AlmaLinux 9 Installation

Before proceeding with the installation, we need to make sure that no other WSL2 distribution (aka: distro) is running. This is important because this installation will fail if required ports are already in use by another distro.

Open Windows Terminal.

Stop other WSL2 distros

List all installed distros:

wsl -l -v

If there is no other distro installed, you will see the below output (an empty list):

  NAME            STATE           VERSION

In this case, you can jump to the installation section.

If you have other distros installed, the output could look similar to the below:

  NAME            STATE           VERSION
  AlmaLinux-9     Stopped         2
* AlmaLinux-10    Running         2

Make sure that the STATE column reads Stopped for all distros. If any of them reads Running, you must stop if first by executing wsl -t <distro-name> after replacing <distro-name> with the name of the distro you want to stop. Once you have stopped all distros, you can continue to the installation section.

Install AlmaLinux 9

List the available Linux distros by executing:

wsl --list --online

Depending on the list of distros available at the moment you run the command, the output should look similar to the below:

The following is a list of valid distributions that can be installed.
Install using 'wsl.exe --install <Distro>'.

NAME                            FRIENDLY NAME
AlmaLinux-8                     AlmaLinux OS 8
AlmaLinux-9                     AlmaLinux OS 9
AlmaLinux-Kitten-10             AlmaLinux OS Kitten 10
AlmaLinux-10                    AlmaLinux OS 10
Debian                          Debian GNU/Linux
FedoraLinux-42                  Fedora Linux 42
SUSE-Linux-Enterprise-15-SP5    SUSE Linux Enterprise 15 SP5
SUSE-Linux-Enterprise-15-SP6    SUSE Linux Enterprise 15 SP6
Ubuntu                          Ubuntu
Ubuntu-24.04                    Ubuntu 24.04 LTS
archlinux                       Arch Linux
kali-linux                      Kali Linux Rolling
openSUSE-Tumbleweed             openSUSE Tumbleweed
openSUSE-Leap-15.6              openSUSE Leap 15.6
Ubuntu-18.04                    Ubuntu 18.04 LTS
Ubuntu-20.04                    Ubuntu 20.04 LTS
Ubuntu-22.04                    Ubuntu 22.04 LTS
OracleLinux_7_9                 Oracle Linux 7.9
OracleLinux_8_7                 Oracle Linux 8.7
OracleLinux_9_1                 Oracle Linux 9.1

Note the two columns: NAME and FRIENDLY NAME. To install a specific distro, use the value from the NAME column, in this case: AlmaLinux-9.

If you try to install a distro that is already installed, the installation process will fail:

Downloading: AlmaLinux OS 9
Installing: AlmaLinux OS 9
A distribution with the supplied name already exists. Use --name to choose a different name.
Error code: Wsl/InstallDistro/Service/RegisterDistro/ERROR_ALREADY_EXISTS

Install the AlmaLinux 9 distro by executing the below command:

wsl --install -d AlmaLinux-9

You should see the download progress—once finished, the output should look like this:

Downloading: AlmaLinux OS 9
Installing: AlmaLinux OS 9
Distribution successfully installed. It can be launched via 'wsl.exe -d AlmaLinux-9'
Launching AlmaLinux-9...
Please create a default UNIX user account. The username does not need to match your Windows username.
For more information visit: https://aka.ms/wslusers
Enter new UNIX username:

As per the last line, the installation process now prompts you to enter a username. This is the username you will use inside AlmaLinux 9, and it can be any alphanumeric string (for example dotkernel):

Next, you are prompted to change the password associated with your chosen username (you will not see what you are typing, that's a security measure in Linux regarding passwords):

Enter new UNIX username: dotkernel.
Changing password for user dotkernel.
New password:

Depending on the strength of your password, you might get a BAD PASSWORD: <some-reason> message (if you want to choose a different password, hit Enter and you are taken back to the previous step—else, continue with retyping your password):

Next, you are asked to retype your password:

Retype new password:

Finally, you should see the following message:

passwd: all authentication tokens updated successfully.
[<your-alma-linux-9-username>@<your-device-name> <your-windows-username>]$