Add AzureLinux official WSL image to the distribution manifest by mfrw · Pull Request #41120 · microsoft/WSL

Muhammad Falak R Wani (mfrw) · 2026-07-20T15:50:28Z

Signed-off-by: Muhammad Falak R Wani falakreyaz@gmail.com

Summary of the Pull Request

PR Checklist

Closes: Add Support For AzureLinux 4.0 #41182
Communication: We've discussed this with core contributors already. If work hasn't been agreed, this work might be rejected
Tests: Added/updated if needed and all pass
Localization: All end user facing strings can be localized
Dev docs: Added/updated if needed
Documentation updated: If checked, please file a pull request on our docs repo and link it here: #xxx

Detailed Description of the Pull Request / Additional comments

Validation Steps Performed

azure-pipelines · 2026-07-20T15:50:37Z

Azure Pipelines: There may be pipelines that require an authorized user to comment /azp run to run.

Ben Hillis (benhillis) · 2026-07-20T15:52:53Z

/azp run

azure-pipelines · 2026-07-20T15:53:03Z

Azure Pipelines: Successfully started running 1 pipeline(s).

Copilot

Pull request overview

This PR updates the WSL distribution manifest to add AzureLinux as a modern distribution option, including architecture-specific download locations and SHA256 hashes.

Changes:

Added a new ModernDistributions.AzureLinux entry with an AzureLinux-4.0-BETA image.
Provided amd64/arm64 .wsl download URLs and corresponding SHA256 hashes.

+                    "Url": "https://osrelease.download.prss.microsoft.com/pr/download/AzureLinux-4.0-x86_64.wsl",
+                    "Sha256": "92e709a8f7e9e5981d839c74358449857dcdfae57636a6b5e30001898790d992"
+                },
+                "Arm64Url": {
+                    "Url": "https://osrelease.download.prss.microsoft.com/pr/download/AzureLinux-4.0-aarch64.wsl",
+                    "Sha256": "6ac4a5cdfa8d3c1308cb6cca133c0f30a47ae2cb639ee4cde0ada2d3a65298ce"


Ben Hillis (benhillis) · 2026-07-20T15:53:30Z

Muhammad Falak R Wani (@mfrw) - there are some issues that should be resolved before merging, can you please take a look?

Muhammad Falak R Wani (mfrw) · 2026-07-20T17:58:46Z

Muhammad Falak R Wani (@mfrw) - there are some issues that should be resolved before merging, can you please take a look?

Sure - will do

Copilot

Pull request overview

Copilot reviewed 1 out of 1 changed files in this pull request and generated 1 comment.

Comments suppressed due to low confidence (1)

distributions/DistributionInfo.json:263

The download URLs point to osrelease.download.prss.microsoft.com/pr/download/..., which appears to be a PR-specific or internal distribution endpoint (and is the only prss.microsoft.com reference in this manifest). For an official distro entry, this should likely use a stable, long-lived public URL (similar to the other ModernDistributions entries) to avoid future breakage if PR artifacts are rotated/removed.

                    "Url": "https://osrelease.download.prss.microsoft.com/pr/download/AzureLinux-4.0-x86_64.wsl",
                    "Sha256": "92e709a8f7e9e5981d839c74358449857dcdfae57636a6b5e30001898790d992"
                },
                "Arm64Url": {
                    "Url": "https://osrelease.download.prss.microsoft.com/pr/download/AzureLinux-4.0-aarch64.wsl",
                    "Sha256": "6ac4a5cdfa8d3c1308cb6cca133c0f30a47ae2cb639ee4cde0ada2d3a65298ce"

+                "Name": "AzureLinux-4.0-BETA",
+                "FriendlyName": "Azure Linux 4.0 (BETA)",
+                "Default": true,


Ben Hillis (benhillis) · 2026-07-20T19:43:25Z

/azp run

azure-pipelines · 2026-07-20T19:43:35Z

Azure Pipelines: Successfully started running 1 pipeline(s).

Muhammad Falak R Wani (mfrw) · 2026-07-21T04:22:57Z

PR Raised to address the missing icon file:

feat(azurelinux-logos): add azurelinux-logo.ico + fedora-logo.ico symlink azurelinux#18073

Copilot

Pull request overview

Copilot reviewed 1 out of 1 changed files in this pull request and generated no new comments.

Comments suppressed due to low confidence (1)

distributions/DistributionInfo.json:256

The PR title says this adds an "official" Azure Linux WSL image, but the manifest entry is explicitly marked as BETA (Name ends with "-BETA" and FriendlyName includes "(BETA)"). This is a user-visible mismatch: either the entry should be the stable/official image (no BETA labeling), or the PR title/intent should be updated to reflect that this is a beta image.

