Mastodawn

Oliver Conzen Apr 23

With Windows 9x Subsystem for Linux you can run all your favourite Windows and Linux apps side-by-side with a modern Linux kernel running cooperatively with the Windows kernel in ring 0. And unlike modern WSL, no hardware virtualisation is used so even your 486 can run it!

Please enjoy, I think this might be one of my greatest hacks of all time

https://codeberg.org/hails/wsl9x

really got this one in right under the wire before they start removing 486 support from linux

Malcolm Herbert Apr 22

@hailey ... old linux distros never die ... just like windows ones apparently don't either ... :)

@hailey this is so awesome! And yeah, this seems like a less intrusive way to extend the practical life of old computers.

@hailey Perish the thought of running an LTS kernel on Windows 98, like some kind of peasant! 😁

Bredroll Apr 26

@hailey brace yourself, it just popped up on #slashdot back in the day that was better than a DDoS

Michael Gale Apr 22

@hailey that fastfetch rules lmao

F4GRX SÃ©bastien Apr 22

@hailey this is a gorgeous hack, congratulations.

@hailey Hah! Reminds me of coLinux, but that was actually later on NT. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colinux

Cooperative Linux - Wikipedia

patrislav ♾️ #RIPNatenom Apr 22

@bytex64 yeah I used that for embedded linux development on corporate windows machines back in the day
@hailey

@bytex64 @hailey this used to be a fun pasttime, it's a shame the 64 bit port didn't make it across the line.

Mike [SEC=OFFICIAL]Apr 22

@hailey jesus fucking christ this is an abomination of epic proportions that has no right to exist in a just universe and I love it so much

Daniel Carosone Apr 22

@mike @hailey IKR

Mike [SEC=OFFICIAL]Apr 22

@uep @hailey I am going to run this in Windows 95 on a Sun PC card under Solaris 7.

@mike @uep @hailey DO. IT.

Mike [SEC=OFFICIAL]Apr 22

@ben @uep @hailey I don't bluff.

@mike @ben @uep @hailey
We love a good SunPCi card! Gotta get my SBUS SunPC card going one of these days. Also shame that my DOS-compatible Mac's PSU gave up...

Cursed Silicon Apr 22

@mike @ben @uep @hailey POST RESULTS

Hoshino Lina (星乃リナ) 🩵 3D Yuri Wedding 2026!!!Apr 23

@mike @ben @uep @hailey Is it me or are some of the capacitors on the top card a bit spicy? ^^;;

Jernej Simončič �Apr 23

@lina @mike @ben @hailey Definitely not just you – the caps under the cooler look ready to pop.

@mike @hailey I was looking for a way to express my feelings but I was too disturbed to find the right words and then I found your post and I felt validated 8-D

@hailey finally a good os

Stefan Eissing Apr 22

@hailey @catsalad Looks like macOS 27. Less transparency, solid UI elements.💁🏻‍♂️

Eric Röder Apr 22

@hailey I hope MichaelMJD takes note of that...
CC @klarisadventure

Yao Yue 岳峣 Apr 22

@hailey Time to revisit Uncharted Waters II

Would I still get my BSOD if I write bad code? Won't be the same without that.

this is epic!

funbaker; Je suis Antifa Apr 22

@hailey there's an even better hack: use linux natively

aburka 🫣Apr 22

@hailey okay first of all what the hell

🏳️‍⚧️ Chloé: ADhdSL 512Kb/s Apr 22

@hailey
That's a project that @maya will love.

Arch 💕Apr 22

@hailey this is incredible??

blobcat_dundundun

@hailey Does it run winamp?

Natanox 🇺🇦🇵🇸Apr 22

@Firesphere @hailey Let's run Foobar2000 with Wine for Linux inside the Win9x kernel. What could possibly go wrong?

Gabriele Marcosanti

@hailey that's cursed.

@hailey Wow - that is freaking impressive!
Back in the day (yes - i'm that old) we had to used cygwin x'3
And that project seems to be still alive: https://www.cygwin.com/ cx

Cygwin

Henning Paul DC4HP Apr 22

@hailey I used coLinux on my Win98 K6 system, is this similar?

Henning Paul DC4HP Apr 22

@hailey looking at coLinux' time line, this must've been after I upgraded the system to WinXP.

Thomas Guyot-Sionnest Apr 22

@hailey Is this like CoLinux? It was running User Mode Linux as a Windows process on XP, no virtualisation needed. Basically WSL2 way ahead of it's time!

