installing emby on Debian running on win 10 via WSL

[IntelChips 1]

Is this a bad idea and should be given up or is there fixes on how to get the dpkg to unpack without the init error?

[Luke 42078]

Hi, what init error are you referring to?

[IntelChips 1]

2 minutes ago, Luke said:

Hi, what init error are you referring to?

I'm trying to install emby-server on Debian 11 running on WSL2 and hitting the old System has not been booted with systemd as init system (PID 1) problem any suggestions?
 

[Luke 42078]

Hi, what problem is that? Can you please supply the full terminal output from when you tried to install? Thanks.

[IntelChips 1]

2 minutes ago, Luke said:

Hi, what problem is that? Can you please supply the full terminal output from when you tried to install? Thanks.

sudo dpkg -i emby-server-*.deb
(Reading database ... 15634 files and directories currently installed.)
Preparing to unpack emby-server-deb_4.6.7.0_amd64.deb ...
System has not been booted with systemd as init system (PID 1). Can't operate.
Failed to connect to bus: Host is down
Unpacking emby-server (4.6.7.0) over (4.6.7.0) ...
Setting up emby-server (4.6.7.0) ...
usermod: no changes
System has not been booted with systemd as init system (PID 1). Can't operate.
Failed to connect to bus: Host is down
dpkg: error processing package emby-server (--install):
 installed emby-server package post-installation script subprocess returned error exit status 1
Processing triggers for libc-bin (2.31-13+deb11u2) ...
Errors were encountered while processing:
 emby-server

[Luke 42078]

Are you not able to install systemd?

[IntelChips 1]

Just now, Luke said:

Are you not able to install systemd?

from my limited understanding when using WSL  systemd can't be installed or used There is many example of how to correct this problem when calling  systemd directly but not anything on when it is called by other cmds

 

[IntelChips 1]

7 minutes ago, IntelChips said:

from my limited understanding when using WSL  systemd can't be installed or used There is many example of how to correct this problem when calling  systemd directly but not anything on when it is called by other cmds

 

In nov 2010 this was being talked about: https://www.theregister.com/2021/11/17/ubuntu_team_systemd_windows_wsl2/

[IntelChips 1]

Just now, IntelChips said:

In nov 2010 this was being talked about: https://www.theregister.com/2021/11/17/ubuntu_team_systemd_windows_wsl2/

So, at this time I guess its back to virtual or build a native system

[roaku 842]

I just ran into this error. It would be cool if it were fixed.

[xjcrazed 2]

I came across this looking for information on running emby under WSL.  I figured I would complete some of these questions.

 

You can write your own init script and get this to work, here are two examples where people did just that:

https://emby.media/community/index.php?/topic/61826-debian-init-script-for-sysvinit-users

https://emby.media/community/index.php?/topic/78433-failed-emby-install-on-armhf/

 

As to the problem of no systemd in WSL distributions, this has now been rectified by Microsoft:

https://devblogs.microsoft.com/commandline/systemd-support-is-now-available-in-wsl/

 

However, either way after you have an emby install running under a WSL guest, you cannot communicate with it directly from other hosts on your network by default.  You can "port forward" from the host system to the WSL VM using this method:

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/wsl/networking

But, the port forward will only function until the next time WSL is restarted.  At that time the virtual switch environment and DHCP address of the WSL VM will change and the port forward will have to be set up again.  This can be scripted using this method:

https://superuser.com/questions/1582234/make-ip-address-of-wsl2-static

Or, there is one option for a static setup further down in the responses.  Another possibility for a static setup is here:

https://gist.github.com/wllmsash/1636b86eed45e4024fb9b7ecd25378ce

 

Then you need to configure the emby server on the WSL VM to auto-start when the host computer is rebooted:

https://superuser.com/questions/1343558/how-to-make-wsl-run-services-at-startup

 

Ultimately, since WSL leverages Hyper-V anyway, and setting up a linux VM under Hyper-V, or just running emby directly on windows is way less complicated, I think most should avoid this implementation.

 

Rob