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Kiro WSL AWS Setup Guide

Install Ubuntu

Open PowerShell as Administrator.

List Available Distributions

Section titled “List Available Distributions”
Terminal window
wsl --list --online

Expected: A table listing available distros. Look for Ubuntu-26.04 or Ubuntu-24.04.

Install Ubuntu

Section titled “Install Ubuntu”

Preferred (Ubuntu 26.04 LTS):

Terminal window
wsl --install -d Ubuntu-26.04

If Ubuntu-26.04 is not in the list:

Terminal window
wsl --install -d Ubuntu-24.04

What happens next:

  1. Windows may show: “Windows Subsystem for Linux must be updated…” → run wsl --update, restart if asked, retry
  2. Windows may show: “Press any key to install Windows Subsystem for Linux” → press any key to continue
  3. Download and install progress appears — wait until it finishes (several minutes)
  4. A terminal window opens automatically for first-time setup (User Creation)

Note: Ubuntu 24.04 works with this guide if 26.04 is unavailable.

Alternative — install from file (if wsl --install -d fails):

Terminal window
curl.exe -LO https://releases.ubuntu.com/26.04/ubuntu-26.04-wsl-amd64.wsl
wsl --install --from-file .\ubuntu-26.04-wsl-amd64.wsl --name Ubuntu-26.04

Warning: Manual .wsl imports may land you in a root shell without the user creation prompts. If this happens, create a default user by adding the following to /etc/wsl.conf inside the distro, then restart it with wsl --shutdown:

[user]
default=devuser

You will also need to create the user manually: adduser devuser && usermod -aG sudo devuser. The wsl --install -d method above is strongly preferred as it handles this automatically.