Windows 10 WSL (bash) and mintty

Question

I just installed the new Linux subsystem in Windows 10. It's really nice to have access to the Ubuntu repositories, but I absolutely HATE the default terminal program. Cygwin comes with MinTTY which is really nice and works very well, but I can't find a standalone package for MinTTY. Is there a way to make MinTTY as a default terminal for WSL, when launching whatever shortcut?

Edit: to be clear, I DON'T want to install Cygwin. I want to use the new Linux subsystem and its bash shell, but I want to use mintty as my terminal.

Solution 1

The mintty developer has just released an installer that will set it all up for you with no external dependencies (it includes cygwin dll, the console helper and wslbridge):

https://github.com/mintty/wsltty/releases

Download, install and you're done.

If you want to run a different shell than Bash, just change the shortcut (in your startmenu). For example, to run ssh-agent per terminal with zsh:

%LOCALAPPDATA%\wsltty\bin\mintty.exe /bin/wslbridge -t /usr/bin/ssh-agent /bin/zsh -l

Solution 2

Using mintty + wslbridge works.

Download 3 files:

mirrors.kernel.org/sourceware/cygwin/x86_64/release/cygwin/cygwin-2.5.2-1.tar.xz

mirrors.kernel.org/sourceware/cygwin/x86_64/release/mintty/mintty-2.4.2-0.tar.xz

github.com/rprichard/wslbridge/releases/download/0.1.0/wslbridge-0.1.0-cygwin64.tar.gz

Put these files to the same directory named bin:

cygwin1.dll : cygwin-2.5.2-1.tar.xz

cygwin-console-helper.exe : cygwin-2.5.2-1.tar.xz

mintty.exe : mintty-2.4.2-0.tar.xz

wslbridge.exe : wslbridge-0.1.0-cygwin64.tar.gz

wslbridge-backend : wslbridge-0.1.0-cygwin64.tar.gz

And create an empty minttyrc.

Run mintty -c ./minttryc ./wslbridge

Or use Terminal emulator for Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL)

Comments

[Roman Ivanets]

This isn't currently possible.

[Roman Ivanets]

There are a few comments on the BashOnLinux Github issues tracker, such as this one github.com/Microsoft/BashOnWindows/issues/… and also on the mintty issue tracker: github.com/mintty/mintty/issues/558 We're not there yet...

[Nicole Hamilton]

If you don't mind, I'm curious about your use case and why you insist on the Ubuntu bash rather than Cygwin. Are you developing for distribution on Ubuntu? The reason I ask because this new Ubuntu bash seems impossibly crippled in most respects compared to the Cygwin bash. For example, It can only start genuine Ubuntu binaries, meaning it can't even start notepad. I'm fascinated to know what people will do with this.

[ewok]

@NicoleHamilton Cygwin doesn't have access to apt repos. If I want to install a new program and have it work with cygwin, I either have to install through cygwin using the Graphical installer, which can be a bit of a pain, or I have to install a windows binary, then add it to my path, which can also be a pain. Cygwin is a useful tool if you want a bash-like terminal in a windows environment, but is limited by the fact that it isn't linux.

[Ben Fulton]

Also there are programs that only run on Linux (without putting extensive effort into porting). Much easier to run Bash than to start a virtual machine.

[Roman Ivanets]

It's possible, as long as you use a couple of wrappers that depend on some cygwin bits (particularly wslbridge) - installing cygwin (or at least having the dlls in place as per Gore Liu's answer) is currently your best bet. I've answered below with what I've found to be the simplest way to get it running.

[Roman Ivanets]

Scrap that, visit github.com/mintty/wsltty/releases and install - one step, works great

[Roman Ivanets]

This doesn't use the new Linux Subsystem, it uses the bash provided by Git for Windows...