PKC on Windows Platform

The first and foremost problem with Windows is its file/directory names and permissions are different from UNIX-based operating systems. Therefore, there will be many hiccups. To avoid these problems, one can following the following instruction to install PKC on Windows:

1. Install Docker for Window: Docker for Windows Installation
   1. If you are running Windows 10 Professional Edition, you may use the following installation file: Download InstallDocker.msi
2. Make sure that Docker-compose is installed and launch Docker Desktop
   1. Try the following command to make sure your Docker Desktop is running: docker run hello-world
3. Make sure that docker-compose is installed:

docker-compose --version

It is common to find the Installation of Dockers on Windows causing various mysterious problems, they can be found here:

Tips for Installing Dockers on Windows

Since PKC is designed around Linux-based containerization technology, which means that it will have many incompatibilities with Windows inherently. There are some tips that we captured here:

Consult the System Administrator of the Computer

Some system administrators will block users from installing WSL2.0. If this is the case, the Windows operating system needs to be reinstalled to avoid that blocking. See Windows WSL Troubleshooting and this webpage.

Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL) Update

After installing Docker Desktop, Windows 10 will often ask for the installation of WSL update. Please follow the wizard, and install the update accordingly.

VPN Software Interfering with WSL

Under Windows 10 Environment, some VPN software might interfere with Docker's Windows Subsystem for Linux, a.k.a. Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL), you will need to remove the interfering VPN software before installing Docker. Please note that not all VPN software interferes with WSL. In case you don't want to remove your VPN software, or your Docker and Bash have compatibility issues, please try the following solution:Installing VirtualBox for PKC.

Choosing adequate directories

Mitch Altman identified the following scenarios for PKC installation on Windows 10, which indicate that Windows users will face many unexpected problems during installation, the following lists are some important ones. Make sure that you don't pick a directory outside of your usual Users/Documents directory. If you choose some directories outside of your User/Documents directory, it is possible that certain batch script commands will stop to work, due to file right access authority issues.

GNU TAR might not work

Mitch also found that tar command may not work on certain machines. To ensure that PKC will install smoothly on Windows 10 machines, we put an .exe (Windows executable) file unzip.exe in the PKC/resources directory. We also made sure that a initial data package, namely mountPoint.zip is included in the resources directory, so that the up.bat script will be able to conduct the automatic installation and initial launch process completely.

Related Pages

• PKC DevOps