'

ebal@myworklaptop:~$ cd Archlinux/

ebal@myworklaptop:~/Archlinux$ curl -sL -o Archlinux.exe https://github.com/yuk7/wsldl/releases/download/18122700/Launcher.exe
ebal@myworklaptop:~/Archlinux$ ls -l
total 320
-rw-rw-rw- 1 ebal ebal 143147 Feb 21 20:40 Archlinux.exe

RootFS

Next step is to download the latest archlinux root filesystem and create a new rootfs.tar.gz archive file , because Launcher.exe uses this format.

ebal@myworklaptop:~/Archlinux$ curl -SLO http://ftp.otenet.gr/linux/archlinux/iso/latest/archlinux-bootstrap-2019.02.01-x86_64.tar.gz

ebal@myworklaptop:~/Archlinux$ ls -l
total 147392
-rw-rw-rw- 1 ebal ebal    143147 Feb 21 20:40 Archlinux.exe
-rw-rw-rw- 1 ebal ebal 149030552 Feb 21 20:42 archlinux-bootstrap-2019.02.01-x86_64.tar.gz

ebal@myworklaptop:~/Archlinux$ sudo tar xf archlinux-bootstrap-2019.02.01-x86_64.tar.gz

ebal@myworklaptop:~/Archlinux$  cd root.x86_64/

ebal@myworklaptop:~/Archlinux/root.x86_64$ ls
README  bin  boot  dev  etc  home  lib  lib64  mnt  opt  proc  root  run  sbin  srv  sys  tmp  usr  var

ebal@myworklaptop:~/Archlinux/root.x86_64$  sudo tar czf rootfs.tar.gz .
tar: .: file changed as we read it

ebal@myworklaptop:~/Archlinux/root.x86_64$ ls
README  bin  boot  dev  etc  home  lib  lib64  mnt  opt  proc  root  rootfs.tar.gz  run  sbin  srv  sys  tmp  usr  var

ebal@myworklaptop:~/Archlinux/root.x86_64$ du -sh rootfs.tar.gz
144M    rootfs.tar.gz

ebal@myworklaptop:~/Archlinux/root.x86_64$ sudo mv rootfs.tar.gz ../

ebal@myworklaptop:~/Archlinux/root.x86_64$ cd ..
ebal@myworklaptop:~/Archlinux$ ls
Archlinux.exe  archlinux-bootstrap-2019.02.01-x86_64.tar.gz  root.x86_64  rootfs.tar.gz

ebal@myworklaptop:~/Archlinux$
ebal@myworklaptop:~/Archlinux$ ls
Archlinux.exe  rootfs.tar.gz

ebal@myworklaptop:~$ mv Archlinux/ /mnt/c/Users/EvaggelosBalaskas/Downloads/ArchlinuxWSL
ebal@myworklaptop:~$

As you can see, I do a little clean up and I move the directory under windows filesystem.

Install & Verify

Microsoft Windows [Version 10.0.17134.619]
(c) 2018 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.

C:UsersEvaggelosBalaskas>cd Downloads/ArchlinuxWSL

C:UsersEvaggelosBalaskasDownloadsArchlinuxWSL>dir
 Volume in drive C is Windows
 Volume Serial Number is 6C02-EE43

 Directory of C:UsersEvaggelosBalaskasDownloadsArchlinuxWSL

21-Feb-19  21:04    <DIR>          .
21-Feb-19  21:04    <DIR>          ..
21-Feb-19  20:40           143,147 Archlinux.exe
21-Feb-19  20:52       150,178,551 rootfs.tar.gz
               2 File(s)    150,321,698 bytes
               2 Dir(s)  374,579,486,720 bytes free

C:UsersEvaggelosBalaskasDownloadsArchlinuxWSL>Archlinux.exe
Installing...
Installation Complete!
Press any key to continue...

