Originally published at: USB support in WSL2 - now with a GUI! - Golioth
Almost two years ago I wrote a guide on how to interface with USB devices from WSL2 because many of our users were developing on Windows but wanted to use Linux-native tools for projects like Zephyr. I’ve heard from countless devs thanking me for the guide but with one wish – a Graphical User Interface (GUI) to simplify the process of managing USB devices. The most common alternative to running Linux tools on Windows is usually a full blown VM like VirtualBox, which has a nice UI. usbipd-win is certainly no GUI. USB Settings in VirtualBox I recently had to set up a new Windows machine and decided to see if there’s been any enhancements to the USB support in WSL2. I was pleasantly surprised to find not one but two GUIs! The rest of this post will walk you through the two options but will assume you have read the original blog. WSL USB Manager The first tool I found is a nice Python-based desktop GUI hosted over on GitLab. Installation is a breeze thanks to the MSI installer included in official releases. It delivers on the fundamentals of being a USB manager – list, view state, attach/detach – but it also adds some niceties. Source: alelec / wsl-usb-gui · GitLab For example, usbipd-win added an auto-attach feature since my original article, which can be very handy when your embedded device reboots and needs to be re-attached. However, it can be tricky to set up from the commandline. WSL USB Manager allows you to define a profile right from the UI that handles auto-attach more smoothly. Another neat thing it does is automatically create the correct UDEV rule for you so you have…