Could not mapping path \\wsl$\<distro_name> to network drive

[0xbadfca11]

• Your Windows build number:
  Microsoft Windows [Version 10.0.18836.1000]

• What you're doing and what's happening:
  In command prompt, could not pushd under \\wsl$\.
  Other file I/O or application can access under \\wsl$\.
  I tried "Fresh Start" from Windows Defender app. But this did not solve it.

C:\Users\JohnDoe>pushd \\wsl$\Ubuntu\home\john
The network path was not found.

• What's wrong / what should be happening instead:
  pushd does change current directory under \\wsl$\.
  like this tweet.

C:\Users\JohnDoe>pushd \\wsl$\Ubuntu\home\john

Z:\home\john>

• Strace of the failing command, if applicable:
  N/A

• For WSL launch issues, please collect detailed logs.
  lxcore.zip

See our contributing instructions for assistance.

[ziggythehamster]

CMD.exe does not support UNC paths consistently. Use PowerShell.

[benhillis]

@0xbadfca11 - This should work, although there are some more changes inbound to the prerelease branch. Can you verify that the distribution is already running when you try this?

[0xbadfca11]

@benhillis I definitely opened and have not stopped Ubuntu.

[jstarks]

This was a known issue. I believe net use and pushd will be fixed in a subsequent build.

[benhillis]

This should work in the 18342 19h1_release. The fix is making its way to the rs_prerelease branch and should be there soon.

[0xbadfca11]

In build 18342, Mostly works expected.
However, found one function that is not working properly.
Right click \\wsl$\<distro_name>, then Map network drive....
"Folder" field will be <distro_name>, missing \\wsl$\.
I will get "Error code: 0x80070043 The network name cannot be found."

[0xbadfca11]

Fixed in 18865 (Skip Ahead).

[Biswa96]

@0xbadfca11 That was fixed in 18860 build. BTW, does Explorer shows correct size of that drive? In my case, Explorer shows the 'Used Space' of the actual drive instead of my distribution installed size. Is it by-design? Another thing, init process remains after disconnecting that drive.

[jstarks]

This is by design--we don't track the amount of space the distro is using.

The init process will timeout after a while, or you can terminate it manually with wsl -t <distro name>.

[LiamKarlMitchell]

Also just a note, unable to map a directory in the distro to a drive but can map the distro share.
Can't mount \\wsl$\Ubuntu-20.04\home\ubuntu
But can mount \\wsl$\Ubuntu-20.04

Possibly by design.

[BeomohKim]

I'm suffering the same phenomenon.
with Microsoft Windows [Version 10.0.19042.2364]

[getify]

Someone should definitely pin this message from @LiamKarlMitchell as it's probably the main reason people see this error now. You can only map a drive to a WSL root, not to any arbitrary dir inside that file system.