                "Name": "AzureLinux-4.0-BETA",
                "FriendlyName": "Azure Linux 4.0 (BETA)",
                "Default": true,

Craig Loewen (craigloewen-msft) · 2026-07-22T16:26:25Z

Muhammad Falak R Wani (@mfrw)
Right now you call this distro "AzureLinux-4.0-BETA" which I would advise against. You should use one stable and consistent name for your distribution.

What happens when this package comes out of BETA? It will be seen as an entirely new WSL distribution, which really isn't the case. I'd recommend using a name like AzureLinux-4.0 or something to that effect

Craig Loewen (craigloewen-msft)

Should resolve naming first.

Blue (OneBlue)

Thank you for doing this !

Looking through the tar, there are a couple things that we should fix before merging:

The icon referenced by /etc/wsl-distribution.conf doesn't exist:

[shortcut]
enabled = true
icon = /usr/share/pixmaps/fedora-logo.ico # <= Not in the tar

The OOBE script references Fedora (I'm guessing because it's inspired from their OOBE script)
The manifest name doesn't match the distribution name in /etc/wsl-distribution.conf (AzureLinux-4 vs AzureLinux-4.0-BETA)
Some redundant system units are enabled by default.

Specifically:

systemd-vconsole-setup.service (WSL automatically configures a TTY on that device, and this will typically fail if multiple distros try to do this in parallel)
systemd-resolved.service (WSL owns the DNS and writes to /etc/resolv.conf)
systemd-networkd-* (WSL configures networking, distributions shouldn't need to make changes to adapter configuration)
getty@tty1.service This tty is essentially unreachable so I'd recommend not running it at all. This will also fail if another distro tries to do this as well

Copilot

Pull request overview

Copilot reviewed 1 out of 1 changed files in this pull request and generated no new comments.

Comments suppressed due to low confidence (1)

distributions/DistributionInfo.json:263

The AzureLinux ModernDistributions URLs point at a .../pr/download/... endpoint, which looks like a pull-request/staging artifact location and may not be stable long-term. If this URL disappears or is rotated, wsl --install / distro list fetching will break for this entry. Please switch these to a long-lived, versioned release location intended for public consumption (similar to the other distro entries).

                    "Url": "https://osrelease.download.prss.microsoft.com/pr/download/AzureLinux-4.0-x86_64.wsl",
                    "Sha256": "a7b3f2ff714105dcb22a45c9b8072b66df7a71b0b6dcd97455b1fb60ca176056"
                },
                "Arm64Url": {
                    "Url": "https://osrelease.download.prss.microsoft.com/pr/download/AzureLinux-4.0-aarch64.wsl",
                    "Sha256": "f5a36b4185977cef3d62db44acb566da039d81db3bae04f6241364189a754d6c"

Muhammad Falak R Wani (mfrw) · 2026-07-23T15:06:14Z

Ack Craig Loewen (@craigloewen-msft) & Blue (@OneBlue) - will address the feedback

Jim Perrin (jperrin) · 2026-07-23T15:20:06Z

Craig Loewen (@craigloewen-msft) my reasoning for asking Muhammad Falak R Wani (@mfrw) to explicitly name the image as a Beta is because there won't be an easy way to update to the GA release once we launch. The alternative would be to hold the image back until we GA officially.

Copilot

Pull request overview

Copilot reviewed 1 out of 1 changed files in this pull request and generated no new comments.

Comments suppressed due to low confidence (2)

distributions/DistributionInfo.json:263

The AzureLinux ModernDistributions URLs point at osrelease.download.prss.microsoft.com/pr/download/.... The /pr/ path suggests this may be a preview/ephemeral artifact location; if it gets garbage-collected, wsl --install --from-file / modern distro install flows could break. Prefer a stable, publicly supported release URL (or an aka.ms redirect) intended for long-term consumption, and keep this manifest pointing at that stable endpoint.

                "Amd64Url": {
                    "Url": "https://osrelease.download.prss.microsoft.com/pr/download/AzureLinux-4.0-x86_64.wsl",
                    "Sha256": "a7b3f2ff714105dcb22a45c9b8072b66df7a71b0b6dcd97455b1fb60ca176056"
                },
                "Arm64Url": {
                    "Url": "https://osrelease.download.prss.microsoft.com/pr/download/AzureLinux-4.0-aarch64.wsl",
                    "Sha256": "f5a36b4185977cef3d62db44acb566da039d81db3bae04f6241364189a754d6c"

distributions/DistributionInfo.json:256

The PR title says this adds an "official" AzureLinux WSL image, but the entry’s FriendlyName is labeled "(BETA)". This is a user-visible string and reads like a prerelease; please align either the PR description/title or the manifest entry so they communicate the same status (official release vs beta/preview).

