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After Intel and AMD, Microsoft brings WSL2 custom kernel support to Arm

Windows 11 on a Surface Pro X

Earlier today, Microsoft released the latest pre-release version of Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL). The new release, version 1.1.5, introduces custom kernel support for ARM64 devices which means users can now customize global settings via .wslconfig on such devices. This issue came to Microsoft's notice when a user noticed that their Arm-powered Surface Pro X running Windows 10 was unable to configure custom kernel.

Aside from this, the new 1.1.5 version also has several other additions. You can view the full changelog below:

  • Implement custom kernel support for ARM64 (solves #4802)
  • Implement user warnings
  • Revert wsl2.pageReportingOrder to default (2MB). This change was causing freezes on older Windows builds that are missing a bugfix. This will be re-enabled once the fix has been backported.
  • Terminate distro when WslConfigureDistribution changes default UID or flags
  • Do not mount cgroup v1 for WSL2
  • Ensure that the hostname is set in the root namespace
  • Use current timestamp instead of UNIX zero for initramfs (solves #9638)
  • Use a string insert for --release-notes do it doesn't get accidentally localized
  • Update Microsoft.WSLg to version 1.0.50
    • WSLg: update Mariner to 2.0.20230107
    • WSLg: samples/container: Add vGPU video acceleration docker sample
    • rdp backend/rdp shell: sync window state with RDP client
    • rdp backend/rdp shell: send window minmax info when window become visible
    • rdp shell: fix window unsnap by keyboard shortcut and mouse drag
    • rdp backend: East Asian keyboard fixes
    • rdp shell: publish flatpak applications to start menu

You can download the latest WSL version from GitHub at this link though keep in mind that this is a pre-release version.

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