Nick M Cummins

How to create Windows shortcuts for launching WSL2 GUI apps running on X410

In my previous article https://www.nickmcummins.com/index.php/2025/06/18/x410-run-wsl-gui-applications-as-native-windows-applications/, I explain differences between X410 and the WSL out-of-the-box GUI support called WSLg. WSLg actually automatically creates desktop shortcuts for launching GUI applications installed in WSL. For example, in my %USERPROFILE%\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\archlinux folder, I see shortcuts

If I open one of the shortcut, I can see its properties:

The shortcut’s target is “C:\Program Files\WSL\wslg.exe” -d archlinux –cd “~” — caja. However, with X410, these shortcuts are not automatically created, and will require a slightly different target due to how X410 works:

C:\Windows\System32\wsl.exe -d archlinux /bin/zsh -lc “nohup caja &> /dev/null & sleep 1”

Windows Terminal – change default window split mode (alt+shift+d) to down/horizontal

Open settings.json and add to actions:

    "actions": 
    [
        {
            "command": 
            {
                "action": "splitPane",
                "split": "down",
                "splitMode": "duplicate"
            },
            "id": "User.splitPane.10B260D2"
        }
    ],Code language: JavaScript (javascript)

add to keybindings section: 

    "keybindings": 
    [
        ...,
        {
            "id": "User.splitPane.10B260D2",
            "keys": "alt+shift+d"
        }
    ],Code language: JavaScript (javascript)

Now, after pressing alt+shift+d: Windows Terminal - Split Down Screenshot

useful Unix shell aliases

alias strace-defaults='strace -f -tt -T -y -yy '
alias sudo-strace-defaults='strace -f -tt -T -y -yy sudo'
alias ion='sudo ionice -c 1 -n 0 -p'
alias ionp='sudo ionice -c 0 -p'
alias nm-undefined-symbols='nm -C -D -u --undefined-only --with-symbol-versions -g'
alias nm-defined-symbols='nm -C -D --defined-only --with-symbol-versions -g'
alias psx='ps aux | grep -i'
alias rn='sudo renice -n -20 -p'
alias rnp='sudo renice -n 20 -p'
alias psk='sudo kill -9'
alias c='clear'Code language: JavaScript (javascript)

xdg-icon-resource install Windows .ico icon on Linux

Requirements:

  • icoutils – for converting .ico to .png
  • python
  • xdg-icon-resource
    • import os
import sys
from os import popen, path


def run(cmd):
    print(f'Running {cmd} ...')
    output = popen(cmd).read()
    return output

def pngsize(pngfile):
    return pngfile.split('_')[-1].split('x')[0]


if __name__ == '__main__':
    icofile = sys.argv[1]
    iconname = icofile.replace(".ico", "").replace("-", " ")

    if path.exists('tmp'):
        run('rm -rf tmp')

    os.mkdir('tmp')

    run(f'icotool -x  {icofile} -o tmp')

    pngfiles = os.listdir('tmp')

    for pngfile in pngfiles:
        run(f'xdg-icon-resource install --novendor --size {pngsize(pngfile)} tmp/{pngfile} "{iconname}"')Code language: JavaScript (javascript)

    Usage:

    python xdg_icon_resource_install_ico.py folder-pictures.icoCode language: CSS (css)

patch/git apply – Hunk #hunkNumber FAILED at lineNumber (different line endings).

This error commonly issues with .patch files when the patch and target file use different line ending types (i.e. Windows/DOS/CLRF vs. Unix/LF):

touch .build/x64/status/clone
cd .build/x64/src/sshfs && for f in /cygdrive/c/github.com/sshfs-win/patches/*.patch; do patch --binary -p1 <$f; done
patching file sshfs.c
Hunk #1 FAILED at 365 (different line endings).

The unix2dos / dos2unix and commands can be used to perform conversion. One way to determine the line endings type is to open the files in a text editor like Notepad++ which can indicate the line endings type. But this can also be achieved using the unix2dos command’s -i / --info option:

dos2unix -i 00-passwd.patch
      36       0       0  no_bom    text    00-passwd.patch

The 36 indicates the number of lines that use DOS-style line endings. Here is a wrapper python script for this which prints out the line endings type:

import os
import sys
import re

if __name__ == '__main__':
    filename = sys.argv[1]
    infooutput = os.popen(f'dos2unix -i {filename}').read().strip()
    doslines = int(re.split(r'\s+', infooutput)[0])
    line_ending_type = 'Windows/DOS (CR LF)' if doslines > 0 else 'Unix (LF)'
    print(line_ending_type)Code language: JavaScript (javascript)

X410 – run WSL gui applications as native Windows applications

Software developers who work on Windows have likely heard of WSL, which stands for the Windows Subsystem for Windows. Essentially, it is a way to run Linux distributions within Windows somewhat like running a virtual machine (VM) but more seamless – or akin to running a Docker container. WSL provides support for GUI applications out-of-the-box with WSLg. The important thing to note about WSLg is that it is implemented using the RDP protocol, so GUI applications are essentially run via an RDP process running on the host Windows machine. Due to this implementation, the performance of GUI applications running on WSLg will not perform as well as would a native Windows application or compared to running the application on a regular Linux installation.

There are some really cool uses of WSL even outside of software development that may be useful for users who are somewhat technical. Some of these are from the interoperability provided with WSL:

  • Windows drive C:\ is mounted in WSL at /mnt/c
  • WSL filesystems can be accessed at \\wsl.localhost and can be mounted to network drives (for example I have \\wsl.localhost\Arch mounted as L:\)

Windows provides the ability to mount network drives using FTP or SMB – however, it doesn’t provide support natively for mounting network locations using SSH/SFTP. Linux has a FUSE filesystem called sshfs. With WSL, this means network locations can be mounted and accessed from Windows. Similarly, Windows does not natively support mounting external drives containing ext4 formatted partitions.

X410 is a really cool alternative to WSLg, which allows X-Window GUI apps to run like any other Windows application. Note that X410 does require the purchase of a license. The license I purchased is for perpetual for the version when I purchased, though updating to newer versions of X410 will require an additional purchase. Here is an example of Caja running in X410: Caja File Manager in X410

Notice how the Window appears like a normal Windows application would. For comparison, here is what Caja looks like in WSLg: Caja File Manager in WSLg

While it may not look like much of a difference, the advantage of X410 is not about the appearance but performance. The UI responsiveness running X410 is noticeably better than running in WSLg.