Failed to open X11 display - How to execute SFML output on WSL - Load WSL GUI apps

Question

have any of you tried compile and executing SFML c++ project output on wsl? I tried and got

Failed to open X11 display; make sure the DISPLAY environment variable is set correctly
Aborted

Is it possible at all to execute GUI applications through wsl?

(I've installed ubuntu's for wsl)

Answer 1

Linux distributions set up for WSL 1 will not function with Linux GUI applications, which are only supported with WSL 2.

Due to the official documentation from Microsoft regarding WSL, you might need to check these steps:

Select Start, type PowerShell, right-click Windows PowerShell, and then select Run as administrator. after that type this command and then press enter:

wsl --update

You will need to restart WSL for the update to take effect. You can restart WSL by running the shutdown command in PowerShell.

wsl --shutdown

now, once again open powershell and type in this command:

wsl --list --verbose

You should see the number 2 for your installed distro under the heading VERSION in the response.

If everything went as planned until this point, see if your distro can open any windows by installing a GUI app like gedit and trying to open it:

sudo apt update

now install gedit:

sudo apt install gedit -y

After the installation has finished, launch gedit by typing gedit in your wsl terminal. A window from wsl inside of Windows should now open, and the issue should now be resolved.

find more information here:https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/wsl/tutorials/gui-apps

Answer 2

If you went on the same problem

first, you need to install VcXsrv and X11 for executing GUI applications through wsl

then you have to add these 2 to your Linux subsystem environment variables:

export DISPLAY=:0

export LIBGL_ALWAYS_INDIRECT=0