Using Marp over WSL (Windows Subsystem for Linux)

[yhatt]

If you are trying to use Marp through WSL (Windows Subsystem for Linux), you might met some trouble.

I hope this post helps troubleshooting for WSL users, and feedbacks are welcome!

Summary

• WSL1: No actions should need. 🙌
• WSL2: Install a compatible browser to Linux, or turn on mirrored mode networking.

WSL1

For PDF/PPTX/image conversion, Marp over WSL1 will try to spawn Chrome (or Chromium-flavored browser Marp has supported) that has installed to Windows.

In the most case, your Windows has pre-installed the compatible Edge browser so no actions should need. 🙌

If you want to use Linux browser for some reason (e.g. render the text with fonts installed in Linux), you should specify a path to the browser binary manually.

WSL2

WSL2 is working with the virtualized environment unlike WSL1 and Windows and WSL Linux are not sharing local network. So Marp working on Linux cannot connect with the spawned browser in Windows.

Install a compatible browser into Linux

Follow https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/wsl/tutorials/gui-apps#install-google-chrome-for-linux to install Google Chrome into your Linux.

After install the browser, Marp just should work! 🙌

Turn on mirrored mode networking (Marp CLI v4 and later)

If you want to use Windows browser when converting, you have to set up WSL to use mirrored mode networking. Put %USERPROFILE%\.wslconfig as following:

# %USERPROFILE%\.wslconfig
[wsl2]
networkingMode=mirrored

To apply changes, you may have to run wsl --shutdown and re-launch WSL. After than, Marp CLI on WSL 2 should be able to detect the browser from Windows automatically if there are no compatible browsers on Linux.

Tips: Set the path to browser executable explicitly

Marp CLI

Set --browser-path option.

marp --browser-path /usr/bin/chromium-browser --pdf markdown.md

Marp for VS Code + WSL extension

Open extension settings, and set the path to executable in "Markdown > Marp: Chrome Path" (markdown.marp.chromePath).

[AramLR]

You don't need to set CHROME_PATh to a browser installed with WSL, you can use /mnt/c to access windows files and then access a browser installed in your computer.