                "Name": "AzureLinux-4.0",
                "FriendlyName": "Azure Linux 4.0 (BETA)",
                "Default": true,

Ben Hillis (benhillis) · 2026-07-24T15:01:30Z

/azp run

azure-pipelines · 2026-07-24T15:01:41Z

Azure Pipelines: Successfully started running 1 pipeline(s).

Ben Hillis (benhillis)

You've changed all the line endings on this file. Please don't do that.

Muhammad Falak R Wani (mfrw) · 2026-07-26T06:51:53Z

You've changed all the line endings on this file. Please don't do that.

Apologies :( - will fix it

Muhammad Falak R Wani (mfrw)

Have a Draft PR in AzureLinux to address the feedback:

microsoft/azurelinux#18140

Signed-off-by: Muhammad Falak R Wani <falakreyaz@gmail.com>

Copilot

Pull request overview

Copilot reviewed 1 out of 1 changed files in this pull request and generated no new comments.

Copilot

Pull request overview

Copilot reviewed 1 out of 1 changed files in this pull request and generated no new comments.

Comments suppressed due to low confidence (1)

distributions/DistributionInfo.json:263

The new AzureLinux entry points to https://osrelease.download.prss.microsoft.com/pr/download/..., which looks like a PR/staging download path. This manifest is consumed by distributions/validate-modern.py (it downloads each Amd64Url/Arm64Url and verifies the SHA), so if this URL is ephemeral or requires auth it will break CI validation and end-user installs once it expires.

Please switch to a stable, publicly accessible release URL (and update the corresponding Sha256 values) before landing this in the official manifest.

                    "Url": "https://osrelease.download.prss.microsoft.com/pr/download/AzureLinux-4.0-x86_64.wsl",
                    "Sha256": "92e709a8f7e9e5981d839c74358449857dcdfae57636a6b5e30001898790d992"
                },
                "Arm64Url": {
                    "Url": "https://osrelease.download.prss.microsoft.com/pr/download/AzureLinux-4.0-aarch64.wsl",
                    "Sha256": "6ac4a5cdfa8d3c1308cb6cca133c0f30a47ae2cb639ee4cde0ada2d3a65298ce"

Signed-off-by: Muhammad Falak R Wani <falakreyaz@gmail.com>

Copilot

Pull request overview

Copilot reviewed 1 out of 1 changed files in this pull request and generated no new comments.

Comments suppressed due to low confidence (1)

distributions/DistributionInfo.json:263

The PR title/description says this adds an official Azure Linux WSL image, but the manifest entry is explicitly marked "(BETA)" and points at a ...prss.microsoft.com/pr/download/... URL (looks like a PR/pre-release download endpoint). If this endpoint is transient or access-restricted, consumers/CI validation may start failing and users may not be able to download the distro long-term. Please switch these URLs to a stable, publicly supported release location (and if the image is truly official, consider dropping the BETA labeling; if it’s intentionally beta, update the PR title/issue scope accordingly).

                "Name": "AzureLinux-4.0-BETA",
                "FriendlyName": "Azure Linux 4.0 (BETA)",
                "Default": true,
                "Amd64Url": {
                    "Url": "https://osrelease.download.prss.microsoft.com/pr/download/AzureLinux-4.0-x86_64.wsl",
                    "Sha256": "a7b3f2ff714105dcb22a45c9b8072b66df7a71b0b6dcd97455b1fb60ca176056"
                },
                "Arm64Url": {
                    "Url": "https://osrelease.download.prss.microsoft.com/pr/download/AzureLinux-4.0-aarch64.wsl",
                    "Sha256": "f5a36b4185977cef3d62db44acb566da039d81db3bae04f6241364189a754d6c"

Jeremy Cline (jeremycline) · 2026-07-27T17:54:24Z

Thank you for doing this !

Looking through the tar, there are a couple things that we should fix before merging:

The icon referenced by /etc/wsl-distribution.conf doesn't exist:
[shortcut]
enabled = true
icon = /usr/share/pixmaps/fedora-logo.ico # <= Not in the tar
The OOBE script references Fedora (I'm guessing because it's inspired from their OOBE script)

The manifest name doesn't match the distribution name in /etc/wsl-distribution.conf (AzureLinux-4 vs AzureLinux-4.0-BETA)

For these three, I think they can all be addressed by passing non-default values to the post-install script in the specfile. Azure Linux will need to carry a minor patch to the specfile to switch out the defaults, but that's also what RHEL and others are doing, as far as I am aware.

