From OSX to Windows 10 and WSL

After several years of using Macbook Pro laptops, I recently shifted to Windows 10 and find myself often searching for things which are not clearly documented on or can be found via Googling. This post aims to collect the different settings necessary for reaching a seamless setup for working on Windows 10 using the Linux subsystem.

Overview

Setting up WSL is well-documented on https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/commandline/wsl/install-win10.
.bashrc (or .zshrc) should have the following commands:

export NO_AT_BRIDGE=1
export DISPLAY=:0
umask 022

Getting graphical display to work

There are two key components when trying to setup X connectivity between WSL. This is discussed on https://www.reddit.com/r/Windows10/comments/4rsmzp/bash_on_windows_getting_dbus_and_x_server_working/.

• X server: I use vcXsrv which works fine and then insert the following code in the .bashrc file:
  export DISPLAY=:0
• DBus configuration: If the DBus configuration is not fixed, one gets warnings similar to the one listed below.
  (emacs:622): GConf-WARNING **: Client failed to connect to the D-BUS daemon: /usr/bin/dbus-launch terminated abnormally without any error message process 622: D-Bus library appears to be incorrectly set up; failed to read machine uuid: UUID file '/etc/machine-id' should contain a hex string of length 32, not length 0, with no other text See the manual page for dbus-uuidgen to correct this issue.
  This can be fixed using the following commands:
  

  sudo apt-get install dbus-x11
  sudo dbus-uuidgen --ensure
  

Installing LaTeX

The generic latex installation can be done using the following command

 
sudo apt install texlive texlive-latex-extra texlive-generic-extra

Changing CAPS Lock to CTRL

Windows has done an excellent job with language settings. Having bought a laptop in Germany, I have a German keyboard. After changing the language and restarting, the news feeds and OneNote language setup are also changed. Brilliant Work. However, for people used to Emacs - the CAPS Lock is often mapped to Control and vice versa. One can achieve the same in Windows using Sharp Keys which edits the Windows registry. I do not recommend AutoHotkey due to being too complex and not providing an uninstaller.