WSLg - Works from Windows Menu, but impossible to launch from terminal

[goupil35000]

Environment

Windows build number: Microsoft Windows [Version 10.0.21364.1]
Your Distribution version: Ubuntu Release: 20.04
Your WSLg version: 1.0.17.1

After update wsl and install gedit in Ubuntu:

• I can launch editor from Windows Menu and it works great.
• In Ubuntu, if I type gedit it doesn't work.

Expected behavior

I want to be able to launch all applications from Ubuntu.

[goupil35000]

It works after changing DISPLAY value.

By default, DISPLAY=192.168.1.60:0
I change it to with this command:
export DISPLAY=:0.0

And I'm able to launch gedit from ubuntu terminal.

[crramirez]

I think that something is changing you the DISPLAY environment variable, maybe a previous configuration for X Server?

Look into your .bashrc or /etc/profile.d looking for a script that is setting the variable. Ubuntu used to have a file called wsl-integration in /etc/profile.d

By default, DISPLAY should be :0. If it is anything else, something in your distro is changing it.

[gustalima]

You also need to provide WAYLAND_DISPLAY.

export WAYLAND_DISPLAY=wayland-0

Another way of checking this out is

1 - Open terminator from Start Menu
2 - echo $DISPLAY
3 - echo $WAYLAND_DISPLAY
4 - echo $PULSE_AUDIO
5 - add this variables and their assignments to your session

Cheers

[hakiri]

The same issue come back after installing the workaround of systemd and docker native.
$ xclock
Error: Can't open display: :0

[hakiri]

The problem solved again after setting up DISPLAY in .bashrc using the cmd
I installed GWSL from microsoft store to make it working

export DISPLAY=$(cat /etc/resolv.conf | grep nameserver | awk '{print $2}'):0

[eternalphane]

@hakiri to actually make it work (when using systemd/docker) without installing other xserver, see this comment.

[spronovo]

Folks in the thread are correct, WSL's INIT pre-configure the following environment variable before your profile is applied:

DISPLAY=:0
WAYLAND_DISPLAY=wayland-0
XDG_RUNTIME_DIR=/mnt/wslg/runtime-dir
PULSE_SERVER=/mnt/wslg/PulseServer

If you change your profile, or run software that changes those value, you'll lose connection to one of those server and things will break. This is by design and allow you to run other servers if you would prefer (you can even disable WSLg GUI entirely if you wish).

Seems like everyone in this thread got their connection working, resolving this issue.

If you see folks struggling with their connection, please have them take a look at this wiki:

https://github.com/microsoft/wslg/wiki/Diagnosing-%22cannot-open-display%22-type-issues