How to Setup Your First WSL Distro for Python Development

In this time, we are going to use Debian distro which when this article is written has version 12. This blog article will explain the steps by Straight Through The Code, there is no much explanation that too long to read.

Installing WSL Distro

wsl --install -d Debian

After that, we need to input some configurations:

• New UNIX username
• Password

Setup Systemd for WSL

It is best to config the systemd to your distro by this simple steps:

sudo nano /etc/wsl.conf

Then input these lines inside the file

[network]
generateResolvConf = false
[boot]
systemd = true

Also, we need to setup the resolv.conf file for the DNS resolver

sudo nano /etc/resolv.conf

Then input these lines inside the file

nameserver 8.8.8.8
nameserver 1.1.1.1

Then save it by Ctrl+S, then exit by Ctrl+X

Setup WSL Environment

1. Setup standard library

sudo apt-get update && apt-get upgrade -y

sudo apt-get install -y --no-install-recommends ca-certificates netbase tzdata

sudo apt-get install -y --no-install-recommends dpkg-dev gcc gnupg libbluetooth-dev libbz2-dev libc6-dev libdb-dev libexpat1-dev libffi-dev libgdbm-dev liblzma-dev libncursesw5-dev libreadline-dev libsqlite3-dev libssl-dev make tk-dev uuid-dev wget xz-utils zlib1g-dev curl

2. Setup Git

sudo apt-get install -y git

3. Setup Python

# Install uv first for easy and python installation
curl -LsSf https://astral.sh/uv/install.sh | sh

Then, restart your shell/terminal to activate the new command uv.

uv python install

to run the python, we should use uv python command not only python.

4. Setup PostgreSQL

Install PostgreSQL from the repository

sudo apt-get install postgresql postgresql-contrib

TIP: Setting so PostgreSQL can be accessed by password

sudo nano /etc/postgresql/<version>/main/pg_hba.conf

before: local allpostgres peer

after: local all postgres md5

Check does the postgresql service has been started

# Checking service name, look for something like:
# postgresql@15-main.service 
sudo systemctl list-units | grep postgresql

# Checking Status
systemctl status postgresql@15-main

# Start The Service
sudo systemctl start postgresql@15-main

5. Clean The Installation Setup Files

sudo rm -rf /var/lib/apt/lists/*