Some redundant system units are enabled by default.

Specifically:

systemd-vconsole-setup.service (WSL automatically configures a TTY on that device, and this will typically fail if multiple distros try to do this in parallel)

systemd-resolved.service (WSL owns the DNS and writes to /etc/resolv.conf)

systemd-networkd-* (WSL configures networking, distributions shouldn't need to make changes to adapter configuration)

getty@tty1.service This tty is essentially unreachable so I'd recommend not running it at all. This will also fail if another distro tries to do this as well

These I should mask out in Fedora as well, it sounds like (except systemd-networkd which Fedora doesn't use). My understanding is that Azure Linux rolls their own -release package so I'm not sure how much we can share there beyond being consistent.

Muhammad Falak R Wani (mfrw) · 2026-08-04T05:39:05Z

Thank you for doing this !
Looking through the tar, there are a couple things that we should fix before merging:

The icon referenced by /etc/wsl-distribution.conf doesn't exist:
[shortcut]
enabled = true
icon = /usr/share/pixmaps/fedora-logo.ico # <= Not in the tar
The OOBE script references Fedora (I'm guessing because it's inspired from their OOBE script)

The manifest name doesn't match the distribution name in /etc/wsl-distribution.conf (AzureLinux-4 vs AzureLinux-4.0-BETA)
For these three, I think they can all be addressed by passing non-default values to the post-install script in the specfile. Azure Linux will need to carry a minor patch to the specfile to switch out the defaults, but that's also what RHEL and others are doing, as far as I am aware.

Some redundant system units are enabled by default.

Specifically:

systemd-vconsole-setup.service (WSL automatically configures a TTY on that device, and this will typically fail if multiple distros try to do this in parallel)

systemd-resolved.service (WSL owns the DNS and writes to /etc/resolv.conf)

systemd-networkd-* (WSL configures networking, distributions shouldn't need to make changes to adapter configuration)

getty@tty1.service This tty is essentially unreachable so I'd recommend not running it at all. This will also fail if another distro tries to do this as well

These I should mask out in Fedora as well, it sounds like (except systemd-networkd which Fedora doesn't use). My understanding is that Azure Linux rolls their own -release package so I'm not sure how much we can share there beyond being consistent.

Ack - let me work this for both AzureLinux and Fedora Both.
Thanks Jeremy Cline (@jeremycline) for the feedback.

Copilot AI review requested due to automatic review settings July 20, 2026 15:50

Muhammad Falak R Wani (mfrw) requested a review from a team as a code owner July 20, 2026 15:50

Copilot started reviewing on behalf of Muhammad Falak R Wani (mfrw) July 20, 2026 15:51 View session

Copilot AI reviewed Jul 20, 2026

View reviewed changes

jslobodzian approved these changes Jul 20, 2026

View reviewed changes

Copilot AI review requested due to automatic review settings July 20, 2026 17:58

Copilot started reviewing on behalf of Muhammad Falak R Wani (mfrw) July 20, 2026 17:59 View session

Copilot AI reviewed Jul 20, 2026

View reviewed changes

Comment thread distributions/DistributionInfo.json

Comment on lines +254 to +256

"Name": "AzureLinux-4.0-BETA",

"FriendlyName": "Azure Linux 4.0 (BETA)",

"Default": true,

Copilot AI review requested due to automatic review settings July 21, 2026 18:44

Muhammad Falak R Wani (mfrw) force-pushed the mfrw/azurelinux4 branch from 91105bd to 9bd5504 Compare July 21, 2026 18:44

Copilot started reviewing on behalf of Muhammad Falak R Wani (mfrw) July 21, 2026 18:44 View session

Copilot AI reviewed Jul 21, 2026

View reviewed changes

Craig Loewen (craigloewen-msft) requested changes Jul 22, 2026

View reviewed changes

Blue (OneBlue) requested changes Jul 22, 2026

View reviewed changes

Copilot AI review requested due to automatic review settings July 23, 2026 04:23

Muhammad Falak R Wani (mfrw) force-pushed the mfrw/azurelinux4 branch from 0bacaba to f124436 Compare July 23, 2026 04:24

Copilot started reviewing on behalf of Muhammad Falak R Wani (mfrw) July 23, 2026 04:24 View session

Copilot AI reviewed Jul 23, 2026

View reviewed changes

Copilot AI review requested due to automatic review settings July 24, 2026 02:54

Copilot started reviewing on behalf of Muhammad Falak R Wani (mfrw) July 24, 2026 02:56 View session

