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Install Instructions

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Jeonghun Yang edited this page Oct 6, 2025 · 4 revisions

Install Instructions

1. Kernel Image

Note

You have to restart your WSL2 system using wsl --shutdown after install or update kernel.

1-1. Manual Installation

  1. Download kernel image from releases page.
  2. Place it to somewhere appropriate. (e.g. D:\WSL2\Kernel\bzImage-x86_64)
  3. Save the .wslconfig in current user's home directory with following content:
[wsl2]
kernel=the\\path\\to\\bzImage
; e.g.
; kernel=D:\\WSL2\\Kernel\\bzImage-x86_64
;
; Note that all `\` should be escaped with `\\`.
  1. Restart your WSL2 (wsl --shutdown) and check kernel version using uname -a in WSL2 terminal.

1-2. Install via Scoop

  • Scoop is a command-line installer on windows. If you have scoop installed, then you can install this kernel with following commands:
scoop bucket add frostbite https://github.com/Nevuly/frostbite

scoop install frostbite/wsl2-rolling-kernel-stable
  • Scoop will automatically set kernel in .wslconfig.

1-3. Update Kernel Image

  • If you installed it via Scoop, you can use scoop update * in Powershell.
  • If you installed it manually, download it from releases page, and replace it.

2. Kernel Addon Package

Note

Kernel addon package is optional. If you don't need it, just skip this guide.

Addon package continas kernel modules, headers and documents.

Note

You have to restart your WSL2 system using wsl --shutdown after install or update kernel addon package.

Warning

Addon package only supports VHDX image! You must use WSL2 veresion 2.5.1 or later!

2-1. Manual Installation

  1. Download kernel addon package from releases page.
  2. Place it to somewhere appropriate. (e.g. D:\WSL2\Kernel\bzImage-x86_64-addon.vhdx)
  3. Save the .wslconfig in current user's home directory with following content:
[wsl2]
kernelModules=the\\path\\to\\bzImage-addon.vhdx
; e.g.
; kernelModules=D:\\WSL2\\Kernel\\bzImage-x86_64-addon.vhdx
;
; Note that all `\` should be escaped with `\\`.
  1. Restart your WSL2 (wsl --shutdown) and check directory in /lib/modules).

2-2. Install via Scoop

  • Scoop is a command-line installer on windows. If you have scoop installed, then you can install this kernel addon package with following commands:
scoop bucket add frostbite https://github.com/Nevuly/frostbite

scoop install frostbite/wsl2-rolling-kernel-stable-addon
  • Scoop will automatically set kernel in .wslconfig.

1-3. Update Kernel Addon Package

  • If you installed it via Scoop, you can use scoop update * in Powershell.
  • If you installed it manually, download it from releases page, and replace it.

3. Use ZFS module (Only x86 platform)

Warning

To use the ZFS module, you must install the kernel addon package first!

For installation instructions, please check section 2.

Note

The ZFS module is supported on the x86 platform only!

The ZFS module is located at the following path and is disabled by default:

/lib/modules/$(kernel_version)-WSL2-STABLE+/extra

To use it, you can enable it by entering the commands below:

sudo insmod /lib/modules/$(kernel_version)-WSL2-STABLE+/extra/spl.ko

sudo insmod /lib/modules/$(kernel_version)-WSL2-STABLE+/extra/zfs.ko

This will work after you have installed the necessary ZFS packages in your Linux distributions.

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