Portable env

Introduction

This project is a wrapper around common-env that allows to define different profiles.

Each profile will define its own list of application/settings to install.

Installation

1. Download archive

   • Create a folder C:\PortableEnv.
   • Download and extract portable-env.zip into that folder (ensure to extract only the files and not to have a portable_env folder).

   You should end up with the following structure:

   C:/PortableEnv
    ├── certificates
    │   └── ...
    ├── ini.bat
    ├── settings
    │   ├── certificates
    │   │   └── ...
    │   ├── extra
    │   │   └── upgrade_portable_env
    │   │       └── ...
    │   ├── profiles
    │   │   └── ...
    │   └── vscode
    │       └── ...
    ├── setup_install.cmd
    └── setup_user.ini
   

2. Add CA certificates to trust

   If you need to add some CA certificates, create one or several subfolders in C:/PortableEnv/certificates and put them there.

3. Update configuration

   • Fill all fields in setup_user.ini (you can avoid the user if the one from the system is fine).

     [install]
     ; Profile to install, it will look for <profile>.ini and settings/profile/<profile>.ini
     ; eg. profile = dev
     profile =
     ; You can specify where are located the main portable env folder if you want to install it somewhere else
     ; common-env-apps-root=C:\PortableEnv
     ; portable-env-path=C:\PortableEnv\Documents\dev\portable-env
     ; You can also specify to install only some apps and/or custom apps, semi-colon separated. It can be useful if you want to install/upgrade only few faster.
     ; app-only = wsl_ubuntu:vscode
     ; custom-app-only = upgrade_portable_env
     [git]
     ; url to clone the repository with user and token, eg. https://<user>:<token>@github.com/owner/portable-env.git
     git-url =
     ; if left empty, it will be taken from your system
     user =
     ; put your email address
     email =

4. Launch setup

   Launch setup_install.cmd to install. You would have to run it several times and probably restart the computer if WSL has not been installed yet.

   You should end up with a folder like that:

   C:/PortableEnv
   ├── AppData
   ├── Documents
   ├── home
   ├── PortableApps
   ├── extra
   ├── settings
   ├── ini.bat
   ├── PortableApps.exe
   ├── PortableApps.zip
   ├── PortableGit.exe
   ├── setup.cmd
   ├── setup.ini
   ├── setup_install.cmd
   ├── setup_user.ini
   ├── test.ini
   ├── test_setup.cmd
   └── Start.exe
   

   You can launch Start.exe to access to your portable env:

   

   You can also install many portable applications from PortableApps.com. To do so, you can just click on Apps --> Get More Apps --> By Category and select the applications you want to add (eg. Chrome, Firefox, Notepad++, OBS).

WSL

1. Prerequisites

   • You need administrator rights, it will ask at some point during installation.
   • You need to be part of Hyper-V Administrators group to be able to create VHD drive (it is not created with admin rights). Go to Computer manager -> System Tools -> Local Users and Groups -> Groups and add yourself to the Hyper-V Administrators group.

2. Installation

   If you go with the dev profile, it will install WSL Ubuntu-24.04 with 2 VHDs:

   • Ubuntu-24.04 system under C:\PortableEnv\PortableApps\Ubuntu-24.04\ext4.vhdx
   • Your home under C:\PortableEnv\home\wsl.vhdx (which can be mounted in any WSL distribution)

   To run it you need to launch it from WSL Ubuntu-24.04 under PortableApps interface as shown on the picture further above.

3. Configuration

   It is recommander to create file %HOMEPATH%\.wslconfig to customize WSL:

   # https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/wsl/wsl-config#configure-global-options-with-wslconfig
   [wsl2]
   memory=16GB # Limits VM memory in WSL 2 to 16 GB
   # processors=5 # Select number of virtual processors used by WSL 2 VM

4. Migration

   Migrate data from another WSL distribution to this one.

   # In a powershell ran as administrator
   
   # Locate the vhd to mount
   ls $env:LOCALAPPDATA\Packages\CanonicalGroupLimited*\LocalState\ext4.vhdx
   
   # You can try to reduce the size of a disk if you are low in space
   Optimize-VHD -Path <path to .vhdx file> -Mode Full
   
   # List wsl distribution
   wsl --list
   
   # Mount the disk in the WSL distribution you want, eg. portable-Ubuntu-24.04
   wsl -d <PUT_THE_WSL_DISTRIBUTION> --mount --vhd <PATH_TO_ext4.vdhx> --bare

   # Under WSL
   
   # List available device
   lsblk
   
   # Create a path where to mount the volume (you can change the name)
   mkdir -p ~/wsl_ubuntu
   # Mount the device, eg. /dev/sde
   sudo mount /dev/<PUT_DEVICE_NAME_FOUND> ~/wsl_ubuntu
   
   # You can access the data from ~/wsl_ubuntu
   ls ~/wsl_ubuntu
   ls ~/wsl_ubuntu/home/$USER

5. Troubleshooting

   • Network issue

     Run hostserver.sh from WSL, it should print suceeded and give you the IP address of your Windows host machine:

     $ hostserver.sh
     Checking 127.0.0.1...
     
     Checking X.X.X.X..
     Connection to X.X.X.X succeeded
     X.X.X.X

     If you end up with something like that, you have connection issue:

     $ hostserver.sh
     Checking 127.0.0.1...
     
     Checking X.X.X.X...
     Unable to reach X.X.X.X
     Not even able to find a route to X.X.X.X
     ...

     In that case you can try to refresh your dns configuration:

     /opt/wsl_dns.py
     # Check your access to internet and amadeus network
     ping -c 1 -w 1 -W 1 archive.ubuntu.com
     ping -c 1 -w 1 -W 1 google.com
     
     # Check the content of /etc/resolv.conf
     cat /etc/resolv.conf

   • WSL not starting anymore

     If you end up with an error like The Windows Subsystem for linux instance has terminated, you can try to restart your computer.

     If after the restart it still does not work, you will probably have to deactivated and reactivated some Windows feature as follow:

     • Open file explorer with Control Panel\Programs\Programs and Features and click on Turn Windows features on or off.
     • Uncheck the following feature: Hyper-V, Virtual Machine Platform and Windows Subsystem for Linux
     • Restart the computer
     • Open file explorer with Control Panel\Programs\Programs and Features and click on Turn Windows features on or off.
     • Check the following feature: Hyper-V, Virtual Machine Platform and Windows Subsystem for Linux
     • Restart the computer