mwp in Windows 11 WSL G

Windows 11 / WSL-G

Intro

As a result of user interest in running mwp on Windows 11 / WSL-G, here's an experiment to see if it's possible. By a Windows neophyte, so if I can install mwp on WSL, anyone can.

There is also an excellent, but sadly obsolete, you-tube video tutorial from Marc Hoffmann (in English and German).

It is also possible to run mwp on Windows 10 (and 7) using WSL-1 (win10) and / or Cygwin (win7 - win10). This is documented in the mwp wiki.

Environment

Tested with Windows 11 VM hosted on Arch Linux by the developer.

WSL Installation

• Installed default Ubuntu
• Note that serial ports remain difficult (workarounds described below)

Windows / WSL Pre-requisites

None other than the serial port issue, Wayland (GUI) and sound just work. The serial port problem can be mitigated by a "serial to IP" solution; mwptools provides ser2udp for this purpose or using usbipd / usbip (Microsoft's recommended method).

mwp Installation

Use one of the following:

(a) Install the current release from GitHub.

• Down load the .deb file
• cd to where ever you saved the .deb file
• In the WSL terminal sudo apt install ./mwptools_x.y.z_amd64.deb

Example: using curl to download ...

$ curl -LO https://github.com/stronnag/mwptools/releases/download/x.y.z/mwptools_x.y.z_amd64.deb
$ sudo apt install ./mwptools_x.y.z_amd64.deb

Where x.y.z represents the build tag.

(b) Unified first-time build script (build and install from source)

For the initial installation, there is a unified / simplified install / build / install script: Instructions

This installs mwptools to $HOME/.local/bin.

(c) Traditional build process (build and install from source)

If you want more control over build options.

If git is not pre-installed in WSL, then it will be necessary to install it.

sudo apt update && sudo apt upgrade
sudo apt install git

Note: /etc/sudoers (via visudo) was edited to allows the WSL user to run commands as root without asking for a password.

Then it was just a case of cloning the mwp repository and following mwp's instructions (mwptools/docs/debian-ubuntu-dependencies.txt), to install the dependencies, this is available as an executable script thusly:

sudo mwptools/docs/debinstall.sh -y # "-y" bypasses interactive query / responses

Then build and install mwp and optionally the blackbox tools (as mwptools/docs/debian-ubuntu-dependencies.txt). Build documentation.

For blackbox replay, install the flightlog2x tools; build from source in Linux/WSL or install the release binaries.

Note that the normative build reference is the INSTALL file in the source tree.

Running mwp

Compared to Win10/WSL or Cygwin, there is no longer any need to mess around the DISPLAY or udev settings. No 3rd party X-server, Windows 11 / WSL-G handles all the GUI.

One off changes

• WSL installs a very cut down icon theme that does not provide the all the system / standard icons used by mwp. Fix this by:

    sudo apt install adwaita-icon-theme-full
  

• If you wish to replay blackbox / OTX / BulletGCSS logs, it may be necessary to have an IPv6 definition of localhost; WSL's /etc/hosts does not provide this:

    # updated in /etc/hosts for ipv6
    ::1   localhost ip6-localhost ip6-loopback
  

  Note: This was caused by an unnecessary assumption in flightlog2x's fl2ltm which is corrected in flightlog2x release (> 0.11.0), so you might not need it anymore.

• Then tell WSL to please not break your hosts file again

    ### Add the following entry to /etc/wsl.conf:
    [network]
    generateHosts = false
  

• ser2udp.exe. mwp can start and stop the Windows ser2udp.exe on demand. This is quite a neat trick by Microsoft's enabling extra-VM process management. In the example below, we have installed ser2udp.exe as c:\Users\win11\ser2udp.exe :

    # Start command
    gsettings set org.mwptools.planner atstart '/mnt/c/Users/win11/ser2udp.exe'
    # Shutdown command
    gsettings set org.mwptools.planner atexit 'pkill ser2udp.exe'
  

Then you are ready to run mwp.

mwp

Serial devices

In order to use a serial device, it is necessary to run a "serial to IP" bridge on the Windows side. There are two solutions to this, both involve some effort on both the Windows and Linux sides.

• usbip, a long-standing Linux feature that has recently been introduced to Windows
• Standalone "serial-to-IP" bridge, such as mwp's ser2udp tool. This application will need to be white-listed in the Windows firewall.

usbip

See this Microsoft developer blog article for installation / usage information.

Standalone Bridge

There are a number of existing solutions that may work; mwp provides a simple, dedicated ser2udp tool that works well, and once set up is transparent in usage.

