A few problems regarding using X forwarding to connect to GNOME desktop #10898

Heng-Zhou · 2023-12-10T13:34:50Z

Heng-Zhou
Dec 10, 2023

Environment:

WSL version: 2.0.9.0
Kernel version: 5.15.133.1-1
WSLg version: 1.0.59
MSRDC version: 1.2.4677
Direct3D version: 1.611.1-81528511
DXCore version: 10.0.25131.1002-220531-1700.rs-onecore-base2-hyp
Windows version: 10.0.19045.3693 (22H2 Education)
Ubuntu version: 22.04.3 LTS (GNU/Linux 5.15.133.1-microsoft-standard-WSL2 x86_64)

I installed Ubuntu 22.04 and GNOME desktop in WSL2. Below are the steps:

sudo apt update, sudo apt upgrade
sudo apt-mark hold acpid acpi-support
sudo apt install ubuntu-desktop gnome
Add the following 2 lines into ~/.bashrc:

export DISPLAY=$(cat /etc/resolv.conf | grep nameserver | awk '{print $2}'):0
export LIBGL_ALWAYS_INDIRECT=1

git clone https://github.com/DamionGans/ubuntu-wsl2-systemd-script.git
cd ubuntu-wsl2-systemd-script/
bash ubuntu-wsl2-systemd-script.sh
exit Ubuntu and in Windows command line run wsl --shutdown
Start VcXsrv and in the launcher, uncheck "Native opengl" and check "Disable access control"
Enter wsl

The problems are:

If I run gnome-session, the GNOME desktop appears but crashes after about one minute.

If I click "Log Out" button and run gnome-session again in WSL, I receive the following error:

** (process:970): WARNING **: 07:43:49.894: Could not make bus activated clients aware of XDG_CURRENT_DESKTOP=GNOME environment variable: Could not connect: No such file or directory
Terminated

If I run export XDG_CURRENT_DESKTOP=ubuntu:GNOME and run gnome-session again, I receive just "Terminated".

If I run dbus-launch --exit-with-session gnome-session, the GNOME desktop does not crash, but I get a lot of other problems.

2.1) dialog freezes easily on desktop, and I can find no way to remove them.

2.2) Because of 2.1), the frozen dialog covers the desktop, so I can't log out or power down the GNOME desktop using its GUI. If I press Ctrl-C in command line and try to run dbus-launch --exit-with-session gnome-session again, I receive an error saying

dbus[1560]: Unable to set up transient service directory: XDG_RUNTIME_DIR "/run/user/1000" not available: No such file or directory

2.3) If I run dbus-launch --exit-with-session gnome-session with sudo, I can go back into the GNOME desktop, but the desktop is still covered by frozen dialogs, and I cannot type in the search bar of Activities.

2.4) If I click "Power Off" in the GNOME desktop, the desktop does not power off, but stops response unless I press Ctrl-C in WSL command line. In that case, the desktop shows this:

and the erroneous desktop quits if I click "Log Out" button. If I quit WSL, run wsl --shutdown in Windows command line and run wsl again, dbus-launch --exit-with-session gnome-session can start the GNOME desktop but got the same problem of 2.3), and so on and on ...

Do you know how these problems are caused according to my steps, or how to fix these issues, or how to reset the GNOME desktop to remove the frozen dialogs (if I don't have to redo the whole thing due to brick)? Thanks a lot.