Install on Bash on Ubuntu on Windows (WSL)

[ClementParis016]

After hours falling into a bunch of errors while trying to launch electron from WSL, I found the easiest way is to install electron on Windows then start it from WSL.

Steps:

1. Make sure you have Node.js & npm installed on your Windows machine (you can remove them afterwards)
2. Open cmd.exe, move to your project directory and run npm install electron --save-dev.
   This will install the Windows version of the prebuilt Electron binary instead of the Linux one, which would occur if you try to install from WSL. (This is the actual trick)
3. Enter Bash on Ubuntu on Windows, move to your project directory then run ./node_modules/.bin/electron (or use an npm script) to launch your Electron app

Though, I'm not sure this is very convenient, it seems to work well.

I hope this will help people encoutering the same issue in the future!

[valorad]

Thanks bro, you saved my day! :)
Currently haven't found any incompatibility yet (v1.7.3), but have to delete Linux version of electron and then install Windows version manually every time after package upgrades.

[ClementParis016]

Indeed, you have to do it for every update, but anyway this is just a hack to work around an issue with WSL that should be resolved in next updates from Microsoft.

Still, I bet we could find a way to colocate Windows & Linux Electron binaries, I've seen Yarn has a sort of package aliasing system that could be a good starting point.

[PierBover]

Thanks for the tip. It worked for me too.

I had previously installed the linux version in bash and I had to delete the node_modules/electron folder and the install from Windows CMD.

[ClementParis016]

Indeed, you could also npm uninstall electron then npm install electron

[dougmaitelli]

You can use npm_config_platform environment variable to force Ubuntu Bash on Windows to install correct version:

"scripts": {
    "install-wsl": "export npm_config_platform=win32 && npm install",

Then run npm run install-wsl

[dougmaitelli]

Maybe even better to avoid problems with other packages:

"install-wsl": "npm install && npm uninstall electron && export npm_config_platform=win32 && npm install electron && unset npm_config_platform"

[ClementParis016]

I didn't know Electron was using the npm_config_platform var.
That's smart @dougmaitelli , have you tried it? It makes complete sense to tweak the platform var though.

[dougmaitelli]

@ClementParis016 Yes, I just tried it before posting :)

Works perfectly, I did not know about this var before, was just looking into the install code from electron to find something similar then I found this var.

[daphen]

Has it gotten any easier to use Electron in WSL since this was posted? This seems extremely tedious and I can't even get it to work. Granted with a vue-electron template, but still.

[ClementParis016]

Nothing new for now afaik. I guess it will always stay a bit hackish because WSL is not a standard OS for building desktop applications. The thing is we are executing a GUI on the Windows OS from a separated non-graphical OS (the Ubuntu subsystem) and only this is absolutely crazy when you think about it, so I can't see any way this could become more practical in the future. Le 26 oct. 2017 22:24, "David Karlsson" <[email protected]> a écrit :

…

Has it gotten any easier to use Electron in WSL since this was posted? This seems extremely tedious and I can't even get it to work. Granted with a vue-electron template, but still. — You are receiving this because you were mentioned. Reply to this email directly, view it on GitHub <#260 (comment)>, or mute the thread <https://github.com/notifications/unsubscribe-auth/AFV5l7bRGDX9DsYdvV4us0SzgIAU4pg8ks5swOp1gaJpZM4NppYx> .

[daphen]

Right, I didn't even think of that.
Thanks.

[DanMossa]

You are an amazing human being an deserve all the praise in the world

[thernstig]

Nothing new for now afaik. I guess it will always stay a bit hackish because WSL is not a standard OS for building desktop applications. The thing is we are executing a GUI on the Windows OS from a separated non-graphical OS (the Ubuntu subsystem) and only this is absolutely crazy when you think about it, so I can't see any way this could become more practical in the future. Le 26 oct. 2017 22:24, "David Karlsson" [email protected] a écrit :
…
Has it gotten any easier to use Electron in WSL since this was posted? This seems extremely tedious and I can't even get it to work. Granted with a vue-electron template, but still. — You are receiving this because you were mentioned. Reply to this email directly, view it on GitHub <#260 (comment)>, or mute the thread https://github.com/notifications/unsubscribe-auth/AFV5l7bRGDX9DsYdvV4us0SzgIAU4pg8ks5swOp1gaJpZM4NppYx .

I found this a bit funny now that this is actually happening. WSL2 will be able to run Linux GUI apps in Windows. https://devblogs.microsoft.com/commandline/the-windows-subsystem-for-linux-build-2020-summary/#wsl-gui