How to Install CentOS 9 Stream in WSL in Windows

By default, WSL does not support CentOS 9 Stream. It needs to be installed manually. To obtain the list of supported distributions on Windows Subsystem for Linux, run:

PS C:\> wsl --list --online

The following is a list of valid distributions that can be installed.
Install using 'wsl.exe --install <Distro>'.

NAME                                   FRIENDLY NAME
Ubuntu                                 Ubuntu
Debian                                 Debian GNU/Linux
kali-linux                             Kali Linux Rolling
Ubuntu-18.04                           Ubuntu 18.04 LTS
Ubuntu-20.04                           Ubuntu 20.04 LTS
Ubuntu-22.04                           Ubuntu 22.04 LTS
OracleLinux_7_9                        Oracle Linux 7.9
OracleLinux_8_7                        Oracle Linux 8.7
OracleLinux_9_1                        Oracle Linux 9.1
openSUSE-Leap-15.5                     openSUSE Leap 15.5
SUSE-Linux-Enterprise-Server-15-SP4    SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 15 SP4
SUSE-Linux-Enterprise-15-SP5           SUSE Linux Enterprise 15 SP5
openSUSE-Tumbleweed                    openSUSE Tumbleweed

Prerequisites

Before you begin, make sure:

You’ve enabled WSL on you Windows machine.
Installed WSL2 Linux kernel update

Install CentOS 9 Stream in WSL2

1. Download the CentOS9-stream.zip file from GitHub mishamosher/CentOS-WSL repository. You can either download it manually or use our PowerShell script to do it automatically. You just need to open PowerShell as administrator then run the below command:

irm bonguides.com/wsl/centos9 | iex

Note Note: Our script is safe, but you should verify the security and contents of any script from the internet you are not familiar with and use it with your own risk.

2. The file rootfs.tar would be downloaded into the temporary folder.

3. From PowerShell, navigate to the downloaded folder then import the .tar file as an instance on WSL.

Set-Location "${env:LOCALAPPDATA}\Packages\centstr9"
wsl --import "CentOSStream9" "${env:LOCALAPPDATA}\Packages\centstr9" rootfs.tar --version 2

Import in progress, this may take a few minutes.
The operation completed successfully.

4. Once done, you can get the list of installed distributions to verify it works.

PS C:\Users\admin\AppData\Local\Packages\centstr9> wsl -l -v

  NAME             STATE           VERSION
* Ubuntu           Stopped         2
  Ubuntu-20.04     Stopped         2
  CentOSStream9    Stopped         2
  kali-linux       Stopped         2
  centos7          Stopped         2
  Debian           Stopped         2

5. Start the imported instance by wsl -d CentOSStream9 command.

PS C:\Users\admin\AppData\Local\Packages\centstr9> wsl -d CentOSStream9

[root@DESKTOP-B2TOHJT centstr9]# cat /etc/os-release
NAME="CentOS Stream"
VERSION="9"
ID="centos"
ID_LIKE="rhel fedora"
VERSION_ID="9"
PLATFORM_ID="platform:el9"
PRETTY_NAME="CentOS Stream 9"
ANSI_COLOR="0;31"
LOGO="fedora-logo-icon"
CPE_NAME="cpe:/o:centos:centos:9"
HOME_URL="https://centos.org/"
BUG_REPORT_URL="https://bugzilla.redhat.com/"
REDHAT_SUPPORT_PRODUCT="Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9"
REDHAT_SUPPORT_PRODUCT_VERSION="CentOS Stream"

6. The downloaded rootfs.tar file is no longer needed. We can delete it usuing Windows Explorer or using the command below:

Remove-Item "${env:LOCALAPPDATA}\Packages\centstr9\rootfs.tar"

Not a reader? Watch this related video tutorial:

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