Confirmed that VSCode Remote-WSL extension works with NixOS

Sonowz · May 31, 2020, 9:05am

Now that WSL 2 (Windows Subsystem for Linux) has been released from Windows 2004 update, NixOS can be run in Windows machine
I quickly searched for a way to develop with VSCode Remote-WSL extension, which makes it possible to develop within Windows while testing & running in NixOS, in a single machine. However, no one has posted about this, so I decided to quickly share how I managed to build the environment.

Quick guide to work with Remote-WSL:

github.com

sonowz/vscode-remote-wsl-nixos/blob/master/README.md

# vscode-remote-wsl-nixos

Now that WSL 2 has been released from Windows 2004 update, NixOS can be run in Windows machine :tada: Since NixOS differs from other Linux in some aspects, it has some difficulties working with Visual Studio Code Remote-WSL extension. This repository quickly fixes problems working with VSCode.

## Steps

1. Install NixOS as a WSL 2 distro. Currently there's a working repository [here](https://github.com/Trundle/NixOS-WSL).
2. Install Visual Studio Code and its Remote-WSL extension.
4. Run `cp ./server-env-setup ~/.vscode-server/server-env-setup`. See [here](https://code.visualstudio.com/docs/remote/wsl#_advanced-environment-setup-script) for description.
5. Now VSCode can connect to your NixOS!


## Known issues
- Every time your vscode updates (including the very first run), connection will fail. Just click 'retry' and reconnect. See `server-env-setup` file for explanations.


## Issue with [Trundle/NixOS-WSL](https://github.com/Trundle/NixOS-WSL) distro

You will likely run into this error:
```bash

This file has been truncated. show original

What I found out:

This one works: GitHub - Trundle/NixOS-WSL: NixOS on WSL(2) (and also thanks for mentioning it here) However it required some tweaks to make it work with VSCode.
Currently there aren’t any Remote-SSH specific nor Remote-WSL specific issues. They share same issues, posted in this thread. You can refer to that thread if you want another solution other than mine.

Rizary · May 31, 2020, 10:55am

Hi!! Nice post, the last time I tried using Remote-SSH in my hyper-v, vscode cannot always detect because of this issue: https://github.com/microsoft/vscode-remote-release/issues/648

I’ll try this today. Thanks again!

doronbehar · May 31, 2020, 6:52pm

That’s outstanding… It would have never happened in the Guix world…

Elyhaka · June 1, 2020, 10:34am

That’s really cool @sonowz ! Thanks you for testing and sharing this!

I’m going to try it against the redistributable NixOS version I’ve forked (https://github.com/Elyhaka/NixOS-WSL/releases/tag/0.0.2 / https://github.com/Elyhaka/NixOS-WSL-DistroLauncher)

I’ll see if I can integrate it directly inside the redistributable version.

We’re getting closer on NixOS support over Windows