CFD,  General,  Linux,  OpenFOAM,  Windows

Developing for OpenFOAM on Windows 10 – Part 3

December 28, 2017

Enabling support for graphical applications in WSL with Xming

The Windows Subsystem for Linux does not officially support GUI applications. However, it is possible to successfully run several of them using a Windows-based X server as Xming. The steps to follow are simple:

  1. Download Xming (please, consider a donation to support the developer!) for your version of Windows
  2. Install it accepting the default settings
  3. Open the Ubuntu bash terminal and type
    • echo "export DISPLAY=:0" >> .bashrc
  4. Load the settings with the command:
    • source ~/.bashrc
  5. Test the setup as follows:
    • Start the Xming server on Windows. An icon will appear in the notification areas
    • Type paraview in the Ubuntu bash terminal. The expected outcome is shown below:

In the next part it will be discussed how to exchange files between Windows and WSL.

Enjoy  :mrgreen:

This offering is not approved or endorsed by OpenCFD Limited, the producer of the OpenFOAM software and owner of the OPENFOAM® and OpenCFD® trade marks. Alberto Passalacqua is not associated to OpenCFD Ltd.