Overview

In this post, we’ll cover the process to update an existing distribution as bundled by Microsoft.

Background

For WSL2 distributions managed by Microsoft, you can simply pull down the latest bundled distro when you need it and it’s made available. So for example, if Ubuntu 22.04 was the latest release when WSL2 was initially installed, months later 24.04 is released and we’d like to add that later release to our choice of distributions.

How-to

Windows

On your Windows system:

  1. Check for updates to WSL:

     PS C:\Users\wmcdonald> wsl --update
 Checking for updates.
 The most recent version of Windows Subsystem for Linux is already installed.

  2. Verify your current installed WSL distribution(s):

     PS C:\Users\wmcdonald> wsl -l -v
 NAME                   STATE           VERSION
 * docker-desktop-data    Stopped         2
   Fedora-40              Stopped         2
   Fedora-38              Stopped         2
   Ubuntu-22.04           Running         2
   docker-desktop         Stopped         2

  3. Check which distributions are available online from the vendor:

     PS C:\Users\wmcdonald> wsl --list --online
 The following is a list of valid distributions that can be installed.
 Install using 'wsl.exe --install <Distro>'.

 NAME                                   FRIENDLY NAME
 Ubuntu                                 Ubuntu
 Debian                                 Debian GNU/Linux
 kali-linux                             Kali Linux Rolling
 Ubuntu-18.04                           Ubuntu 18.04 LTS
 Ubuntu-20.04                           Ubuntu 20.04 LTS
 Ubuntu-22.04                           Ubuntu 22.04 LTS
 Ubuntu-24.04                           Ubuntu 24.04 LTS
 OracleLinux_7_9                        Oracle Linux 7.9
 OracleLinux_8_7                        Oracle Linux 8.7
 OracleLinux_9_1                        Oracle Linux 9.1
 openSUSE-Leap-15.5                     openSUSE Leap 15.5
 SUSE-Linux-Enterprise-Server-15-SP4    SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 15 SP4
 SUSE-Linux-Enterprise-15-SP5           SUSE Linux Enterprise 15 SP5
 openSUSE-Tumbleweed                    openSUSE Tumbleweed

  4. Install the later distro:

     PS C:\Users\wmcdonald> wsl --install -d Ubuntu-24.04
 Installing: Ubuntu 24.04 LTS
 Ubuntu 24.04 LTS has been installed.
 Launching Ubuntu 24.04 LTS...
 Installing, this may take a few minutes...
 Please create a default UNIX user account. The username does not need to match your Windows username.
 For more information visit: https://aka.ms/wslusers
 Enter new UNIX username: wmcdonald
 New password:
 Retype new password:
 passwd: password updated successfully
 Installation successful!
 To run a command as administrator (user "root"), use "sudo <command>".
 See "man sudo_root" for details.

 Welcome to Ubuntu 24.04 LTS (GNU/Linux 5.15.153.1-microsoft-standard-WSL2 x86_64)

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

 System information as of Tue Jun 18 11:38:05 BST 2024

 System load:  0.08                Processes:             74
 Usage of /:   0.1% of 1006.85GB   Users logged in:       0
 Memory usage: 2%                  IPv4 address for eth0: 172.19.69.123
 Swap usage:   0%


 This message is shown once a day. To disable it please create the
 /home/wmcdonald/.hushlogin file.

  5. Now review the list of installed distros again:

     PS C:\Users\wmcdonald> wsl -l -v
 NAME                   STATE           VERSION
 * docker-desktop-data    Stopped         2
   Ubuntu-24.04           Stopped         2
   Fedora-40              Stopped         2
   Fedora-38              Stopped         2
   Ubuntu-22.04           Running         2
   docker-desktop         Stopped         2

Note: Restart the Windows Terminal and a new profile matching the added distribution should appear.

Further reading