Installing on Windows with WSL2

this guide has been tested on windows 10 (22h2) and windows 11 install windows subsystem for linux (wsl) remember to run powershell in administrator mode either by right clicking and selecting run as administrator or by typing powershell in run dialog box of windows and pressing ctrl+shift+enter key combination install ubuntu distribution of linux with one of these options wsl install distribution ubuntu follow the wsl installation guide https //learn microsoft com/en us/windows/wsl/installhow to install wsl in windows 11 https //pureinfotech com/install wsl windows 11/manual installation steps for wsl https //learn microsoft com/en us/windows/wsl/install manual once wsl is installed, make sure to set up your linux username and password https //learn microsoft com/en us/windows/wsl/setup/environment#set up your linux username and passwordupdate and upgrade packages https //learn microsoft com/en us/windows/wsl/setup/environment#update and upgrade packages verify the ubuntu distribution with the command lsb release a you can verify your wsl/ubuntu installation by executing this command in powershell wsl l v install docker desktop install docker desktop with the wsl 2 backend you can find the instructions here https //docs docker com/desktop/install/windows install/ make sure to enable your wsl distribution once docker desktop is installed and running you can do so from docker desktop app by visiting settings > resources > wsl integration enable integration with ubuntu, and make sure to hit apply & restart docker desktop wsl distro install node if node is not already installed on your machine (check with node version ) , you can do so by first installing nvm and then installing node with nvm important make sure that the commands in this section are run inside ubuntu wsl to ensure that this is the case, there are two options launch wsl manually run powershell in administrator mode and run ubuntu using the command wsl after logging in to ubuntu, run the command cd / open your application menu and search for ubuntu terminal to install nvm , run the following commands in your wsl ubuntu terminal curl https //raw\ githubusercontent com/creationix/nvm/master/install sh | bash source / profile export nvm dir="$home/ nvm" \[ s "$nvm dir/nvm sh" ] && \\ "$nvm dir/nvm sh" # this loads nvm \[ s "$nvm dir/bash completion" ] && \\ "$nvm dir/bash completion" # this loads nvm bash completion verify that nvm was installed correctly by using the command nvm version afterwards, install node 22 with nvm install 22 you can verify your node version with the command node version install python 3 if python 3 ( pip3 version ) is not already installed on your device, you can do so by running following commands from your ubuntu terminal sudo apt get update y sudo apt get install y python3 pip you can verify that python3 is installed correctly with the command python3 version install make if make ( make version ) is not already installed on your device, you can do so by running following commands from your ubuntu terminal sudo apt get update y sudo apt get install y build essential you can verify that make is installed correctly with the command make version clone ir engine repo to your local machine clone ir engine repo on your machine by running the following command from your wsl ubuntu terminal git clone https //github com/ir engine/ir engine depth 1 warning adding depth=1 will significantly reduce the amount of data downloaded when cloning, but it will also create a shallow copy of the engine's repository if you need to download any branch other than dev , or go back in git history into an older commit, you will have to unshallow the repository first, or else any branches and older commits won't be accessible the command to undo cloning with depth=n is either git fetch unshallow or git pull unshallow change directory to the location where ir engine repository is cloned with pwd # prints the current working directory cd ir engine # change directory to `ir engine` if an env local file does not exist in the root of your ir engine repository folder, then create it by duplicating the env local default file cp env local default env local afterwards, install npm packages with npm install note if you find issues related to mediasoup when running npm install , then remove the mediasoup package from packages/instanceserver/package json file of ir engine's source code run npm install again run npm install mediasoup\@3 w @ir engine/packages/instanceserver initialize mariadb server you will need to initialize the engine's database with tables and data if you are running the engine for the first time you can do so with npm run dev reinit start the engine run the ir engine's stack with npm run dev if everything went well, you will now be able to open ir engine in your browser by navigating to https //localhost 3000/location/default https //localhost 3000/location/default accept certificates when accessing the ir engine for the first time, browsers block access due to self signed certificates this prevents you from accessing the admin panel and the editor to bypass this, manually accept the certificates open developer tools chrome/edge click the three dot menu → more tools → developer tools shortcut press ctrl+shift+i or f12 navigate to the console tab identify certificate related errors check for network request errors related to websocket connections ( wss\ // urls) https requests to localhost the following addresses require certificate approval https //localhost 3030 – api server https //localhost 8642 – file server bypass the security warning open these urls directly in your browser https //localhost 3030 https //localhost 8642 https //localhost 8642 https //localhost 8642 a "your connection is not private" warning appears click advanced → proceed to localhost (unsafe) reload the engine’s website why bypassing security warnings? browsers block connections to self signed certificates by default to protect users from potentially unsafe sites for local development, it's safe to bypass these warnings, but only if you trust the source—like your own machine or your team's local environment once completed, the ir engine will be fully accessible 🚀 note you will be able to create signed certificates to replace the default ones when you deploy your own ir engine stack