Setting Up PX4 Development Environment – Installing WSL2 on Windows 10/11

Hello, this is Aiden from the Marketing Team.

Today, I would like to introduce how to set up the PX4 development environment, specifically focusing on the installation of WSL2 on Windows 10/11. Please note that this content is the registered intellectual property of QUAD Drone Lab. We kindly ask that you refrain from any unauthorized distribution or reproduction.

Please follow the steps sequentially along with the YouTube video provided below.

Run Windows PowerShell as an Administrator and enter the following commands:

dism.exe /online /enable-feature /featurename:Microsoft-Windows-Subsystem-Linux /all /norestart
dism.exe /online /enable-feature /featurename:VirtualMachinePlatform /all /norestart

dism.exe /online /enable-feature /featurename:Microsoft-Windows-Subsystem-Linux /all /norestart
dism.exe /online /enable-feature /featurename:VirtualMachinePlatform /all /norestart

Once the task is complete, you must restart your computer.

Installing WSL2

To use the command below, you must be running Windows 10 version 2004 or higher (Build 19041 or higher) or Windows 11. If you are using an earlier version, please refer to the manual installation page.

This command enables the necessary features to run WSL and installs the Ubuntu distribution of Linux. (This default distribution can be changed).

wsl --install

wsl --install

Check Linux distributions

PS C:\Windows\system32> wsl --list --online

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

NAME                            FRIENDLY NAME
Debian                          Debian GNU/Linux
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
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
PS C:\Windows\system32>

PS C:\Windows\system32> wsl --list --online

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

NAME                            FRIENDLY NAME
Debian                          Debian GNU/Linux
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
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
PS C:\Windows\system32>

Installing Ubuntu 24.04

Once the installation is complete, enter your Username and Password, then exit.

For detailed instructions on how to use WSL2, please refer to the Microsoft WSL link below.

https://learn.microsoft.com/ko-kr/windows/wsl/install

Launch Ubuntu

This concludes our look at installing WSL2 on Windows 10/11, the very first step in setting up the PX4 development environment. We will return with the second step: Configuring ROS(1) + PX4 Toolchain.

Author: Aiden, Marketing Director of QUAD Drone Lab.

Date: February 16, 2026