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nycrat merged 10 commits into from
Jan 10, 2026
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Change wsl docs #3535

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GrayHoang Aug 2, 2025
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GrayHoang Aug 2, 2025
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update docs for new wsl2 features
GrayHoang Nov 29, 2025
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williamckha Jan 10, 2026
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Merge branch 'master' of https://github.com/UBC-Thunderbots/Software …
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13 changes: 13 additions & 0 deletions docs/getting-started-wsl.md
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Expand Up @@ -6,6 +6,7 @@

- [Table of Contents](#table-of-contents)
- [Introduction](#introduction)
- [WSL2 Setup (Windows 11 - Recommended)](#wsl2-setup-windows-11---recommended)
- [WSLg Setup (Windows 11/10 - Recommended)](#wslg-setup-windows-1110---recommended)
- [WSL2 Setup (Windows 10)](#wsl2-setup-windows-10)
- [X Server Setup](#x-server-setup)
Expand All @@ -18,9 +19,21 @@

Windows has a Windows Subsystem for Linux component that can be used to develop and run code for Linux on Windows. WSL1 was a Windows component that implemented Linux kernel interfaces, and didn't work great with Thunderbots software. WSL2 runs a full-fledged Linux kernel in a VM, and works great with Thunderbots software with the exception that we need to use software rendering instead of GPU-accelerated rendering for our AI. WSLg is WSL2 but with built-in support for running GUI applications (e.g. Thunderscope).

Update for 2025: WSL2 now comes prepackaged with support for running GUI applications like Thunderscope. Setup is now significantly simplified.

> [!WARNING]
> **Support for WSL is experimental. Performance will be degraded, features may not work properly, and the developer experience will be worse overall.**

## WSL2 Setup (Windows 11 - Recommended)
Installing WSL2 through Windows 11 is very simple. \
[Reference](https://documentation.ubuntu.com/wsl/latest/howto/install-ubuntu-wsl2/)
1. First, we enable WSL2: \
Open PowerShell and run: `wsl --install`. You may be required to grant administrator permissions and restart your computer.\
2. Then, install Ubuntu 24.04. Type `wsl --list --online` to list the available distributions, and look for the Ubuntu 24.04 LTS entry in the Friendly name column.
![alt text](/docs/images/wsldistros.png)
3. Follow [Software Setup](./getting-started.md).


## WSLg Setup (Windows 11/10 - Recommended)
1. Installing WSLg is more straight forward than WSL2 and is the recommended way to run Linux GUI applications in Windows. For up to date documentation, please follow the [official documentation for setting up WSLg](https://github.com/microsoft/wslg#installing-wslg).
2. Once you have completed all of the above, complete the [Software Setup](./getting-started.md).
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