Skip to main content

Windows Host Notes

Use this guide when your host machine is Windows 11 and you want to run Neat SDK with DevKit-Sync.

Prerequisites​

  • Windows 11 host.
  • WSL installed and working.
  • Docker Engine installed inside WSL.
  • sima-cli installed inside WSL.

Start from WSL​

Run Neat SDK commands from inside your WSL Linux distribution, not from PowerShell or Command Prompt. This includes sima-cli install ghcr:sima-neat/sdk and sima-cli sdk setup --devkit <devkit-ip>.

WSL network mode​

Configure %UserProfile%\\.wslconfig:

[wsl2]
networkingMode=mirrored

Then restart WSL:

wsl --shutdown

This allows WSL to share host network configuration, which helps DevKit-Sync and NFS communication.

For Windows hosts, a direct USB/Ethernet connection between the Windows machine and DevKit is the recommended topology. It is usually simpler to set up than placing the DevKit on a broader shared network, and Windows firewall changes can be scoped to the local DevKit-facing interface instead of the whole network. Unlike Ubuntu and macOS, prefer this direct-link setup for Windows unless your environment already has validated firewall and WSL networking rules for a shared network.

Use Internet Connection Sharing (ICS) when the DevKit needs to share the Windows machine's network connection over the direct link.

  1. Connect the Windows machine to the internet through Wi-Fi or another upstream interface.
  2. Connect the DevKit to the Windows machine through the USB/Ethernet adapter.
  3. On the DevKit, leave the connected network interface set to DHCP.
  4. On Windows, open Control Panel > Network and Internet > Network Connections. You can also press Win + R, run ncpa.cpl, and press Enter.
  5. Right-click the internet-facing adapter, then select Properties.
  6. Open the Sharing tab.
  7. Enable Allow other network users to connect through this computer's Internet connection.
  8. In Home networking connection, select the USB/Ethernet adapter connected to the DevKit.
  9. Apply the change, then reconnect the DevKit-facing adapter if the DevKit does not receive an IPv4 address.

After ICS is enabled, Windows usually assigns the shared adapter an address on 192.168.137.0/24. Find the DevKit IPv4 address from WSL or from the DevKit console, then confirm SSH access from WSL:

ssh sima@<devkit-ip>

Then continue with DevKit pairing from WSL:

sima-cli sdk setup --devkit <devkit-ip>
Insight access on Windows direct links

With Windows direct network sharing, Windows firewall and WSL port-forwarding behavior can prevent the Neat Insight web interface from being reached by other machines on the network. In this setup, open Insight directly on the Windows SDK host, for example at https://localhost:9900.

NFS firewall rules (PowerShell)​

Allow NFS-related traffic in Windows firewall. Run PowerShell as Administrator and add rules for required NFS ports/protocols using New-NetFirewallRule.

Example pattern:

New-NetFirewallRule -DisplayName "Allow NFS TCP 2049" -Direction Inbound -Protocol TCP -LocalPort 2049 -Action Allow
New-NetFirewallRule -DisplayName "Allow NFS UDP 2049" -Direction Inbound -Protocol UDP -LocalPort 2049 -Action Allow

Add any additional ports required by your NFS server/client setup.

Next step​

Return to Neat SDK and continue with install/setup.