ubuntuwindows-subsystem-for-linuxcode-server

Cannot install code-server onto WSL. "System has not been booted with systemd as init system (PID 1). Can't operate."

I'm following the instructions to download code-server here: https://github.com/cdr/code-server/blob/v3.8.0/doc/install.md#debian-ubuntu

Because I'm on windows, I'm using Ubuntu on Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL).

I have successfully run the following two lines:

curl -fOL https://github.com/cdr/code-server/releases/download/v3.8.0/code-server_3.8.0_amd64.deb
sudo dpkg -i code-server_3.8.0_amd64.deb

However, I'm having a problem with the last line:

sudo systemctl enable --now code-server@$USER

I get the following error:

System has not been booted with systemd as init system (PID 1). Can't operate.

Any help would be greatly appreciated :)

Solution

  • The error message indicates that the .deb is designed to use systemd, which WSL doesn't support (without a lot of extra effort).

    However, it appears that code-server supports a "standalone" (non-package) based installation. See this section of the install doc for details.