14 DAY TRIAL // Microsoft has released Windows 10 Redstone 2 build 14936, and in addition to a number of bug fixes and improvements, the company also rolled out an update for the Windows subsystem for Linux that brings Ubuntu to version 16.04 (Xenial).
The Windows subsystem for Linux was introduced in Windows 10 with the Anniversary Update released on August 2 and allows developers to run the bash in the operating system by simply completing a few quick steps.
But the original version of WSL came with Ubuntu 14.04 (Trusty), so this new build finally updates it to Ubuntu 16.04 (Xenial). What’s important to know, however, is that only new instances of the WSL are getting Ubuntu 16.04, as the existing installations are not automatically upgraded to the new version.
Microsoft says that users can upgrade to Xenial using the do-release-upgrade command, otherwise they will continue to run the old version of Ubuntu until they manually perform the switch.
Full changelog
There are also several other fixes, which you can read in full in the box after the jump, but also a known issue which you should really have in mind when setting up WSL in Windows 10:
“WSL is experiencing an issue with some socket implementations. The bugcheck manifests itself as a crash with the error ‘ATTEMPTED EXECUTE OF NOEXECUTE MEMORY’. The most common manifestation of this issue is a crash when using ssh. The root cause is fixed on internal builds and will be pushed to Insiders at the earliest opportunity,” Microsoft explains.
The new Windows 10 build is only available for users enrolled in the fast ring of the Windows Insider program, but all these updates should be released to everyone when the Redstone 2 update goes live in the spring. More changes are very likely, though, so we’ll keep you posted on anything that’s improving for the Windows subsystem for Linux before the public launch.