The only caveat is that it relied on both arches having compatible pointer sizes which excluded 64bit, so it was never ported to win7.

On a technical aspect though WSL1 is IMHO even better than it's successor, it's literally implementing POSIX and Linux on the NT microkernel. After all NT was supposed to also run OS/2 and Xenix...

Alda Vigdís Apr 22

@dermoth @hailey Yup. It made me feel like they were bypassing an underlying feature in the Windows architecture as if it was a bug.

@alda @dermoth @hailey
They were by passing indeed.

Picoprocess: process creation is heavy weight on Windows, so Microsoft had to implement picoprocesses in the kernel on which WSL1 could rely.

Thomas Guyot-Sionnest Apr 25

@dryak @alda @hailey There was a great series of writeups about WSL1 with accompanying prestations... The videos have unfortunately been taken down but I think everything is covered in the articles. I linked them from this superuser answer: https://superuser.com/a/1406372/293731

What's this error in SSH on Windows Subsystem for Linux? setsockopt IPV6_TCLASS 16: Operation not permitted

I am using Windows Subsystem for Linux. When I login to my home server using SSH, I first get the following error setsockopt IPV6_TCLASS 16: Operation not permitted: and then everything works as

Super User

Thomas Guyot-Sionnest Apr 25

@dryak @alda @hailey I could find at least the first video, I will post what I find below.

1. Windows Subsystem for Linux: Architectural Overview: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/shows/seth-juarez/windows-subsystem-linux-architectural-overview

1/6

Windows Subsystem for Linux: Architectural Overview

In this video Deepu Thomas lays down the real scoop behind the Windows Subsystem for Linux. There was a lot of speculation surrounding how this feature actually worked so I decided to find out. This architectural overview gets into exactly how an operating system separates functionality into user and kernel mode. Deepu then uses that understanding to show how this new subsystem works in that context. The whole explanation is thoroughly enlightening and often stretched my understanding of how the underlying operating system works. Accompanying blog post Guthub (issues) UserVoice (feature voting) There's a ton to learn on this topic! In addition to our Channel 9 Live coverage at //BUILD 2016 and we have a number of deep dives that really get into how the feature works at an operating system level: Process Architecture Syscall Translation File System Windows and Ubuntu Interoperability If you prefer to read more on the Windows Subsystem for Linux make sure to catch up on the official documentation and blog.

Thomas Guyot-Sionnest Apr 25

@dryak @alda @hailey

2. Windows Subsystem for Linux: Process Architecture : https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/shows/seth-juarez/windows-subsystem-linux-process-architecture

2/6

Windows Subsystem for Linux: Process Architecture

Once we had a better architectural understanding of how the whole Windows Subsystem worked, I thought we should get more into how processes actually run in this new context. It turns out to be way more interesting than I would have otherwise thought thanks to our resident superhero Nick Judge. He dives into a new kind of process called a "PicoProcesses" which are a brand new lightweight, secure process infrastructure coming to Windows 10. I thought this sounded a little scary until Nick explained how these things are governed and fit into the larger functionality that we've come to know as the Windows Subsystem for Linux (which enables Bash on Ubuntu on Windows). Enjoy!

Thomas Guyot-Sionnest Apr 25

@dryak @alda @hailey

3. Windows Subsystem for Linux - Syscall Translation: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/shows/seth-juarez/windows-subsystem-linux-syscall-translation

3/6

Windows Subsystem for Linux - Syscall Translation

Exploring the Windows Subsystem for Linux, we have looked at the architectural overview and deep dived into the Pico Processes. In this video we focus our attention on the way the subsystem redirects system calls. Stephen Hufnagel will explain how system calls work in general on Windows and Linux, then dive into the mechanics of WSL's translation. He'll discuss system calls which are easily mapped, as well as some which are a little more difficult. The more I get to dive into this awesome technology the more impressed I become with the amount of engineering effort that went into the Windows Subsystem for Linux. Enjoy! WSL System Calls (more details)

Thomas Guyot-Sionnest Apr 25

@dryak @alda @hailey

4. Windows Subsystem for Linux: File System: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/shows/seth-juarez/windows-subsystem-linux-file-system

4/6

Windows Subsystem for Linux: File System

One of the key goals for the Windows Subsystem for Linux is to allow users to work with their files as they would on Linux, while giving full interoperability with files the user already has on their Windows machine. Unlike a virtual machine, where you have to use network shares or other solutions to share files between the host and guest OS, WSL has direct access to all your Windows drives to allow for easy interop. Windows file systems differ substantially from Linux file systems,. In this video I had the pleasure of talking to Sven Groot who discusses how WSL bridges those two worlds. Overall I have been thoroughly impressed with the sheer engineering prowess it took to get this working. I hope you enjoy the discussion as much as I have.

