How to get WSLg working with OpenGL, Vulkan, and CUDA on (Official) Arch Linux and Ubuntu WSL Instances.

wslg-guide.md

WSLg with OpenGL, Vulkan, and CUDA on (Official) Arch Linux and Ubuntu WSL Instances

Note: I haven't documented CUDA here. I'm lazy (and haven't tested on Arch). See https://documentation.ubuntu.com/wsl/en/latest/howto/gpu-cuda for that on Ubuntu.

Context

microsoft/wslg#1312:

So I got this working on both Ubuntu, and Arch. First, start with a fresh install (of archlinux from https://gitlab.archlinux.org/archlinux/archlinux-wsl or Ubuntu from wsl --install Ubuntu or https://apps.microsoft.com/detail/9pdxgncfsczv).

Arch

1. Install mesa and vulkan-dzn.
2. Run echo "L+ /tmp/.X11-unix - - - - /mnt/wslg/.X11-unix" | sudo tee /etc/tmpfiles.d/wslg.conf. (Thanks to microsoft/wslg#43 (comment) for this.)
3. Create your user account as per https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Users_and_groups#User_management and confgure it as the default user for WSL as per https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Install_Arch_Linux_on_WSL#Set_default_user.
4. su into the user or open a new terminal tab/window.
5. Run:

cat << EOF
export GALLIUM_DRIVER=d3d12

for i in "/mnt/wslg/runtime-dir/"*; do
  [ "$XDG_RUNTIME_DIR" = "$HOME" ] && XDG_RUNTIME_DIR="/var/run/user/$UID"
  if [ ! -L "$XDG_RUNTIME_DIR$(basename "$i")" ]; then
    [ -d "$XDG_RUNTIME_DIR$(basename "$i")" ] && rm -r "$XDG_RUNTIME_DIR$(basename "$i")"
    ln -s "$i" "$XDG_RUNTIME_DIR$(basename "$i")"
  fi
done
EOF | sudo tee /etc/profile.d/wslg.sh`

6. Restart WSL with wsl --shutdown from CMD/PowerShell and you should see the following (given you install the relevant packages):

$ glxinfo | grep Device
    Device: D3D12 (NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 SUPER) (0xffffffff)

$ vulkaninfo | grep "GPU id"
WARNING: dzn is not a conformant Vulkan implementation, testing use only.
                GPU id = 0 (Microsoft Direct3D12 (NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 SUPER))
                GPU id = 1 (llvmpipe (LLVM 19.1.7, 256 bits))
                GPU id = 0 (Microsoft Direct3D12 (NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 SUPER))
                GPU id = 1 (llvmpipe (LLVM 19.1.7, 256 bits))
                GPU id = 0 (Microsoft Direct3D12 (NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 SUPER))
                GPU id = 1 (llvmpipe (LLVM 19.1.7, 256 bits))
GPU id : 0 (Microsoft Direct3D12 (NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 SUPER)):
GPU id : 1 (llvmpipe (LLVM 19.1.7, 256 bits)):

Ubuntu

1. OpenGL should already be working. We'll add Vulkan support.
2. Go to https://ppa.launchpadcontent.net/kisak/kisak-mesa/ubuntu/pool/main/m/mesa/.
3. Look for mesa-vulkan-drivers_*.deb.
4. You'll see ...<LETTER>_<ARCH>.deb. The letter corresponds to your Ubuntu version codename. In your case, "n" for Noble.
5. Copy the link for the right package, https://ppa.launchpadcontent.net/kisak/kisak-mesa/ubuntu/pool/main/m/mesa/mesa-vulkan-drivers_25.0.1~kisak1~n_amd64.deb in your case.
6. Run wget https://ppa.launchpadcontent.net/kisak/kisak-mesa/ubuntu/pool/main/m/mesa/mesa-vulkan-drivers_25.0.1~kisak1~n_amd64.deb anywhere you have write access to on the Ubuntu WSL instance.
7. Run sudo apt install <PACKAGE> (in your case, sudo apt install mesa-vulkan-drivers_25.0.1~kisak1~n_amd64.deb.
8. Run:

cat << EOF
export GALLIUM_DRIVER=d3d12

for i in "/mnt/wslg/runtime-dir/"*; do
  [ "$XDG_RUNTIME_DIR" = "$HOME" ] && XDG_RUNTIME_DIR="/var/run/user/$UID"
  if [ ! -L "$XDG_RUNTIME_DIR$(basename "$i")" ]; then
    [ -d "$XDG_RUNTIME_DIR$(basename "$i")" ] && rm -r "$XDG_RUNTIME_DIR$(basename "$i")"
    ln -s "$i" "$XDG_RUNTIME_DIR$(basename "$i")"
  fi
done
EOF | sudo tee /etc/profile.d/wslg.sh`

9. You should see the following (given you install mesa-utils and vulkan-tools):

$ glxinfo | grep Device
WARNING: dzn is not a conformant Vulkan implementation, testing use only.
WARNING: Some incorrect rendering might occur because the selected Vulkan device (Microsoft Direct3D12 (NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 SUPER)) doesn't support base Zink requirements: feats.features.logicOp have_EXT_custom_border_color have_EXT_line_rasterization
    Device: D3D12 (NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 SUPER) (0xffffffff)

$ vulkaninfo | grep "GPU id"
WARNING: dzn is not a conformant Vulkan implementation, testing use only.
                GPU id = 0 (Microsoft Direct3D12 (NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 SUPER))
                GPU id = 1 (llvmpipe (LLVM 19.1.7, 256 bits))
                GPU id = 0 (Microsoft Direct3D12 (NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 SUPER))
                GPU id = 1 (llvmpipe (LLVM 19.1.7, 256 bits))
                GPU id = 0 (Microsoft Direct3D12 (NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 SUPER))
                GPU id = 1 (llvmpipe (LLVM 19.1.7, 256 bits))
GPU id : 0 (Microsoft Direct3D12 (NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 SUPER)):
GPU id : 1 (llvmpipe (LLVM 19.1.7, 256 bits)):

The reason we're using just the Vulkan driver from Kisak's repo. is that the mesa package causes llvmpipe to be used instead of D3D12. Maybe overring GALLIUM_DRIVER would work - I didn't try.

Great gist. I'd just add that in latest WSL2 version with kernel 6.6.x there is a kernel module that is not loaded by default and it's needed in order to access to the /dev/dri/card0 device. (and that was probably @djpremier's issue) It's the module vgem. You can load it with: sudo modprobe vgem

Or if systemd is running you can load the module automatically adding vgem to the file /etc/modules-load.d/modules.conf

Hi, not yet ...

[djpremier@djpremier ~]$ modprobe vgem

[djpremier@djpremier ~]$ lsmod
Module                  Size  Used by
vgem                   12288  0
drm_shmem_helper       20480  1 vgem
intel_rapl_msr         16384  0
intel_rapl_common      32768  1 intel_rapl_msr
kvm_amd               126976  0
kvm                   970752  1 kvm_amd
cfg80211              958464  0
irqbypass              12288  1 kvm
crc32c_intel           16384  0
sch_fq_codel           16384  1
configfs               53248  1
autofs4                45056  0
br_netfilter           28672  0
bridge                282624  1 br_netfilter
stp                    12288  1 bridge
llc                    12288  2 bridge,stp
ip_tables              28672  0
tun                    53248  0

[djpremier@djpremier ~]$ vainfo --display drm --device /dev/dri/card0
Trying display: drm
Failed to open the given device!

But now other commands are working

[djpremier@djpremier ~]$ ls -la /dev/dri
total 0
drwxr-xr-x  3 root root        100 Sep 20 14:24 .
drwxr-xr-x 16 root root       3860 Sep 20 14:24 ..
drwxr-xr-x  2 root root         80 Sep 20 14:24 by-path
crw-rw----  1 root video  226,   0 Sep 20 14:24 card0
crw-rw-rw-  1 root render 226, 128 Sep 20 14:24 renderD128

[djpremier@djpremier ~]$ vulkaninfo
WARNING: dzn is not a conformant Vulkan implementation, testing use only.
WARNING: dzn is not a conformant Vulkan implementation, testing use only.
==========
VULKANINFO
==========

Vulkan Instance Version: 1.4.313


Instance Extensions: count = 25
===============================
...

Without specify the device seems work

[djpremier@djpremier ~]$ vainfo --display drm
Trying display: drm
vainfo: VA-API version: 1.22 (libva 2.22.0)
vainfo: Driver version: Mesa Gallium driver 25.1.4-arch1.1 for D3D12 (NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 Ti)
vainfo: Supported profile and entrypoints
      VAProfileH264ConstrainedBaseline: VAEntrypointVLD
      VAProfileH264ConstrainedBaseline: VAEntrypointEncSlice
      VAProfileH264Main               : VAEntrypointVLD
      VAProfileH264Main               : VAEntrypointEncSlice
      VAProfileH264High               : VAEntrypointVLD
      VAProfileH264High               : VAEntrypointEncSlice
      VAProfileHEVCMain               : VAEntrypointVLD
      VAProfileHEVCMain               : VAEntrypointEncSlice
      VAProfileHEVCMain10             : VAEntrypointVLD
      VAProfileHEVCMain10             : VAEntrypointEncSlice
      VAProfileVP9Profile0            : VAEntrypointVLD
      VAProfileVP9Profile2            : VAEntrypointVLD
      VAProfileAV1Profile0            : VAEntrypointVLD
      VAProfileNone                   : VAEntrypointVideoProc