WSL won't start after Windows Update 18950

[kodeclan]

• Your Windows build number: Microsoft Windows [Version 10.0.18950.1000]

• What you're doing and what's happening:

• I try to start WSL2 via wsl ~ -d DistroName
• I get A connection attempt failed because the connected party did not properly respond after a period of time, or established connection failed because connected host has failed to respond.
• I shutdown WSL using wsl --shutdown
• I try to start the distro again using wsl ~ -d DistroName
• I still get A connection attempt failed because the connected party did not properly respond after a period of time, or established connection failed because connected host has failed to respond.
• I shutdown WSL again
• I install a fresh copy via wsl --import DistroName2 <install-location> <rootfs.tar.gz> --version 2
• I try to start WSL in the new install via wsl -d DistroName2
• Again, I get A connection attempt failed because the connected party did not properly respond after a period of time, or established connection failed because connected host has failed to respond.

This happened after Windows Updated to 18950, (from 18945)

Also, the processes vmwp.exe and vmmem show up in the task manager and do not go away till wsl --shutdown is executed.

• What's wrong / what should be happening instead: WSL console should appear.

• For WSL launch issues, please collect detailed logs.

wsl-logs.zip

[xtremeperf]

Same here. My default WSL2 instance and sole WSL1 instance both work fine, but the other WSL2 instances have this problem and I haven't found a cause yet. It doesn't seem to be related to networking config or the new .wslconfig file. I may try rolling back to 18945.

[xtremeperf]

Alright, looks like we may have a bug in init...
here's the messages from the kernel ring buffer (using my one working WSL2 instance to check messages created when trying to launch a non-working instance):

init: (1) ERROR: UtilMkdir:1035: chmod(/bin, 40755) failed 2
init: (1) ERROR: ConfigInitializeEntry:903: Failed to create /bin 2

[xtremeperf]

Alright, I just figured this one out...
init fails to create "/bin" because it already exists as a sym-link to "/usr/bin"!!!

So this issue only occurs with a rootfs that is /usr-merged... which includes Kali-linux in the Microsoft Store. Not really sure why init is trying to create a /bin directory anyways, but this is going to need to be fixed by someone at Microsoft since init is closed-source code.

[benhillis]

This has been fixed and will be in an Insider build soon.

[kodeclan]

Glad to know I'm not the only one having this issue. I've reverted to Windows 18945 for the time being.

[jugg3rn4ut]

Hi, any idea when the Insider build will be released please ?

[craigloewen-msft]

The time from us checking in the bug fix to the change being available inside of an Insiders build can vary, and is dependent on many different factors. In general, it's around 3 to 6 weeks.

[jugg3rn4ut]

Hi @mscraigloewen, thanks for the answer. Keep up the good :)

[Chakratos]

Glad to know I'm not the only one having this issue. I've reverted to Windows 18945 for the time being.

Could you tell me how you downgraded? Can't wait the 3-6 Weeks and would love to use WSL2 :)

[RedBeard0531]

Now that the problem has been identified, is it possible to share a workaround. This build is completely unusable with this. I've downgraded, but Windows update keeps trying to reupgrade me. I was hoping that it would get fixed in this week's patch, but since it sounds like that won't be happening, do you have any suggestions?

[buwailee]

Same here on build 18956.

[jdamian]

It is possible to convert it to wsl 1 to keep it running

[Uberck]

"This has been fixed and will be in an Insider build soon."
As of 18956.1000 which I just installed, this is still not fixed...

[cerebrate]

I'm also getting this now on 18956.

Oh, for a functioning workaround.

[amechoul]

Hi!
Also running 18956.
For it seems that problem is only with Kali distribution.
My original kali didn't start.
Exported and imported but same issue.
Install a fresh Ubuntu and runs without problems.
Intall a fresh kali and also didn't start.

[Uberck]

Biswa yes it is installed, the only time I experience this issue is with the WSL2 Kali distribution.

[XLWZ]

I run a Arch distribution on 18956, also caught bugs
This bug is not yet fixing

[benhillis]

I would suggest rolling back to the previous build until an Insider Fast build with the fix is released.

[mahmoudajawad]

@benhillis, For those who aren't in a hurry. When is the next build going to be available? Since this is a serious bug for many, could this be elaborated for faster release for next build, even if it's a bugfix for this WSL issue?

[y103kim]

I'm also getting this on 18956 with Arch LInux.
Only Ubuntu 18.04 is working correctly

Windows PowerShell
Copyright (C) Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.