C:UsersEvaggelosBalaskasDownloadsArchlinuxWSL>Archlinux.exe run uname -a
Linux myworklaptop 4.4.0-17134-Microsoft #523-Microsoft Mon Dec 31 17:49:00 PST 2018 x86_64 GNU/Linux

C:UsersEvaggelosBalaskasDownloadsArchlinuxWSL>Archlinux.exe run cat /etc/os-release
NAME="Arch Linux"
PRETTY_NAME="Arch Linux"
ID=arch
BUILD_ID=rolling
ANSI_COLOR="0;36"
HOME_URL="https://www.archlinux.org/"
DOCUMENTATION_URL="https://wiki.archlinux.org/"
SUPPORT_URL="https://bbs.archlinux.org/"
BUG_REPORT_URL="https://bugs.archlinux.org/"

C:UsersEvaggelosBalaskasDownloadsArchlinuxWSL>Archlinux.exe run bash
[root@myworklaptop ArchlinuxWSL]#
[root@myworklaptop ArchlinuxWSL]# exit

Archlinux

C:UsersEvaggelosBalaskasDownloadsArchlinuxWSL>Archlinux.exe run bash
[root@myworklaptop ArchlinuxWSL]#

[root@myworklaptop ArchlinuxWSL]# date
Thu Feb 21 21:41:41 STD 2019

Remember, archlinux by default does not have any configuration. So you need to configure this instance !

Here are some basic configuration:

[root@myworklaptop ArchlinuxWSL]# echo nameserver 8.8.8.8 > /etc/resolv.conf

[root@myworklaptop ArchlinuxWSL]# cat > /etc/pacman.d/mirrorlist <<EOF
Server = http://ftp.otenet.gr/linux/archlinux/$repo/os/$arch
EOF

[root@myworklaptop ArchlinuxWSL]#  pacman-key --init

[root@myworklaptop ArchlinuxWSL]#  pacman-key --populate

[root@myworklaptop ArchlinuxWSL]# pacman -Syy

you are pretty much ready to use archlinux inside your windows 10 !!

Remove

You can remove Archlinux by simple:

 Archlinux.exe clean 

Flatpak is a software utility for software deployment, package management, and application virtualization for Linux desktop computers. It provides a sandbox environment in which users can run applications in isolation from the rest of the system.

… in a nutshell, it is an isolate software bundle package which you can run with restricted permissions!

User Vs System

We can install flatpak applications for system-wide or for single-user. The last part does not need administrative access or any special permissions.

To use flatpak as a user, we have to add --user next to every flatpak command.

Applications

A flatpak application has a manifest that describes dependancies & permissions.

Repositories

A repository contains a list of application manifests & the flatpak package (code).

Branches

One of the best features of flatpak, is that we can have multile versions of a specific application. This is being done by using a different branch or version (like git). Most common branch is default.

Add flathub

To use/install a flatpak application, we have first to add a remote flatpack repository localy.
The most well-known flatpak repository is called: flathub

flatpak remote-add --user flathub https://dl.flathub.org/repo/flathub.flatpakrepo

Search Applications

$ flatpak search --user Signal

Description                                                                                     Application                                 Version              Branch              Remotes
Signal - Private messenger for the desktop                                                      org.signal.Signal                           1.20.0               stable              flathub

Install package as user

The default syntax of install packages is:

repository - application

$ flatpak install --user -y flathub com.dropbox.Client
$ flatpak install --user -y flathub org.signal.Signal

List

See how many packages to you have installed

$ flatpak list

Application
___________

com.dropbox.Client
com.jetbrains.PyCharm-Community
com.slack.Slack
com.visualstudio.code.oss
io.atom.Atom
org.signal.Signal

Run

To execute a flatpak application :

flatpak run com.slack.Slack
flatpak run org.signal.Signal

TLDR; Exit status value does not change when using redirection.

