Nightly Build on WSL 2?

Neovim
1

Has anyone had success getting the nightly build to run on WSL 2? I am using Ubuntu 20.10. I have downloaded the nvim.appimage from the nightly url and when I try to extract it I get an error that I don’t have permission. So when I try and run it with sudo, sudo ./nvim.appimage --appimage-extract, I get the error ./nvim.appimage : 1: Not: not found

2

If you can’t get it to work, here are my notes on installing form source on linux (I use wsl2 and this is how I update)

# INSTALL NEOVIM:
================
//https://github.com/neovim/neovim/wiki/Building-Neovim#build-prerequisites
//https://github.com/neovim/neovim/wiki/Installing-Neovim#install-from-source
sudo apt update -y
sudo apt install -y ninja-build gettext libtool libtool-bin autoconf automake cmake g++ pkg-config unzip
cd; mkdir clones; cd clones; git clone https://github.com/neovim/neovim.git; cd neovim
git tag
git checkout tags/desired_version_number -b tagName-branch
(or just use master for latest)
rm -rf build
make CMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Release
sudo make install
git branch -D tagName-branch

# UNINSTALL NEOVIM:
===================
sudo rm /usr/local/bin/nvim
sudo rm -r /usr/local/share/nvim/
2 Likes
3

Thanks for the response! I am going to give this a shot now. How do you handle having multiple versions installed? I have v0.4.4 installed via apt, so I am just curious if you uninstalled older version entirely or if you have them installed side by side in some way.

4

i only have my built version installed

5

Have you made the appimage executable (chmod +x ./nvim.appimage)?

6

You can have multiple neovims installed side by side, just make sure
that the one you want to use by default is first in your PATH
environment variable.

7

Did you set exexutable permission on the appimage chmod +x nvim.appimage . Also what cpu architacture are you using I beleave the appimage was made for x86 If you’re using something different it wonn’t work . You can always compile from source

8

yes I did change the permissions to make it executable, which is why I was confused by this outcome.

9

Installing from source worked! Thank you for your post :slight_smile: I just need to sort out my path now to make sure I am using the correct version. I might just delete or rename my 0.4.4 install so that the nightly build will get picked up instead. I was curious though, how often do you update your 0.5 install if you build it from source?

10

i update maybe once every 2+ months? not sure. before you update just note the commit hash in git log so you can checkout that hash as a branch if the latest master or whatever youre building breaks something in your setup.

11

That is really good advice! I know that the nightly build is technically an unstable branch, have you had any like catastrophic issues or has it been relatively stable enough for your daily work?

12

I had the same problem on WSL.

The trick that worked for me is to not unpack the appimage but execute it directly

./nvim.appimage

Be aware, that you have to install the fuse package.

For more information, you can read packaging - What is an "AppImage"? How do I install it? - Ask Ubuntu

13

ive never had issues yet