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Install-Singularity-on-WSL.md

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Install Singularity on WSL

preface

🧐 What is Singularity

When we do high performance computing (HPC) on cluster, the corresponding running environment should also be uploaded. In the other words, the programs should work in a specific container. Luckily, Singlularity is just doing this. It's a platform that can load various containers. Plus, Singularity is mainly used on Linux system. But personally I prefer to Windows system, in order to run programs on Linux, Windows Subsystem Linux (WSL) is a good choise.

Thus, this note records the installation of Singularity on WSL. flowchart

Installation

  • step 1 -> Start: open terminal of WSL
  • step 2 -> install Singularity: official user guide or more simple one Tutorial
    • update packages
    • install Go language
    • install Singularity

Test

  • step 3 -> pull a container: sudo singularity -d build --sandbox sandbox_anaconda/ docker://bitnami/python:3.9
  • step 4 -> run: sudo singularity shell --writable sandbox_gate/
  • step 5 -> install libraries: apt-get update; apt install -y vim; pip install opengate
  • step 6 -> install missing libraries e.g. apt-get update && apt-get install ffmpeg libsm6 libxext6 -y
  • step 7 -> Test: python; import opengate
  • step 8 -> Build the container into image: sudo singularity build conda_single.sif sandbox_gate/

⚠️ In step 5, before installing opengate or a library, I create a conda environment via conda create -n mc python=3.9, this can prevent from being affected by other complicated settings. To make the mc environment as default, change the ~/.bashrc, add a line conda activate mc or export PATH="/opt/conda/envs/mc/bin:$PATH" , then source ~/.bashrc to make it into effect.

Usage

  • Bind a path:
    sudo singularity run -B /home2/jzhang/python_code/DeepRT/ conda_single.sif
    python3 main.py

  • Alternative way:
    cd /home2/jzhang/python_code/DeepRT/
    singularity exec /home2/jzhang/tensorflow_single.sif bash -c "python3 main.py"

  • with GPU support:
    srun singularity exec --nv /home/jzhang/image_torch.sif python3 main.py on cluster

Singularity container with tensorflow/pytorch GPU

Step 0: Make sure nvidia-smi worked after installing the NVIDIA GPU driver

Every CUDA toolkit also ships with an NVIDIA display driver package for convenience. This driver supports all the features introduced in that version of the CUDA Toolkit. Nvidia official guide

Step 1: Download container, build it into sandbox

sudo singularity -d build --sandbox sandbox_tensorflow docker://tensorflow/tensorflow:tags
sudo singularity -d build --sandbox sandbox_torch docker://pytorch/pytorch:tags

👉 Note: the tags depends on own requests, see DockerHub:
https://hub.docker.com/r/tensorflow/tensorflow/tags
https://hub.docker.com/r/pytorch/pytorch/tags

Step 2: Install specific Python libraries in sandbox

sudo singularity build --sandbox image_name/ image_name.sif Convert a singularity image to a sandbox folder with superuser privileges
sudo singularity shell --writable sandbox_tensorflow/ Shell writable to image_name
sudo singularity shell --writable sandbox_torch/

pip install libname
test:
python
import libname

👽 a strange finding-> ✨a sandbox is not necessary!

singularity run image.sif
pip install libname

⚠️ in this case, the libs are installed in local path, e.g. '/home2/jzhang/.local/bin', not in .sif file.

Step 3: Build sandbox into image file

sudo singularity build image_tensorflow.sif sandbox_tensorflow/
sudo singularity build image_torch.sif sandbox_torch/

Step 4: Run python file in image file

  • on the cluster srun singularity exec --nv /home/jzhang/image_tensorflow.sif python3 test.py shell example, run sbatch test.sh
  • on the local machine sudo singularity exec --nv /home/jzhang/image_torch.sif python3 test.py

test.py

# import torch

# print(torch.__version__)
# print(torch.cuda.is_available())
# print(torch.cuda.device_count())
# print(torch.cuda.device(0))
# print(torch.cuda.current_device())
# print(torch.cuda.get_device_name(0))

import tensorflow as tf 

print(tf.__version__)
print(tf.test.is_gpu_available())
print(tf.config.list_physical_devices('GPU'))

Reference

🌈 Addendum: Migrating from Singularity to Apptainer (post-2021)

🔄 Why the name change?

Since 2021, the Singularity project has been officially transferred to the Linux Foundation and renamed Apptainer, ensuring open governance and broader community engagement.

✅ Compatibility

  • apptainer command is 100% compatible with previous singularity syntax.
  • .sif images remain fully usable.
  • To maintain backward compatibility, you can use symlinks.

🛠️ Apptainer installation steps (Ubuntu/WSL)

sudo apt update && sudo apt install -y \
    build-essential \
    libseccomp-dev \
    pkg-config \
    squashfs-tools \
    cryptsetup \
    curl \
    git \
    uidmap \
    gnupg \
    lsb-release

wget https://go.dev/dl/go1.21.0.linux-amd64.tar.gz
sudo tar -C /usr/local -xzf go1.21.0.linux-amd64.tar.gz
export PATH=$PATH:/usr/local/go/bin

git clone https://github.com/apptainer/apptainer.git
cd apptainer
./mconfig
make -C builddir
sudo make -C builddir install

apptainer --version

🧩 Optional: Compatibility symlink

sudo ln -s /usr/local/bin/apptainer /usr/local/bin/singularity

🔗 Official resources