~> false
~> echo $?
1

~> true
~> echo $?
0

~> false > /dev/null
~> echo $?
1

~> true > /dev/null
~> echo $?
0

~> false 1> /dev/null
~> echo $?
1

~> true 1> /dev/null
~> echo $?
0

~> false 2> /dev/null
~> echo $?
1

~> true 2> /dev/null
~> echo $?
0

~> false &> /dev/null
~> echo $?
1

~> true &> /dev/null
~> echo $?
0

~> false 2>&1 >/dev/null
~> echo $?
1

~> true 2>&1 /dev/null
~> echo $?
0

~> false < /dev/null > /dev/null
~> echo $?
1

~> true < /dev/null > /dev/null
~> echo $?
0

Using Terraform by HashiCorp and cloud-init on Hetzner cloud provider.

Nowadays with the help of modern tools, we use our infrastructure as code. This approach is very useful because we can have Immutable design with our infra by declaring the state would like our infra to be. This also provide us with flexibility and a more generic way on how to handle our infra as lego bricks, especially on scaling.

UPDATE: 2019.01.22

Hetzner

We need to create an Access API Token within a new project under the console of hetzner cloud.

Copy this token and with that in place we can continue with terraform.
For the purposes of this article, I am going to use as the API token: 01234567890

Install Terraform

the latest terraform version at the time of writing this blog post is: v.11.11

$ curl -sL https://releases.hashicorp.com/terraform/0.11.11/terraform_0.11.11_linux_amd64.zip |
   bsdtar -xf- && chmod +x terraform
$ sudo mv terraform /usr/local/bin/

and verify it

$ terraform version

Terraform v0.11.11

Terraform Provider for Hetzner Cloud

To use the hetzner cloud via terraform, we need the terraform-provider-hcloud plugin.

hcloud, is part of terraform providers repository. So the first time of initialize our project, terraform will download this plugin locally.

Initializing provider plugins...
- Checking for available provider plugins on https://releases.hashicorp.com...
- Downloading plugin for provider "hcloud" (1.7.0)...
...
* provider.hcloud: version = "~> 1.7"

Compile hcloud

If you like, you can always build hcloud from the source code.
There are notes on how to build the plugin here Terraform Hetzner Cloud provider.

GitLab CI

or you can even download the artifact from my gitlab-ci repo.

Plugin directory

You will find the terraform hcloud plugin under your current directory:

./.terraform/plugins/linux_amd64/terraform-provider-hcloud_v1.7.0_x4

I prefer to copy the tf plugins centralized under my home directory:

$ mkdir -pv ~/.terraform/plugins/linux_amd64/
$ mv ./.terraform/plugins/linux_amd64/terraform-provider-hcloud_v1.7.0_x4 ~/.terraform.d/plugins/linux_amd64/terraform-provider-hcloud

or if you choose the artifact from gitlab:

$ curl -sL -o ~/.terraform/plugins/linux_amd64/terraform-provider-hcloud https://gitlab.com/ebal/terraform-provider-hcloud-ci/-/jobs/artifacts/master/raw/bin/terraform-provider-hcloud?job=run-build

That said, when working with multiple terraform projects you may be in a position that you need different versions of the same tf-plugin. In that case it is better to have them under your current working directory/project instead of your home directory. Perhaps one project needs v1.2.3 and another v4.5.6 of the same tf-plugin.

Hetzner Cloud API

Here is a few examples on how to use the Hetzner Cloud API:

$ export -p API_TOKEN="01234567890"

$ curl -sH "Authorization: Bearer $API_TOKEN" https://api.hetzner.cloud/v1/datacenters | jq -r .datacenters[].name
fsn1-dc8
nbg1-dc3
hel1-dc2
fsn1-dc14

$ curl -sH "Authorization: Bearer $API_TOKEN" https://api.hetzner.cloud/v1/locations | jq -r .locations[].name
fsn1
nbg1
hel1

$ curl -sH "Authorization: Bearer $API_TOKEN" https://api.hetzner.cloud/v1/images | jq -r .images[].name
ubuntu-16.04
debian-9
centos-7
fedora-27
ubuntu-18.04
fedora-28

hetzner.tf

At this point, we are ready to write our terraform file.
It can be as simple as this (CentOS 7):

