Terminus: How to set home directory for Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL)?

[abalter]

Version: 1.0.0-alpha.38
Platform: win32 10.0.16299

In the settings, I've tried the following options for Terminal>Bash on Window>Working Directory:

• ~
• /home/balter

In both cases, the terminal does not open properly. If I leave that setting blank, then the terminal opens properly but drops me into /mnt/c/Users/ariel (my Windows home directory).

Note: "Bash on Window" should probably be (WSL) or at least make Window plural.

[pinyin]

FYI, I added cd ~ at the end of my ~/.bashrc and that works as expected.

[abalter]

Well, there is an infinite number of workarounds in Linux. But WSL is going to be a huge use case for Terminus. MobaXTerm knows how to default to the WSL directory. It would be good if Terminus could too.

[stale[bot]]

This issue has been automatically marked as stale because it has not had recent activity. It will be closed in two weeks unless you comment.
Thank you for your contributions.

[Jule-]

FTR, this is problematic when you have some binaries present in the Windows environnement that can be reached in the WSL environnement.

For example take yarn. I have yarn installed with scoop on Windows and with apt on WSL:
In PowerShell

C:\Users\jule> yarn global bin
C:\Users\jule\scoop\apps\yarn\current\bin

In Terminus

jule@Jule-PC:/mnt/c/Users/jule$ yarn global bin
/mnt/c/Users/jule/C:\Users\jule\scoop\apps\yarn\current/bin

jule@Jule-ZB:/mnt/c/Users/jule/dev$ cd ~

jule@Jule-ZB:~$ yarn global bin
/home/jule/.yarn/bin

And when you modify your .bashrc in order to have yarn binaries in the path like this:

export PATH="$(yarn global bin):$PATH"

Then when your .bashrc is executed in your Windows home directory you will have in your WSL path the first wrong scoop form (/mnt/c/Users/jule/C:\Users\jule\scoop\apps\yarn\current/bin) instead of the second one (/home/jule/.yarn/bin).

Indeed adding cd ~ at the beginning of your .bashrc do the trick like @pinyin said. But it is not natural and putting /home/jule in Terminus working directory setting breaks the terminal. It is still not desirable.

[Eugeny]

The recent Terminus versions will let you pick a working directory inside WSL rootfs if you're using the "browse" button near the input field. Sorry for not responding in this ticket

[Jule-]

Oh ok no problem, thank you for the information.

---

Don't know which version you are talking about but I have still some issues.

Tested with:

• Terminus 1.0.1 (1.0.0-alpha.55)
• Platform: win32 10.0.17134
• WSL / Default distro
  (don't know the difference with WSL / Legacy but this second one crashes in my case)

For what I have seen:

• [x] This is right that when I browse I end up in C:\Users\jule\AppData\Local\lxss\rootfs as you mentioned.
• [ ] But in my case C:\Users\jule\AppData\Local\lxss\rootfs\home is empty. And my ~ is located in C:\Users\jule\AppData\Local\lxss\home\jule. Ok that is misleading but why not and maybe that this is not the case for everyone.
• [ ] The problem is that whatever I put here when I start a new terminal I am located in / root directory. That is better for my yarn global bin issue but not really what users should expect.

---

EDIT: I have seen that we are on the alpha.65 version and since there is no auto-update 🙃 (damn I get used to it so much... Sorry you have done really good work! Keep it that way! 😃). So I will come back with fresh version to confirm or not these observations.
EDIT2: 🎉🎉🎉

Adjusted versioning to facilitate autoupdates

[Jule-]

Ok I can confirm that whatever I put in working directory setting that is under lxss folder I end up with / as working directory.

[Jule-]

And I don't know if it is normal but I have installed last alpha.65 version from github and I still have:

[Eugeny]

On my Windows, WSL distros have their FS in %HOME%\AppData\Local\Packages\[distro]\LocalState\rootfs, and the user's home folder is located inside.

Please try following:

1. Install an additional WSL distro to see if it gets set up with a "proper" FS layout
2. Alternatively, try creating an empty home folder at C:\Users\jule\AppData\Local\lxss\rootfs\home\jule and see if setting it as CWD tricks WSL into doing the right thing.

[Eugeny]

@Jule- also, until we find the reason, the WSL folks suggest a workaround by invoking wsl.exe ~ or wsl.exe ~ -d <distro-name> - which you can set up as a Profile in Terminus.

[Eugeny]

Ref: https://github.com/Microsoft/WSL/issues/1346

[stale[bot]]

This issue has been automatically marked as stale because it has not had recent activity. It will be closed in two weeks unless you comment.
Thank you for your contributions.

[IgnusG]

This started happening for me after the latest Alpha 78 release. Can't trace what is causing it though
Edit: Using the suggested workaround works fine

[ruslanguns]

@Jule- also, until we find the reason, the WSL folks suggest a workaround by invoking wsl.exe ~ or
wsl.exe ~ -d - which you can set up as a Profile in Terminus.

@Eugeny That work, but it breaks the right click opt for open folder, it forward you right to your ~ directory.

[floatingpurr]

@Jule- also, until we find the reason, the WSL folks suggest a workaround by invoking wsl.exe ~ or wsl.exe ~ -d <distro-name> - which you can set up as a Profile in Terminus.

Excuse me for the naive question: how can I set a custom profile this way?

[miyunda]

@Jule- also, until we find the reason, the WSL folks suggest a workaround by invoking wsl.exe ~ or wsl.exe ~ -d <distro-name> - which you can set up as a Profile in Terminus.

Excuse me for the naive question: how can I set a custom profile this way?

just add an argument.

[VVVVictorJ]

@Eugeny
That works.But I found it's has another problem.I set the ubuntu 18.04 as default launching.
And I open a new terminal for ubuntu. It shown the /mnt/c/users/victor.And I set the ubuntu as default launching. It turn back normal. It seems like the profile setting only works for the default launching.

[Eugeny]

Good news - WSL2 now supports setting any CWD when starting a shell.

• Make sure you're using a fresh nightly build that includes this fix
• If using a profile, add a shell: wsl-Ubuntu or similar to its config entry, or just recreate it.
• Set the working directory as \\wsl$\Ubuntu\home\...