Setting up the Ubuntu Terminal

Now, you can launch the newly installed Ubuntu application. This will open a terminal not too unlike the Windows Command Line. After some final automatic Ubuntu installation, you will be prompted to create a user account to use with WSL. Enter any username you want as the UNIX username. Once this is entered, you will next need to create a password.

IMPORTANT: You will not be able to see this password as you type it - there will be no visual feedback whatsoever, not even star characters.

Make sure that this password is as secure and memorable as any other password you use online. Write it down somewhere, such as in a password manager. If you use a password manager to generate the password and need to paste it in, you will need to right click in the Ubuntu terminal window to paste it. In Ubuntu, CTRL+V will not work for pasting.

^{todo: get a screenshot for this that isn't stolen from Rovert's tutorial}

You will now have access to the full Ubuntu terminal, but there are still some more preliminary steps you will need to do to finish setting it up.

First, enter the command sudo apt update into the terminal. (You can paste this into the terminal in the same way as before: by right clicking.) As this is an administrative ("sudo", or "superuser do") command, you will be prompted for the password that you previously entered, which can be typed or pasted (still with no visual feedback). This will now update Ubuntu to the latest version.

Next, enter the command sudo apt upgrade. (You will not need to enter your password again, as you just entered it before.) This command will upgrade any built-in packages that came with Ubuntu, such as Python. After it gathers information about these packages, you will be prompted with Do you want to continue? [Y/n]; simply enter y. After downloading and installing these, WSL itself will now be fully set up.

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