Virtual Machine Alternative

Step 1

The First step is to go and visit the official Microsoft Visual Studio wesbite and install the latest Visual Studio code. Since this is for Windows, the standard Windows version x64 was selected. Click on the link and let it download. Once it has downloaded, click on the .exe file to begin Installation.

Step 2

This is what the start of the installation will look like. Accept all terms and conditions.

Step 3

Select a place to install in your PC.

Step 4

Make sure the bottom two checkboxes are selected.

Step 5

Microsoft Visual Studio Code will begin to Install.

Step 6

Once Installed Click Finish.

Step 7

When VSC (Visual Studio Code) opens, this is what the home interface will be.

NOTE: the theme might differ.

Step 8

Now Navigate to the Microsoft Store

Step 9

In the search bar, type in UBUNTU and hit enter. You will see a list of different UBUNTU softwares to download

Step 10

Choose the Latest one. In this case Ubuntu 22.04.2 LTS

Step 11

Hit Get and let it install

Step 12

Once Installed Click Open.

Step 13

When you first open it, you may encounter this error, where it says that "The Windows Subsystem for Linux has not been enabled" This is normal. The following steps show how to resolve it.

Step 14

Press the Windows key and search "Turn Windows Features on or off." Click on the first result and it should take you to this window.

Step 15

In this window, check the following Boxes: "Virtual Machine Platform", "Windows HyperVisor Platform" and "Windows Subsystem for Linux". Please note this was done on a PC running an Intel Processor. This may look different for those running an AMD processor. Never the less, make sure that the virtual machine and windows subsystem for linux is checked. Once all selected, hit ok.

Step 16

It will start to install.

Step 17

Once Installed it will ask to restart. Make sure if any work is being done that it is saved. Then click "Restart Now".

Step 18

Once Rebooted, go back into Ubuntu. This time the message should be different and it will say that it is installing. This will take several minutes so DO NOT close the window or shut off your PC

Step 19

Once it is Installed it will ask you to create a UNIX Username. It is case sensitve as well so make it all lowercase

Step 20

Like this. Now it will ask you for a password. Now it is very important that you make it something you remember or else resetting it is a pain. It is a hidden Password, i.e when you type it in, you cant see what you typed. So make sure to make it as simple and easy to remember as possible.

Step 21

Like this. Now retype it.

Step 22

Give it a few minutes and you will be greeted by a Success message and a screen similar to this. This means installation was successful and we can move forward.

Step 23

Now to Install the C Compiler, known as gcc, run the following command:

sudo apt update && sudo apt install build-essential

Step 24

For any command using the sudo keyword, it will ask you for your password. Type it in and hit enter

Step 25

It will start installing and depending on your internet connection, it may take a while.

Step 26

It will ask you if you want to continue, type in "y" and hit enter and it will install the files and dependencies. Again, this may take time as it depends on your internet connection.

Step 27

As shown here.

Step 28

Once done, it will stop and have the prompt to add a command.

Step 29

type "clear" and press enter. This will clear the terminal. Then type "gcc --version and hit enter. It should show the version of gcc installed.

Step 30

Now exit out of Ubuntu and open VSC.

Step 31

To test this works, I created a file called test.c

Step 32

Then, click on the extensions tab on the left handside and search for C/C++ Extension Pack This should also show as a prompt in the bottom left hand corner of the last step.

Step 33

Install it.

Step 34

Now we will set WSL as our default terminal. Go to:

View > Command Pallete (Ctrl + Shift + P)

Step 35

In the Search box, type in:

Terminal: Select Default Profile

Step 36

VSC should automatically recognise Ubuntu. Click on it

Step 37

To check that Ubuntu is our default terminal click on:

Terminal > New Terminal

Step 38

You should see the terminal open at the bottom which is now the Ubuntu terminal set as default

Step 39

Now back in the extenstions tab, find the WSL extension and install it.

Step 40

Once installed, create a file here named test.c and i wrote a simple program that outputs Hello World to the terminal. However we have errors.

Step 41

To fix those erros, we need to download the compiler for it. Although installing Ubuntu with the sudo command installed gcc, vscode cant find the path. So, go to this website to download MSYS2. Click on the link to download the installer.

Step 42

Once downloaded, run the installer.

Step 43

Select your installation folder.

Step 44

Just click next

Step 45

Let it install.

Step 46

Once installed, click finish.

Step 47

When the terminal for MSYS2 opens, it will look like this

Step 48

Type in the following command in the terminal window:

pacman -S --needed base-devel mingw-w64-x86_64-toolchain

Step 49

It will give you a selection. Just press enter.

Step 50

Type in y and press enter

Step 51

Once it is installed, you will know when it asks for more prompts

Step 52

Go to the directory where you installed MSYS. For this machine it was in C drive > msys64

Step 53

msys64 > mingw64

Step 54

mingw64 > bin

Step 55

Here is where the gcc executable lies.

Step 56

Copy the directory

Step 57

Once you have copied the directory, go back to the extensions page in VSC and click on its setting

Step 58

Scroll down until you find C_CPP: Default Compiler and paste in your directory. After the \bin, add gcc.exe as shown in the screenshot. This will now set your default compiler

Step 59

Next step is to add it into your PATH in your machine. Click on the Windows button, and type in edit environment variables. The window should look similar to the screeshot. Click on PATH and then the Edit button

Step 60

Click new.

Step 61

Add your copied directory but without the gcc.exe bit.

Step 62

Now back to VScode, and you can see the error has gone. I created another program called main.c that just outputs Hello World and an addition of 2 numbers. To run it, in the terminal type in:

gcc -ansi -pedantic -Wall -Werror main.c -o main

Now note this will be different to you. you can name your file whatever with a .c extension and just replace main.c with that file name. This compilation will be covered more in the Unit COMP1000 - Unix and C Programming

Step 63

Once Compiled, run the program by typing:

./main

And it should output whats shown on the screenshot.