# Set the variable value in *.tfvars file
# or using -var="hcloud_token=..." CLI option
variable "hcloud_token" {}

# Configure the Hetzner Cloud Provider
provider "hcloud" {
  token = "${var.hcloud_token}"
}

# Create a new server running centos
resource "hcloud_server" "node1" {
  name = "node1"
  image = "centos-7"
  server_type = "cx11"
}

Project_Ebal

or a more complex config: Ubuntu 18.04 LTS

# Project_Ebal
variable "hcloud_token" {}

# Configure the Hetzner Cloud Provider
provider "hcloud" {
  token = "${var.hcloud_token}"
}

# Create a new server running centos
resource "hcloud_server" "Project_Ebal" {
  name = "ebal_project"
  image = "ubuntu-18.04"
  server_type = "cx11"
  location = "nbg1"
}

Repository Structure

Although in this blog post we have a small and simple example of using hetzner cloud with terraform, on larger projects is usually best to have separated terraform files for variables, code and output. For more info, you can take a look here: VCS Repository Structure - Workspaces

  ├── variables.tf
  ├── main.tf
  ├── outputs.tf

Cloud-init

To use cloud-init with hetzner is very simple.
We just need to add this declaration user_data = "${file("user-data.yml")}" to terraform file.
So our previous tf is now this:

# Project_Ebal
variable "hcloud_token" {}

# Configure the Hetzner Cloud Provider
provider "hcloud" {
  token = "${var.hcloud_token}"
}

# Create a new server running centos
resource "hcloud_server" "Project_Ebal" {
  name = "ebal_project"
  image = "ubuntu-18.04"
  server_type = "cx11"
  location = "nbg1"
  user_data = "${file("user-data.yml")}"
}

to get the IP_Address of the virtual machine, I would also like to have an output declaration:

output "ipv4_address" {
  value = "${hcloud_server.ebal_project.ipv4_address}"
}

Clout-init

You will find more notes on cloud-init on a previous blog post: Cloud-init with CentOS 7.

below is an example of user-data.yml

#cloud-config

disable_root: true
ssh_pwauth: no

users:
  - name: ubuntu
    ssh_import_id:
     - gh:ebal
    shell: /bin/bash
    sudo: ALL=(ALL) NOPASSWD:ALL

# Set TimeZone
timezone: Europe/Athens

# Install packages
packages:
  - mlocate
  - vim
  - figlet

# Update/Upgrade & Reboot if necessary
package_update: true
package_upgrade: true
package_reboot_if_required: true

# Remove cloud-init
runcmd:
  - figlet Project_Ebal > /etc/motd
  - updatedb

Terraform

First thing with terraform is to initialize our environment.

Init

$ terraform init

Initializing provider plugins...

Terraform has been successfully initialized!

You may now begin working with Terraform. Try running "terraform plan" to see
any changes that are required for your infrastructure. All Terraform commands
should now work.

If you ever set or change modules or backend configuration for Terraform,
rerun this command to reinitialize your working directory. If you forget, other
commands will detect it and remind you to do so if necessary.

Plan

Of course it is not necessary to plan and then plan with out.
You can skip this step, here exist only for documentation purposes.

$ terraform plan

Refreshing Terraform state in-memory prior to plan...
The refreshed state will be used to calculate this plan, but will not be
persisted to local or remote state storage.

------------------------------------------------------------------------

An execution plan has been generated and is shown below.
Resource actions are indicated with the following symbols:
  + create

Terraform will perform the following actions:

  + hcloud_server.ebal_project
      id:            <computed>
      backup_window: <computed>
      backups:       "false"
      datacenter:    <computed>
      image:         "ubuntu-18.04"
      ipv4_address:  <computed>
      ipv6_address:  <computed>
      ipv6_network:  <computed>
      keep_disk:     "false"
      location:      "nbg1"
      name:          "ebal_project"
      server_type:   "cx11"
      status:        <computed>
      user_data:     "sk6134s+ys+wVdGITc+zWhbONYw="

Plan: 1 to add, 0 to change, 0 to destroy.

