Windows environment configuration

Technical Discussion Getting Started
#1

Hey everyone!

Since the devcamp 6, there have been some improvements in how Holochain behaves on Windows. So, while preparing for the devcamp 7, I want to gather howtos, tricks and overall feedback that Windows users have at this point.
Specifically, if you have a working Windows environment, please tell us:

  1. what is your Holochain version?
  2. what is your Windows version?
  3. what works and what doesn’t? any specific quirks you’re having?
  4. what are the steps you took to set up your dev environment?

Tagging @devcamp6 participants here too.
Cheers!

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#2

@petersgrandadventure - got anything on this?

#3

I’ve been meaning to get my machine up to latest, will do that and report back!

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#4

I was using windows but it keeps crashing and getting slower and slower so now in ubuntu and much happier! Lol :wink: I just need to get .net working properly… :blush:

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#5

I spoke too soon, unfortunately Mono and VS Code just are not up to the task of running the OASIS API (my .net solution). It sucks they will not port VS to Linux, why is it on Mac but not Linux?! Makes no sense! :frowning:

So anyway, I need to get hc working on Windows, WSL2 is not an option, it is not available on my machine, I am still trying.

I heard of a docker solution previously, where are the setup instructions for this? I STRONGLY suggest these are put on the Install Instructions as an alternative to WSL2, in case people have issues with it like I have…

Many thanks,
David.

#6

Found it, I am going to try this now:

https://forum.holochain.org/t/installing-holochain-on-windows-with-docker/1979

If it works I will report back and then please can we get it added to the Install page?

Thanks

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#7

Hey folks. I’ve found that Holochain doesn’t really work through Vagrant/VirtualBox or Docker – at least, not if you want to run the client (cURL, web-based GUI, or anything that talks to a running DNA instance) in the host OS (that is, Windows). That’s because by design, Holochain only listens on the localhost network interface, which is only available on the guest OS, not the host OS. I’ve tried to come up with a way to patch localhost to a public interface that’s available to the host, to no avail. That’s why I’ve retired the old Vagrant instructions completely.

So yes, I’m curious to see what people have discovered to work. Here’s what I know works well:

Curious to see what others have had success with! And thanks so much @e-nastasia for initiating this thread.

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#8

hey @dellams how’s your Docker installation going?

#9

I got it working with WSL2 in the end… :blush: I didnt need to try docker after all.

But I need to access the the hc code from windows? How is that possible? Plus I want to use VSCode on windows to edit my hc code. I will check out the link above for that and report back… :blush:

#10

Ok I checked out the link about VSCode but it doesn’t say how to setup the .code command? Any ideas? Thanks :slight_smile:

#11

@hedayat hey bro how you been? :blush: you co-running dev camp again? :blush: I’m signed up… looking forward to it as per usual… my 3rd sitting… :grin:

As I recall your using hc in windows? How did you setup vs code and get access to the code from windows file system? Thanks. :blush:

#12

hey @dellams! answering all of your questions here in one go:

  1. sadly I can’t help you with the Windows side of things at all as I’m running Ubuntu.
  2. I think @hedayat is enjoying a break right now, and this time I’m co-running the devcamp :slight_smile:
  3. Hedayat actually switched to running a VM with Linux because it was quicker than configuring a Windows environment.
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#13

Thanks for the feedback… yeah that is my last resort but my machine is way too slow to run windows in a VM in Linux so be good if I can find out how to get to my files from the Nix shell in windows somehow… I am sure someone on here would be able to help? :slight_smile:

Any suggestions?

Many thanks.
D.

#14

This may help some Windows users, who are using WSL2:

You can map “\wsl$” to a network drive to get access to the virtual Linux installs you have. For example to get to my HOME dir in my virtual Ubuntu it is:

\wsl$\Ubuntu-20.04\home\dellams

You can even get access to the NIX Shell folders including the holochain.love files like this:

\wsl$\Ubuntu-20.04\nix\store\23ca14cx97y7zq9yzj51ng77ibsxfgp2-holochain.love

The hash will be different depending on which version of holochain.love you have downloaded.

You can then run your nix-shell command from that folder so you can effectively work offline using the last version of holochain.love that was pulled down when you were online…

Hope this is of help to people… :slight_smile:

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