Windows10 Linux Pass

[annejan]

Let's see if this works or needs some love . .

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[annejan]

Exploration, first step: https://tutorials.ubuntu.com/tutorial/tutorial-ubuntu-on-windows

Funniest thing I noticed . . you can sudo apt install qtpass on Ubuntu on Windows ;) I did not do this (yet) . .

wsl support seems good, will add wsl and wsl-app detection to the Autodetect feature . .

[christian-weiss]

Are there news on this?

I guess "WSL"-based or "Git for Windows => git bash"-based integration is for advanced users. As "WSL" documentation says on nearly every page "this is for developers", and as "PowerShell" documentation says "this is for system administrators" someone may be scared (enabling of PowerShell required, enabling of WSL support, reboot, installing Ubuntu form Microsoft Store, etc.). While "Git for Windows" may be feel more like "installing an app" (feels simple). But lets see, which is easyer to integrate... Personally i like the idea of using WSL, but i also have to dig deeper...

[christian-weiss]

I created a basic wrapper script (windows batch file): https://gist.github.com/christian-weiss/34c3f8f0e27ab26c0138f5b1e286b2b1 which is based on my wrapper for "git bash" (Git for Windows). Tested on Windows 10. This is just a starting point for further experiments.

It required some preparation steps (see below). But lets focus first on my findings:

Findings for the wrapper script

Debugging is hard.

Host System:

• A personal firewall (e.g. Comodo Firewall) may block some statements or at least throttle down some statements, even if you disabled "every" firewall feature.
• You may be forced to turnoff/shutdown/uninstall your firewall.
• Check your Task Manager to ensure that all bash processes are successfully finished/closed before doing new calls.

Windows Batch files are not fun to work with:

• Windows is blocking execution of your batch script if that script is located on your Desktop or directly on D:\ (for that reason i put it into QtPass programm dir)
• Windows is blocking your batch script from executing bash.exe on original path of bash.exe. (for that reason i copied it to: %APPDATA%\WSL\bash.exe)
• You may not see output when a statement failes due to filesystem / drive letter uppercase/lowercase.
• Assigning process output to a batch variable (cmd.exe) is not an easy one-liner.
• Making a string lowercase is not a one-liner in a batch script. Etc.

Ubuntu Bash:

• Pipe in a "bash.exe -c" statement is not always working. E.g. "awk" do not get piped input.
• If one command produces an interactive dialog (e.g. "pass git pull" when host key is not jet confirmed), then you do not see the question and bash process will wait forever, you only get the output when it has finished. To avoid having "endless waiting bash processes" you should prefix your command with "timeout --preserve-status 30s". If you see "Terminated" in the output, then you probably ran into an interactive dialog..

Findings for QtPass

A QtPass dialog should warn when bash-process is not finished after 30 seconds - ask for "kill bash" or "wait again 30 seconds". Do not close QtPass when bash-process is still running - show dialog: ask "kill bash" or "wait again 30 seconds". QtPass, in general, should have a timeout implemented when executing "pass".

Preparation steps

Within WSL:

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install pass
pass --version
# should be version 1.7.1 on Ubuntu 18.04 

# To make drive letters available in upper and lower case run:
sudo ln -s c C
sudo ln -s d D
# etc. for all your drive letters
# this avoids to do lowercase conversions in your win-batch files

#configure git:
git config --global user.email "christian.weiss@web-impressions.de"
git config --global user.name "Christian Weiss"

# configure ssh to accept your git repo servers:
# (replace "gitlab.fritz.box" with URL to your password store repo server)
ssh-keyscan gitlab.fritz.box >> ~/.ssh/known_hosts

configure ssh auth create the file ~/.ssh/config with following content

Host gitlab gitlab.fritz.box
    Hostname gitlab.fritz.box
    Port 22
    User git
    IdentityFile ~/.ssh/gitlab

copy your privat ssh key file to ~/.ssh/gitlab set permissions

chmod 0600 ~/.ssh/config
chmod 0600 ~/.ssh/gitlab

Within cmd.exe (on your host system):

because you can not execute it directly from C:\Windows\System32\bash.exe

copy C:\Windows\System32\bash.exe %APPDATA%\WSL\bash.exe

If you want to copy it to a different location then do not forget to set BASH_CUSTOM_PATH environment variable (system variable).

In your password store directory (to not commit your debug log):

echo "pass_wsl_wrapper.log" >> .gitignore
git add .gitignore
git commit -m "ignore qtpass wrapper for WSL log file"
git push

[minikN]

Sorry, is this even remotely working with WSL?

I installed the latest binary for windows, when I start it, I get a message I should install Ubuntu using WSL. I did, I also installed gpg in it, but I'm getting the same message every time. Where to go from here?

[christian-weiss]

@minikN please check your log file (pass_wsl_wrapper.log) for BASH_PATH. I guess the bash.exe from git for wirndows is not installed, blocked by your windows/firewall or your BASH_CUSTOM_PATH is not set or not correct, or QtPass was not restarted after setting this system var.