I need an arm64 rpm based Linux distribution in either Hyper-V or WSL2?

Question

What is the best way to have on an arm64 based Windows 11 Pro a Linux VM or WSL distribution ? I wanted to try Microsoft's own Azure Linux 3.0, so I downloaded the iso file. Hyper-V hangs when booting the VM. It seems the trick is to use only one CPU but then it's incredibly slow. How can I convert the iso to a WSL distribution? What I would is to use Azure Linux 3.0 arm64 as my WSL distribution. How can I do that? I have found various posts but I still don't know how to. How can I convert the iso to a WSL distribution?

Answer 1

Hi, I am Henry and I'd like to help.

It looks like you're trying to run an ARM64 RPM-based Linux distribution on Windows 11 Pro using Hyper-V or WSL2, specifically Azure Linux 3.0 ARM64. Since Hyper-V is hanging and WSL2 doesn’t directly support ISO conversion, here are some possible solutions:

1. Running ARM64 Linux in Hyper-V

• Ensure Hyper-V is properly configured for ARM64
  • Since you're using a Snapdragon X Elite CPU, Hyper-V should support ARM64 VMs, but performance may be limited.
  • Try reducing CPU cores to 1 or 2 (as you've mentioned) and increase RAM allocation.
  • Use Gen 2 VM settings in Hyper-V.

2. Converting ISO to WSL2 Distribution

WSL2 does not natively support installing Linux from an ISO, but you can manually extract and set up a custom distribution:

• Extract the root filesystem from the ISO
  • Mount the ISO and locate the root filesystem (rootfs.tar or similar).
• Import into WSL2
  • Open PowerShell and run: wsl --import <DistroName> <InstallLocation> <RootFSFile>
  • Example: wsl --import AzureLinux3 C:\WSL\AzureLinux3 C:\ISO\rootfs.tar
• Set the default user
  • Run: wsl -d AzureLinux3
• Then configure the user inside the WSL environment.

Let me know if any of these solutions work for you.