Try the new cross-platform PowerShell https://aka.ms/pscore6

PS C:\Users\illne> wsl -l -v
  NAME            STATE           VERSION
* Ubuntu-18.04    Running         2

[kzmuhia]

Not resolved for me I am already on 18956 and get the same error using Fedoraremix

[chadrien]

Workaround that ended up working for me (use at your own risk, but no issues so far):

• start from a wsl 1 container (change version if needed with wsl --set-version $yourdistro 1)
• wsl -d $yourdistro -u root
• from inside the distro:
  • cd /
  • ls -Alh: take a look at bin and sbin
  • if bin is a symlink, remove it: rm bin. Same for sbin
• get out of the distro and convert it to v2 (wsl --set-version $yourdistro 2)
• wsl -d $yourdistro -u root -e /usr/bin/bash
• from inside the distro:
  • cd /
  • if /bin was a symlink:
    • mv bin/wslpath usr/bin/
    • rmdir bin
    • mv usr/bin bin
    • ln -s /bin usr/bin
  • if /sbin was a symlink:
    • mv sbin/mount.drvfs usr/sbin/
    • rmdir sbin
    • mv usr/sbin sbin
    • ln -s /sbin usr/sbin
• get out of the distro
• make sure it works:
  • wsl -t $yourdistro
  • wsl -d $yourdistro: hopefully this should work
  • get out of the distro, run wsl -l -v and make sure the version is indeed 2 for your distro
  • open explorer.exe and go to \\wsl$ to make sure the network mount point is there

Hope this will be useful to others :)

[chenong]

@chadrien thanks, this work good for me.

[citruspress]

@chadrien Thanks! Working fine for me as well.

But I believe you may have this backwards: ln -s /bin usr/bin

It's ln [OPTION]... [-T] TARGET LINK_NAME.

Or maybe it was intentional so that swapping back and forth between v1 and v2 would work? Either way on arch I had to create it as it was originally like 'ln -s usr/bin /bin' otherwise I got some error when I tried to install packages using pacman.

[chadrien]

@citruspress it was intentional. I had to make /bin the actual directory and /usr/bin the symlink, otherwise if the wsl container is shut down, then I'd get the error reported here again. The only persistent fix I found was to swap /bin and /usr/bin

[citruspress]

@chadrien I see. I haven't noticed, I assume it hasn't shut down yet. Thanks again!

[craigloewen-msft]

@Uberck we are tracking the issue of changing the default user from root after importing a WSL distro here: #3974

[Uberck]

Thanks Craig and onomatopellan

@ Onomatopellan: I've incorporated that command into the profiles.json settings file for Windows terminal at "commandline" : "wsl.exe -d kali-linux -u myusername" under Kali settings, so this workaround is working nicely for now.

Craig: Thanks but I actually installed the distro from the Windows store, not the command line

[Uberck]

Suspiscions were right, its just a workaround for now...

Metasploit is broken :(

uberck@CPPCStation:/mnt/c/Users/Chris$ msfconsole
[-] ***rting the Metasploit Framework console...
[-] * WARNING: No database support: No database YAML file
[-] ***

uberck@CPPCStation:/mnt/c/Users/Chris$ sudo /usr/bin/msfdb start System has not been booted with systemd as init system (PID 1). Can't operate.
Failed to connect to bus: Host is down
[+] Starting database System has not been booted with systemd as init system (PID 1). Can't operate.
Failed to connect to bus: Host is down

[onomatopellan]

@Uberck If you need Systemd as PID 1 there are workarounds like https://github.com/arkane-systems/genie or https://github.com/shayne/wsl2-hacks

[craigloewen-msft]

@Uberck if you've installed it from the store you can run the command:
kali.exe config --default-user $yourUserName
Just make sure to replace the $yourUserName value and you should be able to set a default user.

[GoodbyeNJN]

@chadrien It works fine in 18963. Thanks a lot!

[XLWZ]

Still not fixed in 18965

[anaisbetts]

Is there a way to get any visibility as to what the WSL VM is doing? When errors like this happen you can't see any of the console log or anything, you just see the equivalent of "It didn't work /shrug"

[oscarbg]

seems they finally fixed on 18970, right?
someone to confirm..
thanks..

[MetalDevOps]

still not fixed for me on 18970

[bytemain]

Can confirm fixed in 18970.

[merkuriy]

I had version 18965.1000, and the method suggested by @chadrien worked fine for me.
Later I will try to work without manual fixes on version 18970.

[anaisbetts]

Fixed as well for me with Arch Linux on 18970

[kodeclan]

Tested on 18970, this seems to have been fixed.

[MostHated]

Hello, I am having this issue.

[onomatopellan]

@MostHated That looks like #4105 (comment)

[lukebakken]

I just updated to 19555.1001 and am getting this with a WSL 2 Debian 10 installation:

A connection attempt failed because the connected party did not properly respond after a period of time, or established connection failed because connected host has failed to respond.

Prior to the update the WSL 2 environment worked fine. I have tried the suggestions in this issue to no effect.

[w9jds]

It looks like this issue is back in 19555 released today. I have opened a feedback ticket with some telemetry if you need it here: https://aka.ms/AA75u9m

Two releases ago localhost didn't work, the previous release fixed that and seemed to work just fine.

[xtremeperf]

Same here... 19555 broke WSL2. However, I don't believe it's the same issue as before... where /usr-merged distros failed to create /bin due to existing sym-link. Even non-/usr-merged distros fail to connect with WSL2, and therefore I haven't found a way inside yet, to be able to print the kernel ring buffer messages.

[benhillis]

Yes this is a new issue, please start a new GitHub thread.