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Since I mostly develop Web, using nginx, PHP and MySQL, I have ported my WebDev-environment entirely to WSL2. Since performance is very important, all my web-related projects reside on the WSL2-vhdx file /home/user/Projects/Web. In WSL2 I've installed all my necessary tools for a nice and neat Linux-like experience, Docker, GIT, etc.. This combined with VSCode remote integration works very well.

Now, I'm digging into building Flutter-Apps, and my Flutter-environment is installed on the Windows side. My Flutter-related projects reside on D:\Projects\Flutter which is a partition, and NOT USED in WSL2 in any way. Building Flutter-apps with flutter-windows-sdk and VSCode works neatly.

But, the problem is: Now I've my project files scattered all across my computer. Web-stuff in a WSL2-vhdx-file and Flutter-stuff on the D-partition.

Is there a way to build flutter-apps with Flutter, while having the project-files stored on a WSL2-vhdx-file, in combination with VSCode-remote and an Android-emulator?

I tried creating a test Flutter-project on the \\wsl$ network mount, which didn't work.

Moving my web-related project files to the D:\ partition of Windows is no option, since the I/O mounts in WSL2 are extremely slow.

ad_on_is
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3 Answers3

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I got it working, reliably with adb connect 192.168.xxx For anyone interested, see my full blog post here: https://dnmc.in/2021/01/25/setting-up-flutter-natively-with-wsl2-vs-code-hot-reload/

ad_on_is
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  • Thanks for this. Would be awesome to see the output of `flutter doctor` on your setup. In particular, I installed flutter on a Linux server VM (no desktop) and got `[✗] Chrome - develop for the web (Cannot find Chrome executable at google-chrome)`. I am curious if the WSL setup you describe also allows web development. – Nagev Jul 22 '22 at 16:20
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    @Nagev I'm no longer on Windows, but I got it working by installing google-chrome, since WSL2 can run gui apps. – ad_on_is Jul 25 '22 at 09:32
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Is there a way to build flutter-apps with Flutter, while having the project-files stored on a WSL2-vhdx-file, in combination with VSCode-remote and an Android-emulator?

I'm assuming (based on the mention of VS Code Remoting) that you want to run the extension in WSL. I haven't tried that specifically, but I have run Flutter inside WSL and also connected a VS Code Remoting session to an Android emulator in the cloud, so I would expect this to work.

You'll need to make sure you set up the Flutter SDK inside WSL (so you can run flutter commands inside WSL - it should be the Linux version of the Flutter SDK and not the Windows one if you're using the zip).

To have your emulator show up in flutter devices from inside WSL, you will likely need to run adb tcpip 5555 from the Windows side (this means you need an Android SDK in Windows) - this will tell your phone to listen on TCP port 5555. Then you'll need to run adb connect [phone ip]:5555 from inside WSL (this means you'll need an Android SDK in Linux). If all goes well, the phone should then show up in adb devices and also be picked up by the device selector in VS Code.

I tried creating a test Flutter-project on the \wsl$ network mount, which didn't work.

It's not clear what went wrong here, though my first guess would be that maybe the UNC path isn't supported - if you map a drive letter to it does it make a difference?

While this isn't an officially supported setup, feel free to raise issues in the Dart-Code repository on GitHub with any issues you have. It's not a priority, but I would like for VS Code Remoting (including WSL and Docker) to generally work for Dart and Flutter dev.

Danny Tuppeny
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Anytime you're crossing/sharing the file-system boundary from windows to wsl you're paying a massive cost in speed/time.

With the setup you've described I'd consider trying to self-host the browser based VSCode.dev inside wsl - checkout details instructions here: https://medium.com/geekculture/3-steps-to-code-from-anywhere-45401247f479

Personally I've settled on running VSCode and docker inside a Linux VM on Windows, and have a 96% time saving in things like running up a server and watching code for changes making this setup my preferred way now.

The standardisation of devcontainer.json and being able to use github codespaces if you're away from your normal dev machine make this whole setup a pleasure to use.

see https://stackoverflow.com/a/72787362/183005 for detailed timing comparison and setup details

Dave Amphlett
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  • I used to run everything under WSL2 too , docker, node, vscode remote wsl , and even the Flutter SDK tools, etc.... I got so used to it, that I've now switched to LInux as my daily driver :-) – ad_on_is Jul 05 '22 at 13:28