Installing mwp's ser2udp

Build on the Linux/WSL side:

• cd mwptools/src/samples/s2n
• make ser2udp.exe
• copy ser2udp.exe to the d̶a̶r̶k̶ Windows side

See above for automating starting and stopping ser2udp.exe.

On the Windows side:

• Use the Windows firewall settings to allow ser2udp.exe to accept UDP traffic.

• Either automate in mwp (recommended) or run ser2udp.exe ; it will autodetect your serial port. By default this listens on UDP port 17071, you can change this by supplying a second parameter, e.g., to use port 34567. In this case, either define the serial port or use auto (auto-detect).

    > ser2udp.exe auto :34567
    ## or just let ser2udp autodetect
    > ser2udp.exe
    External address: fe80::1439:d6de:efcb:97e1%7
    External address: 172.29.32.1
  

  The colon is required to define an alternative port.

• ser2udp will survive removal of USB devices and attempt to re-connect (e.g. if the FC is rebooted).

• ser2udp will only attempt to automatically acquire STM32 USB devices (0483:5740 vid:pid)

• You need to terminate ser2udp when you're done with it (e.g. to use the INAV configurator in Windows).

Using ser2udp in mwp

• On the Linux side, we need to know the IP address (or have a hostname for) the Windows WSL endpoint. Fortunately this happens to be Linux's default gateway, so we can handle it fairly transparently.

It is easily automated by using the magic __MWP_SERIAL_HOST name in the serial device.

mwp -d udp://__MWP_SERIAL_HOST:17071
# recognised by other tools as well ...
cliterm udp://__MWP_SERIAL_HOST:17071

__MWP_SERIAL_HOST is resolved as:

• If an environment variable $MWP_SERIAL_HOST exists, it is used; else
• The default gateway (which on WSL is the Windows host IP) is used; else
• It will fail, as the literal name is unlikely to exist as a resolvable host name (not even a RFC legal host name).

Thus:

• For WSL and ser2udp, in mwp preferences, set the serial device to udp://__MWP_SERIAL_HOST:17071
• Or in the shell, for some other scenario, export MWP_SERIAL_HOST=foobox.org in the event that you have a valid use case

Launch ser2udp and MWP in one go

• Automate ser2udp.exe in mwp's settings

• Create a new txt file in the same folder where ser2udp.exe is located and copy the following lines into that file:

    @echo off
    echo Launching MWP Mission Planner
    start wslg.exe -d Ubuntu mwp
    exit
  

• rename the file with any name and change the extension to .cmd

• Create a shortcut anywhere on your PC or in C:\Users\<username>\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs to pin it to your Start Menu

• Replace the shortcut symbol with the MWP icon from here

Using ser2udp with push telemetry only

ser2udp expects that the UDP side (mwp, Linux/WSL) "speaks" first; this enables ser2udp to evince the remote UDP address to which data received from the serial side (Windows) is sent.

If you are only receiving unsolicited telemetry on the serial / Windows side (e.g. CRSF, Smartport, LTM), then it is necessary to tell ser2udp the address of the remote, using the -remote option. In this case, you can set the device name in mwp to udp://:17071 (for port 17071) to listen unconditionally.

Other packages for additional functionality.

• To replay blackbox logs, you need (mandatory):
  • INAV blackbox tools, and
  • flightlog2x / bbl2kml. Provides a much better blackbox replayer than the old ruby script shipped with mwp (and you can generate really pretty Google Earth files from blackbox / EdgeTX/OpenTX / bulletgcss logs).
• Terrain Analysis
  • Gnuplot. Check the installer script that it's enabled.

FAQs / Oddities / Fixes

Failure to save preferences

You see in the console:

(org.stronnag.mwp:462): dconf-WARNING **: 21:57:12.806: failed to commit changes to dconf: Could not connect: No such file or directory

This is a known WSL "feature". See the Official WSL Issue. Most likely, adding export $(dbus-launch) to ~/.bashrc will fix it.

Note also that enabling systemd in WSL may also break dconf (or not).

Summary

• Much, much better than the prior WSL instances, pity about the difficulty in using serial ports (still) and general display flakyness.

Connection via ser2udp bridge

{: width="80%" } Dark theme, correct system icons installed, connected to FC via ser2udp.

Terrain / elevation analysis

{: width="80%" }

Blackbox replay

{: width="80%" }

!!! Note "Good enough!" The user's compass seems good enough for navigation functions (top right widget comparing GPS CoG v. compass heading).