Automount vhdx disk images via [automount] settings .wslconfig , wsl.conf

[nkrepo]

There is a need to easily automount vhdx virtual disk images in WSL2 every time WSL2 is booted.
Now vhdx can be easily mounted in a WSL2 distro, but only after WSL2 has started and it required to be re-mounted every time WSL2 is rebooted.
Various automation scripts and hacks exist to achieve that, but they are not 100% reliable and not elegant.

The proposed solution is to add the ability to mount a vhdx by specifying the image alongside with the mount options in the [automount] section of .wslconfig, wsl.conf every time the WSL2 is booted.

[github-actions]

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[Neo-Desktop]

I second this.

My current solution is to run the following script (as administrator) any time my development machine reboots

wsl --shutdown; wsl -d Ubuntu --mount --vhd D:\projects\projects.vhdx --bare ; wsl -d Ubuntu /bin/bash -c 'sleep 2 && exit'

I simply wish wsl2 had more options for the powerusers it's supposed to cater to. There is a lot of hand-wavey stuff going on with wsl2 (especially with regards to networking) and it would be nice to customize it for our use-cases without kludges.

[omarmciver]

I created this gist that shows show to create, mount, and persist additional VHDX drives for WSL2 even after Windows restart AND wsl --shutdown events.

https://gist.github.com/omarmciver/0c85f5a68448aa6c94fee381e5fdbe9b

[ww9rivers]

I support this request. At the moment, the only reliable method seems to be manually mount a VHDX image. On my managed workstation, I have to manually acquire the privilege to do that.

[xuanswe]

Please support this request.
I think this feature is important because many developers now need to keep data/code inside a separate vhdx when they work with vscode remote, wsl or devcontainer.

[Yu-yu0202]

I support this

[MassimoRovitti]

I support this as well. The need for external scripts requires additional work and privileges which are not available in certain scenarios.

[sbelikov]

I run a multi-VHD setup for my development environment to separate my Docker volumes from my root OS. Currently, the lack of native persistent mounting forces me to use fragile PowerShell startup scripts or modify my Windows Terminal JSON profiles, which frequently break during system updates. Having native support in .wslconfig would make enterprise workspace automation significantly cleaner.