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What is WSL?

What Windows Subsystem for Linux is, why Salad's container environment needs it, and how to check, update or repair it.

WSL (Windows Subsystem for Linux) is a Windows feature that runs a Linux system inside a lightweight virtual machine. Salad uses WSL 2 to run its container environment, a Linux VM called Salad Enterprise Linux, which is where every container job runs.

Why Salad needs it

Container jobs are Linux programs. Running them inside WSL keeps the job's data separate from the rest of your PC (the job cannot see your files, and you cannot see the job's), and gives every Chef's machine the same base to run from, so jobs behave the same everywhere.

For the container environment to work, your PC needs three things:

  1. Virtualization enabled in the BIOS. See How to enable virtualization support.
  2. The modern WSL package from Microsoft (the Store/MSIX version), not only the WSL that ships inside Windows.
  3. An interactive desktop session. WSL cannot start while the PC sits at the sign-in screen or is connected over Remote Desktop. See Using remote desktop with Salad.

How WSL gets installed

The Salad app installs and configures WSL for you when you set up container jobs in Settings, then asks you to reboot. During that restart Windows may show "Updates are underway" or "Customizing features for you". That is normal; do not turn the PC off.

Check that WSL is installed correctly

Open PowerShell and run:

wsl --version
wsl -l -v
  • wsl --version should print a WSL version line (plus kernel and Windows versions). If it prints usage text instead of a version, you only have the old in-box WSL: see the Windows 10 note below.
  • wsl -l -v should list salad-enterprise-linux with VERSION 2 once Salad has set up the container environment.

Common problems

Enabling WSL manually

If Salad's setup fails, you can install WSL yourself: open PowerShell as administrator, run wsl --install, and reboot. Then run the container job setup again from the Salad app's Settings. Do not edit .wslconfig by hand unless a guide tells you to; see Restoring .wslconfig to Salad default.

If the container environment still fails to start or update, follow Failed to update container environment.

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How to disable ECC

Turn off ECC memory on an NVIDIA GPU with nvidia-smi so the full VRAM is available to Salad's container jobs.

How to enable virtualization support on your machine

Turn on CPU virtualization (Intel VT-x or AMD SVM) in your BIOS so Salad can run its container environment.

On this page

Why Salad needs itHow WSL gets installedCheck that WSL is installed correctlyCommon problemsEnabling WSL manually