WSL2#

WSL2 (Windows Subsystem for Linux 2) gives you a real Linux kernel on Windows. Running SnowLuma's Linux container inside it is the alternative route when you don't want native Windows QQ.

This page covers: install WSL2, get Docker running one of two ways, then start the canonical SnowLuma container.

1. Install WSL2#

Open PowerShell as administrator and run:

wsl --install

This installs WSL2 plus the default Ubuntu distro. Reboot; on reboot Ubuntu starts for the first time and asks you to create a Linux username and password.

Confirm the version is 2:

wsl -l -v
# the VERSION column should read 2
wsl --set-default-version 2

Current Ubuntu-on-WSL ships with systemd enabled.

Official docs: https://learn.microsoft.com/windows/wsl/install

2. Get Docker into WSL2 (pick one — don't do both)#

Route A: Docker Desktop's WSL integration (recommended)#

After installing Docker Desktop, go to Settings → Resources → WSL Integration and enable integration for your Ubuntu distro. Then the docker command works directly in the Ubuntu terminal, with the engine running on the Docker Desktop side. For install and system requirements, see Windows · Docker Desktop.

Official docs: https://docs.docker.com/desktop/features/wsl/

Route B: Native Docker Engine inside the distro#

If you'd rather not install Docker Desktop, install native Docker Engine directly inside the Ubuntu distro. For the official apt repo (deb822 docker.sources format), see https://docs.docker.com/engine/install/ubuntu/.

For local / dev use only, the convenience script also works:

curl -fsSL https://get.docker.com | sudo sh
sudo usermod -aG docker $USER

After adding yourself to the group you must reopen the terminal for it to take effect. Start Docker:

# distros with systemd enabled:
sudo systemctl start docker
sudo systemctl enable docker

# older setups without systemd:
sudo service docker start

3. Run the SnowLuma container#

With Docker ready, run the exact same command from the canonical Docker page in the Ubuntu terminal:

docker run -d \
  --name snowluma \
  --restart unless-stopped \
  --shm-size=1g \
  --cap-add=SYS_PTRACE \
  --security-opt seccomp=unconfined \
  -e VNC_PASSWD=vncpasswd \
  -p 5900:5900 \
  -p 6081:6081 \
  -p 5099:5099 \
  -p 3000:3000 \
  -p 3001:3001 \
  -v snowluma-data:/app/snowluma-data \
  -v snowluma-qq-config:/app/.config \
  -v snowluma-qq-data:/app/.local/share \
  motricseven7/snowluma:latest

The full reference — Compose, env vars, volumes, multi-account, first login — all lives in Docker (Linux) deployment and is not repeated here.

4. Accessing ports from Windows#

WSL2 forwards container-listened ports to the Windows localhost by default, so you can use localhost directly in a Windows browser:

Alternatively: the Linux-manual flow inside WSL2#

WSL2 is, after all, a Linux environment, so in principle you could run SnowLuma the Linux-manual way without Docker (bring up Xvfb / VNC / noVNC yourself, install linuxqq, grant node the ptrace capability, etc.). But that's clearly more involved — Docker is simpler — so this page recommends the container route.

Where to go next#

• Docker (Linux) deployment — the full container reference.
• Windows · Docker Desktop — use Docker Desktop instead of an in-distro Engine.
• Windows (manual) — to run native Windows QQ instead of the container's Linux QQ.