So, I am happy that the ubuntu subsystem is available on windows 10. Having a ubuntu subsystem helps a lot to quickly try out some tool and program without rebooting into linux (Yes I am looking at that NS-3, which has no support for windows). However this subsytem has a limitation when it comes to try out anything that is GUI based.
Fortunately there is a easy way to make the GUI works with the ubuntu subsystem (God Bless Linux). Yes, the bad old X11 server-client architecture. So, lets check out how can we use the linux GUI based application on windows.
- Enable the linux subsystem on Windows-10
- Install X11 server on windows
- Fire up your bash on win10 and open up your .bashrc in your favorite editor
vim ~/.bashrc
- Goto end of the .bashrc file and add the following line, then save the .bashrc and exit the editor
export DISPLAY:=0
- Now you can either exit and enter into bash or enter following command to apply the changes
source ~/.bashrc
- To use the GUI you need to run the X11 server on windows, there should be an icon your notification area which looks like X
- Now you can run any GUI based application from the bash and work on it 🙂
Following is a screenshot of ns-3 python visualizer running on ubuntu on windows-10
If you have any comment or suggestion, leave a comment below.
diGital eFFects 