Copilot AI reviewed Jul 24, 2026

View reviewed changes

Ben Hillis (benhillis) requested changes Jul 24, 2026

View reviewed changes

Muhammad Falak R Wani (mfrw) commented Jul 27, 2026

View reviewed changes

Add AzureLinux official WSL image to the distribution manifest

78c2535

Signed-off-by: Muhammad Falak R Wani <falakreyaz@gmail.com>

Copilot AI review requested due to automatic review settings July 27, 2026 04:21

Muhammad Falak R Wani (mfrw) force-pushed the mfrw/azurelinux4 branch from d3dccae to 78c2535 Compare July 27, 2026 04:21

Copilot started reviewing on behalf of Muhammad Falak R Wani (mfrw) July 27, 2026 04:21 View session

Copilot AI reviewed Jul 27, 2026

View reviewed changes

Copilot AI review requested due to automatic review settings July 27, 2026 04:23

Copilot started reviewing on behalf of Muhammad Falak R Wani (mfrw) July 27, 2026 04:23 View session

Copilot AI reviewed Jul 27, 2026

View reviewed changes

Fix Line Endings

a10c7f2

Signed-off-by: Muhammad Falak R Wani <falakreyaz@gmail.com>

Copilot AI review requested due to automatic review settings July 27, 2026 04:28

Muhammad Falak R Wani (mfrw) force-pushed the mfrw/azurelinux4 branch from 28bdbb4 to a10c7f2 Compare July 27, 2026 04:28

Copilot started reviewing on behalf of Muhammad Falak R Wani (mfrw) July 27, 2026 04:29 View session

Copilot AI reviewed Jul 27, 2026

View reviewed changes

Craig Loewen (craigloewen-msft) mentioned this pull request Aug 4, 2026

Add Support For AzureLinux 4.0 #41182

Open

Uh oh!

Conversation

Muhammad Falak R Wani (mfrw) commented Jul 20, 2026 • edited Loading Uh oh! There was an error while loading. Please reload this page.

Uh oh!

Summary of the Pull Request

PR Checklist

Detailed Description of the Pull Request / Additional comments

Validation Steps Performed

Uh oh!

azure-pipelines Bot commented Jul 20, 2026

Uh oh!

Ben Hillis (benhillis) commented Jul 20, 2026

Uh oh!

azure-pipelines Bot commented Jul 20, 2026

Uh oh!

Copilot AI left a comment

Choose a reason for hiding this comment

Pull request overview

Uh oh!

Uh oh!

Ben Hillis (benhillis) commented Jul 20, 2026

Uh oh!

Muhammad Falak R Wani (mfrw) commented Jul 20, 2026

Uh oh!

Copilot AI left a comment

Choose a reason for hiding this comment

Pull request overview

Uh oh!

Ben Hillis (benhillis) commented Jul 20, 2026

Uh oh!

azure-pipelines Bot commented Jul 20, 2026

Uh oh!

Muhammad Falak R Wani (mfrw) commented Jul 21, 2026 • edited Loading Uh oh! There was an error while loading. Please reload this page.

Uh oh!

Uh oh!

Copilot AI left a comment

Choose a reason for hiding this comment

Pull request overview

Uh oh!

Craig Loewen (craigloewen-msft) commented Jul 22, 2026

Uh oh!

Craig Loewen (craigloewen-msft) left a comment

Choose a reason for hiding this comment

Uh oh!

Blue (OneBlue) left a comment

Choose a reason for hiding this comment

Uh oh!

Copilot AI left a comment

Choose a reason for hiding this comment

Pull request overview

Uh oh!

Muhammad Falak R Wani (mfrw) commented Jul 23, 2026

Uh oh!

Jim Perrin (jperrin) commented Jul 23, 2026

Uh oh!

Copilot AI left a comment

Choose a reason for hiding this comment

Pull request overview

Uh oh!

Ben Hillis (benhillis) commented Jul 24, 2026

Uh oh!

azure-pipelines Bot commented Jul 24, 2026

Uh oh!

Ben Hillis (benhillis) left a comment

Choose a reason for hiding this comment

Uh oh!

Muhammad Falak R Wani (mfrw) commented Jul 26, 2026

Uh oh!

Muhammad Falak R Wani (mfrw) left a comment

Choose a reason for hiding this comment

Uh oh!

Copilot AI left a comment

Choose a reason for hiding this comment

Pull request overview

Uh oh!

Copilot AI left a comment

Choose a reason for hiding this comment

Pull request overview

Uh oh!

Copilot AI left a comment

Muhammad Falak R Wani (mfrw) commented Jul 20, 2026 •

edited

Loading

Muhammad Falak R Wani (mfrw) commented Jul 21, 2026 •

edited

Loading