------------------------------------------------------------------------

Note: You didn't specify an "-out" parameter to save this plan, so Terraform
can't guarantee that exactly these actions will be performed if
"terraform apply" is subsequently run.

Out

$ terraform plan -out terraform.tfplan

Refreshing Terraform state in-memory prior to plan...
The refreshed state will be used to calculate this plan, but will not be
persisted to local or remote state storage.

------------------------------------------------------------------------

An execution plan has been generated and is shown below.
Resource actions are indicated with the following symbols:
  + create

Terraform will perform the following actions:

  + hcloud_server.ebal_project
      id:            <computed>
      backup_window: <computed>
      backups:       "false"
      datacenter:    <computed>
      image:         "ubuntu-18.04"
      ipv4_address:  <computed>
      ipv6_address:  <computed>
      ipv6_network:  <computed>
      keep_disk:     "false"
      location:      "nbg1"
      name:          "ebal_project"
      server_type:   "cx11"
      status:        <computed>
      user_data:     "sk6134s+ys+wVdGITc+zWhbONYw="

Plan: 1 to add, 0 to change, 0 to destroy.

------------------------------------------------------------------------

This plan was saved to: terraform.tfplan

To perform exactly these actions, run the following command to apply:
    terraform apply "terraform.tfplan"

Apply

$ terraform apply "terraform.tfplan"

hcloud_server.ebal_project: Creating...
  backup_window: "" => "<computed>"
  backups:       "" => "false"
  datacenter:    "" => "<computed>"
  image:         "" => "ubuntu-18.04"
  ipv4_address:  "" => "<computed>"
  ipv6_address:  "" => "<computed>"
  ipv6_network:  "" => "<computed>"
  keep_disk:     "" => "false"
  location:      "" => "nbg1"
  name:          "" => "ebal_project"
  server_type:   "" => "cx11"
  status:        "" => "<computed>"
  user_data:     "" => "sk6134s+ys+wVdGITc+zWhbONYw="
hcloud_server.ebal_project: Still creating... (10s elapsed)
hcloud_server.ebal_project: Still creating... (20s elapsed)
hcloud_server.ebal_project: Creation complete after 23s (ID: 1676988)

Apply complete! Resources: 1 added, 0 changed, 0 destroyed.

Outputs:

ipv4_address = 1.2.3.4

SSH and verify cloud-init

$ ssh 1.2.3.4 -l ubuntu

Welcome to Ubuntu 18.04.1 LTS (GNU/Linux 4.15.0-43-generic x86_64)

 * Documentation:  https://help.ubuntu.com
 * Management:     https://landscape.canonical.com
 * Support:        https://ubuntu.com/advantage

  System information as of Fri Jan 18 12:17:14 EET 2019

  System load:  0.41              Processes:           89
  Usage of /:   9.7% of 18.72GB   Users logged in:     0
  Memory usage: 8%                IP address for eth0: 1.2.3.4
  Swap usage:   0%

0 packages can be updated.
0 updates are security updates.

Destroy

Be Careful without providing a specific terraform out plan, terraform will destroy every tfplan within your working directory/project. So it is always a good practice to explicit destroy a specify resource/tfplan.

$ terraform destroy should better be:

$ terraform destroy -out terraform.tfplan

hcloud_server.ebal_project: Refreshing state... (ID: 1676988)

An execution plan has been generated and is shown below.
Resource actions are indicated with the following symbols:
  - destroy

Terraform will perform the following actions:

  - hcloud_server.ebal_project

Plan: 0 to add, 0 to change, 1 to destroy.

Do you really want to destroy all resources?
  Terraform will destroy all your managed infrastructure, as shown above.
  There is no undo. Only 'yes' will be accepted to confirm.

  Enter a value: yes

hcloud_server.ebal_project: Destroying... (ID: 1676988)
hcloud_server.ebal_project: Destruction complete after 1s

Destroy complete! Resources: 1 destroyed.

That’s it !