Linux Subsystem for Windows: GnuCash seems to work

[GWB]

Thank you, that sounds worth trying.  To be clear, at the step:

"Turn Windows Features on or off"

Turn Windows Features on, correct?  Or is there a specific way to
activate Windows Subsystem for Linux within Windows Features?

I'm not at Windows 10 yet, but we do keep some Windows machines
around, and at some point we will install 10.  This is good to know.

Gordon

On Sun, Dec 3, 2017 at 10:26 PM, Edward Doolittle
<edward.doolittle at gmail.com> wrote:
> Hi everyone,
>
> Something that may be of interest to some of you: I just installed the
> Linux Subsystem for Windows 10 (LSW) and successfully ran GnuCash. (I just
> opened the app and then closed it. I'll try more thorough tests later.) I
> don't know who would be interested in this other than developers, but
> perhaps someone out there is having trouble getting GnuCash running
> properly in Windows and could benefit from an alternative.
>
> Note that X applications are not officially supported under LSW, so there
> are occasional bugs (particularly with applications using audio). This is
> definitely a try-at-your-own-risk situation. On the other hand, there's
> nothing particularly special about an X client: it's just an ordinary
> program that communicates with an X server, so I see no problems running an
> X client in LSW as long as an X server is running and the two can
> communicate.
>
> If you are interested in trying, here are the steps:
>
> 1. Install the latest Windows 10 update by running "Windows 10 Update
> Assistant". Reboot.
> 2. Enable Windows Subsystem for Linux by running "Turn Windows Features on
> or off". Reboot.
> 3. Install Ubuntu or another distribution via the Windows Store.
> 4. Run it. Congratulations, you have a Ubuntu bash shell in Windows.
> 5. In the bash shell, "sudo apt-get update"
> 6. In the bash shell, "sudo apt-get install gnucash" (this gets version
> 2.6.12; other versions can be obtained in other ways)
> 7. While that is progressing, install an X server in Windows (if you don't
> have one already). I got Xming from Sourceforge. Make sure the X server is
> running.
> 8. In the Ubuntu bash shell, run "export DISPLAY=:0" (or whatever you need
> to point applications to the correct X server).
> 9. In the Ubuntu bash shell, run "gnucash".
>
> Windows files are accessible in the bash shell and presumably in GnuCash by
> browsing /mnt. I strongly recommend against opening your production GnuCash
> file in WSL/Ubuntu/gnucash; instead, copy your production file from (e.g.)
> /mnt/c/Users/Username/Documents/file.gnucash to /home/username using the
> bash shell and work with the copy instead.
>
> To repeat, I advise caution with this, in particular because X applications
> are not supported in LSW. But it does show great promise, I think.
>
> Edward
>
> --
> Edward Doolittle
> Associate Professor of Mathematics
> First Nations University of Canada
> 1 First Nations Way, Regina SK S4S 7K2
>
> « Toutes les fois que je donne une place vacante, je fais cent mécontents
> et un ingrat. »
> -- Louis XIV, dans Voltaire, Le Siècle de Louis XIV, Chap. XXVI
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