Unity Desktop runs natively on Windows 10

It is possible to run the Unity desktop environment natively on Windows 10 through the Windows Subsystem for Linux. That’s what a developer called Guerra24 figured out. In addition to Unity, he also managed to get xfce4 working, although there were more bugs in this.

In order for Unity to function, an X server for Windows must first be installed, such as VcXsrv. Also, it is necessary to fix dbus because dbus uses a unix socket for communication that is not currently in Bash on Windows. The dbus fix is ​​not required for Xfce.

Bash on Windows was announced at the Microsoft Build conference earlier this year. Not much later, Bash was introduced in an Insider build, a test version of the Anniversary Update scheduled for August. Microsoft co-developed Bash on Windows with Canonical and it will become a standard part of Windows 10 after the Anniversary Update in August. The Linux subsystem in turn runs on Windows libraries.

Many programs cannot be run in ‘Unity on Windows’, even the terminal cannot be opened from Unity. How to run Unity over WSL, Guerra24 explains on GitHub. After installing VcXsrv, XLaunch must be opened, then a ‘sudo apt-get install’ of the Ubuntu desktop must be run via Bash, or the terminal. Finally, the CompizConfig settings manager must be installed.

The latter is necessary to perform some tweaks so that, for example, the arrow of the mouse is visible. Also some other Compiz plugins need to be updated. After starting Compiz, the Unity 7 desktop from Ubuntu 14.04 shows itself. The only way to close is by rigorously closing Bash or closing Compiz via the ‘kill’ command.

Image: Guerra24 on GitHub