Findings about the WSL

As per the title says, this issue will work as single source of truth to post more findings about the GDK running WSL (Windows Subsystem for Linux)

---

• https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab-development-kit/merge_requests/290
• https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab-development-kit/issues/225

changed title from More finding about the WSL to Findings about the WSL

I'll take care of updating the docs with any tips or findings that get posted here

assigned to @jivanvl

From Tim (Frontend AC Lead) he wasn't able to use Gitaly so there was a couple of solutions:

1. Edit the Procfile and comment the Gitaly section
2. Make sure your home (~) directory doesn't contain a git pattern. Tim had something like this /home/gitl/gitlab/gitlab-development-kitl/gitlab/gitlab-development-kit/ as the GDK does search and replace on the /home/{username} dir

Related: https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab-development-kit/issues/225 (home directory issue)

Here is my full installation description, please review and see if it makes sense, then we can add it to the official docs :

Setting up GDK on WSL (Linux Bash on Windows, Ubuntu 16.04 Base)

1. Create a non root User or use an existing one

2. Prepare your machine based on this guide for WSL : https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab-development-kit/blob/master/doc/prepare.md#experimental-windows-10-using-the-wsl-windows-subsystem-for-linux

3. Install GDK normally in the users home directory (~) with gdk install : https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab-development-kit/blob/master/doc/set-up-gdk.md

4. Run it with gdk run (Can take quite a while until it starts, refresh multiple times in browser loccalhost:3000) , after some time (~30 minutes) it will come up and show the users/sign_in page (couple of 502 / EOF errors before it starts correctly, restarting the whole machine also helps)

5. So now you should have a fully running GDK instance , try it out by logging in on http://localhost:3000 and browse. Only problem is you can’t really edit those files from the Windows machine (permission problems , etc. MS even states don’t edit Linux files with Windows applications)

6. What we will do is now do a second installation in your /mnt/… directory which is setup with your Windows hard drive. So I will create a directory on C:/ with the name tzwsl (as an example)

7. Run in your bash cd /mnt/c/tzwsl

8. Run here again gdk init

9. Change to the created directory cd gitlab-development-kit

10. Run gdk install

11. Rund gdk run -> Now you will get multiple errors as WSL has a problem to create .socket files in mnt due to permission problems . Solution reconfigure GDK to use the directory in /home/… for creating the sockets

12. Procfile changes :

    1. Get Redis running : Change in ./Procfile the line : redis: exec redis-server /mnt/c/tzwsl/gitlab-development-kit/redis/redis.conf To the path of your /home installation redis: exec redis-server /home/tz/gitlab-development-kit/redis/redis.conf

    2. Get Postgres Running : Change that line postgresql: exec support/postgresql-signal-wrapper /usr/lib/postgresql/9.5/bin/postgres -D /mnt/c/tzwsl/gitlab-development-kit/postgresql/data -k /mnt/c/tzwsl/gitlab-development-kit/postgresql -h '' Again pointing at your /home/ installation postgresql: exec support/postgresql-signal-wrapper /usr/lib/postgresql/9.5/bin/postgres -D /home/tz/gitlab-development-kit/postgresql/data -k /home/tz/gitlab-development-kit/postgresql -h ''

    3. Point gitlab-workhorse to your home directory (only for socket) : Change : gitlab-workhorse: exec /usr/bin/env PATH="/mnt/c/tzwsl/gitlab-development-kit/gitlab-workhorse/bin:$PATH" gitlab-workhorse -authSocket /mnt/c/tzwsl/gitlab-development-kit/gitlab.socket -listenAddr

       $host:$
       port -documentRoot /mnt/c/tzwsl/gitlab-development-kit/gitlab/public -developmentMode -secretPath /mnt/c/tzwsl/gitlab-development-kit/gitlab/.gitlab_workhorse_secret -config /mnt/c/tzwsl/gitlab-development-kit/gitlab-workhorse/config.toml To : gitlab-workhorse: exec /usr/bin/env PATH="/mnt/c/tzwsl/gitlab-development-kit/gitlab-workhorse/bin:$PATH" gitlab-workhorse -authSocket /home/tz/gitlab-development-kit/gitlab.socket -listenAddr
       $host:$
       port -documentRoot /mnt/c/tzwsl/gitlab-development-kit/gitlab/public -developmentMode -secretPath /mnt/c/tzwsl/gitlab-development-kit/gitlab/.gitlab_workhorse_secret -config /mnt/c/tzwsl/gitlab-development-kit/gitlab-workhorse/config.toml

13. Run gdk install again, then it finished for me also with cloning gitaly, etc.

14. Configure gitaly (if you retry gdk run after this , it shouldn’t stop anymore with gitaly problems) : Go to /gitaly/config.toml , change from : socket_path = "/mnt/c/tzwsl/gitlab-development-kit/gitaly.socket" To Using Sockets (-> overrides the socket creation problem) socket_path = "" listen_addr = "localhost:1234"

15. Get the Rails Application working : Change in \gitlab\config\unicorn.rb the configuration : listen '/mnt/c/tzwsl/gitlab-development-kit/gitlab.socket' To listen '/home/tz/gitlab-development-kit/gitlab.socket'

16. Change the Redis.socket Path in /gitlab/config/resque.yml : development: unix:/mnt/c/tzwsl/gitlab-development-kit/redis/redis.socket test: unix:/mnt/c/tzwsl/gitlab-development-kit/redis/redis.socket To development: unix:/home/tz/gitlab-development-kit/redis/redis.socket test: unix:/home/tz/gitlab-development-kit/redis/redis.socket

17. Fix the GItlab Workhorse Config to the new Redis Path : Change in /gitlab-workhorse/config.toml the line : URL = "unix:///mnt/c/tzwsl/gitlab-development-kit/redis/redis.socket" To the /home Path : URL = "unix:///home/tz/gitlab-development-kit/redis/redis.socket"

18. Update the Database Socket in /gitlab/config/database.yml : CHange the 2 host paths : host: /mnt/c/tzwsl/gitlab-development-kit/postgresql To using your home path : host: /home/tz/gitlab-development-kit/postgresql

19. Update the Path to the example repositories (somehow it is not possible to pull them in the /mnt/ directory with the default installation) : Go to the /gitlab/config/gitlab.yml and change : path: /mnt/c/tzwsl/gitlab-development-kit/repositories/ To path: /home/tz/gitlab-development-kit/repositories/ Also Update the gitaly url in the line below from : gitaly_address: unix:/mnt/c/tzwsl/gitlab-development-kit/gitaly.socket To the TCP Address : gitaly_address: tcp://localhost:1234

20. Run it again gdk run

21. You should have now a GDK instance running on localhost:3000 in your browser which is taking the Source files from the /mnt/ installation but simply saves some of the needed connection parts in the /home/ installation

Great, can you update the documentation?

I know @jivanvl tried installing an omnibus package. Is there a reason that the Ubuntu packages don't work?

@stanhu : Sure

@MadLittleMods : Could you please try your installation attempt again with my above description and verify that it also works for you and not only for me ?

@stanhu I can add the notes regarding the omnibus attempt but should I add it on this particular issue or should I open a new issue with my findings inside the https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/omnibus-gitlab repo?

@jivanvl Probably makes sense to create a separate issue. Thanks!