Thomas Guyot-Sionnest Apr 25

@dryak @alda @hailey

5. Windows Subsystem for Linux: Windows and Ubuntu Interoperability: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/shows/seth-juarez/windows-subsystem-linux-windows-ubuntu-interoperability

5/6

Windows Subsystem for Linux: Windows and Ubuntu Interoperability

The Windows Subsystem for Linux was announced as a beta feature at //Build 2016. Since then, we have explored an architectural overview, how Pico Processes work, System Calls redirection and File System support. Today we explore a new WSL feature: the ability for WSL to call Windows executables, and for Windows to call Ubuntu binaries. Ben Hillis will deep dive into the inner workings of our most requested feature and show how these two environments can complement each other in some very interesting ways.

Thomas Guyot-Sionnest Apr 25

@dryak @alda @hailey And the last one, it was renamed which made it a bit difficult to find!

6. Windows Subsystem for Linux: Networking Overview: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/shows/seth-juarez/windows-subsystem-linux-networking-overview

6/6

Windows Subsystem for Linux: Networking Overview

Exploring the Windows Subsystem for Linux, we have looked at the architectural overview, the Pico Processes, syscalls and filesystem. In this video we focus on the networking layer. Sunil Muthuswamy discusses some of the differences between Windows and Linux networking and where the translation happens. Sunil will also walk us through the translation of typical TCP and UDP calls as well as touch on how Unix sockets are used by Linux for inter process communication.

LP still can't spell Ainmhícon Apr 22

@dermoth @hailey you can still use WSL1, it just requires a supported settings change. supposedly still maintained in parallel too. it's still the easiest way to get virtualbox to coexist, since it's grumpy if hyperv is around.

mirabilos🐈‍⬛Apr 22

@dermoth @hailey yes, WSL2 is just a crappy VM, WSL1 is the true invention

Thomas Guyot-Sionnest Apr 23

@mirabilos @hailey Well, that said WSL1 didn't come without any drawback:

- Slower local file access (files were stored natively on NTFS - even trough a VM, Linux on ext4 is faster)
- Cross-os file changes caused weird permission/ACL issues
- Not all Linux ABI / interfaces were implemented (and this is a moving target!)

That last point is important, for ex. Debian Trixie fails on WSL1 because new passwd locking isn't implemented in the NT kernel. New interfaces would require support too.

mirabilos🐈‍⬛Apr 23

@dermoth @hailey sure, but it works well enough, and for those corner cases you can still use VMs

in contrast, networking just works on WSL1 (even better than under native WS2!) and is utterly broken on WSL2, for example

Thomas Guyot-Sionnest Apr 23

@mirabilos @hailey They actually fixed it, you can use host networking in recent versions. That matter a lot for me as I prefer using Vcxsrv for the X server. Theirs is broken on non-US keyboards and I don't need 3D. And besides, I've been using X apps long before WSL "supported" them.

IIRC initially we could use the resolver's IP but they locked out down, and then whatever solution caused X apps to randomly disconnect. But I have it 100% stable again. Happy to share my setup when I'm home...

mirabilos🐈‍⬛Apr 23

@hailey @dermoth I did intricate things with getting and setting the ECN bits on v4 and v6 UDP with v4/v6 sockets, and the networking was… very broken.

But that was for a previous job, and also only to see what works on AIX, BSD, Windows, etc.

Thankfully, no Windows at the new job, and only win2k (for which I have Cygwin and Interix) at home, so no need to share.

🐧HoloPengin🐧Apr 24

@dermoth @hailey Man I remember messing around with CoLinux. IIRC you could even get a (somewhat broken but workable) instance of KDE Plasma running. That shit was gateway crack

Wyatt: Unchained

@hailey that sounds really slow on my pentium
but it's also cool. wonder how it compares to cygwin

Tobias Hellgren Apr 22

@hailey You are insane and I like you

@hailey omg, this brings back memories of using coLinux back in the 2000s

this is beautiful

Manawyrm Apr 22

@hailey holy shit.

Andi89S4051 Apr 22

@hailey "Favorite windows apps" 😂.
(Sorry, I don't want to miss any cheap windows joke)

But seriously: is Windows 9x better than wine? Just tried wine so far.

@hailey oh my god hailey this is incredible

@hailey Oh lawd he commin: