Set default user in WSL2 NixOS distro

kourtni · June 6, 2024, 4:54am

The steps to properly set your default user were submitted in a somewhat large PR (More documentation by nzbr · Pull Request #406 · nix-community/NixOS-WSL · GitHub) back in January. However, that PR still has not been merged.

Rather than wait for that PR to possibly never get resolved, it seemed to be a good idea to put the instructions here.

github.com

nix-community/NixOS-WSL/blob/56907505856b4b000a9c166a566eea6c46aef2a0/docs/src/how-to/change-username.md

# How to change the username

If you want to change the default username to something other than `nixos`, use the `wsl.defaultUser` option.
When building your own tarball, this should be sufficient. A user with the name specified in that option will be created automatically.

Changing the username on an already installed system is possible as well.
Follow these instructions to make sure, the change gets applied correctly:

1. Change the `wsl.defaultUser` setting in your configuration to the desired username.
2. Apply the configuration:\
   `sudo nixos-rebuild boot`\
   Do not use `nixos-rebuild switch`! It may lead to the new user account being misconfigured.
3. Exit the WSL shell and stop your NixOS distro:\
   `wsl -t NixOS`.
4. Start a shell inside NixOS and immediately exit it to apply the new generation:\
   `wsl -d NixOS --user root exit`
5. Stop the distro again:\
   `wsl -t NixOS`
6. Open a WSL shell. Your new username should be applied now!