Any wsl command is met with access denied after installing ubuntu 24

[jsandr]

Windows Version

Microsoft Windows [version 10.0.22631.3527]

WSL Version

'Access denied' | ubutnu 24.04 LTS or Ubuntu 20.04.6 LTS

Are you using WSL 1 or WSL 2?

• WSL 2
• WSL 1

Kernel Version

Access denied

Distro Version

Ubuntu 24.04 LTS

Other Software

Wsl Ubuntu 20.04.6 LTS
Windows Terminal Version : 1.19.11213.0
Powershell 7.4.2

I had wsl2 with ubuntu 20 for a while, no issue there. I wanted to switch to the latest LTS and added ubuntu 24 through the store. Using Terminal it worked fine. I did not want to unregister the previous ubuntu version until I was sure I would still have everything working fine. Booting my computer this morning, every wsl command is met with 'access denied'.

Edit: Running as admin does no difference.

Repro Steps

Install Ubuntu 24 through the store, reboot the computer.

1. Open a terminal and run > wsl

2. Try to read wsl installed distros: > wsl -l

Expected Behavior

1. Wsl default distro is launched.
2. Powershell returns the list of installed linux distributions

Actual Behavior

PS C:\Users\jsandrin> wsl
Accès refusé.

PS C:\Users\jsandrin> wsl -l
Accès refusé.

Diagnostic Logs

WslLogs-2024-05-06_10-09-13.zip

[github-actions]

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Otherwise please attach logs by following the instructions below, your issue will not be reviewed unless they are added. These logs will help us understand what is going on in your machine.

How to collect WSL logs

Download and execute collect-wsl-logs.ps1 in an administrative powershell prompt:

Invoke-WebRequest -UseBasicParsing "https://raw.githubusercontent.com/microsoft/WSL/master/diagnostics/collect-wsl-logs.ps1" -OutFile collect-wsl-logs.ps1
Set-ExecutionPolicy Bypass -Scope Process -Force
.\collect-wsl-logs.ps1

The scipt will output the path of the log file once done.

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View similar issues

Please view the issues below to see if they solve your problem, and if the issue describes your problem please consider closing this one and thumbs upping the other issue to help us prioritize it!

Open similar issues:

• Receive "Access is Denied" error message when attempting to run WSL (#10475), similarity score: 0.73

Closed similar issues:

• Access is denied after doing wsl --update (#8055), similarity score: 0.75
• After installing latest WSL, get Wsl/E_ACCESSDENIED when trying to start/use WSL (#9834), similarity score: 0.75
• E_ACCESSDENIED when trying to install new distro (#9326), similarity score: 0.74
• WSL Access is denied (#7426), similarity score: 0.73

Note: You can give me feedback by thumbs upping or thumbs downing this comment.

[github-actions]

View similar issues

Please view the issues below to see if they solve your problem, and if the issue describes your problem please consider closing this one and thumbs upping the other issue to help us prioritize it!

Open similar issues:

• Receive "Access is Denied" error message when attempting to run WSL (#10475), similarity score: 0.73
• wsl.exe fails with "Access is denied" (#4920), similarity score: 0.73

Closed similar issues:

• After installing latest WSL, get Wsl/E_ACCESSDENIED when trying to start/use WSL (#9834), similarity score: 0.78
• Access is denied after doing wsl --update (#8055), similarity score: 0.76
• E_ACCESSDENIED when trying to install new distro (#9326), similarity score: 0.75

Note: You can give me feedback by thumbs upping or thumbs downing this comment.

Diagnostic information

Issue was edited and new log file was found: https://github.com/microsoft/WSL/files/15218242/WslLogs-2024-05-06_10-09-13.zip
Detected appx version: 2.2.4.0

[jsandr]

Similar issues seems to all have been closed without author answers.

Launching Ubuntu from the store does not work either.

I just found out that I can run the wsl program but not the 'ubuntu' one.
Inside wsl I could check my version:

jsandr@SST-JSA:~$ uname -a
Linux SST-JSA 5.15.153.1-microsoft-standard-WSL2 #1 SMP Fri Mar 29 23:14:13 UTC 2024 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux

As shown in this screenshot I was able to run wsl but not ubuntu

[OneBlue]

Thank you @jsandr.

Looking at the logs, this looks like the MSIX installation might be broken, but I wonder if you can call wsl.exe directly.

Does calling: C:\Program Files\WSL\wsl.exe work ?

[jsandr]

Hi @OneBlue, yes wsl.exe does work.

[OneBlue]

Hi @OneBlue, yes wsl.exe does work.

Ok then this is indeed an MSIX issue.

Does re-installing the latest package solve the issue ?

[jsandr]

Hi,
Re-installing throws this:

As any wsl commands are refused I could not un-register Ubuntu 24, so I went to 'add or remove apps' and uninstalled both Ubuntu 20 and 24. Removed all startup calls to wsl or terminal. Rebooted then tried install via the .msi
After it failed I went to the store, installed Ubuntu 24 again (it worked ?!). Now I'm back with an Ubuntu 24 app but still unable to launch it directly.
Only noticeable difference is that now when trying to launch a wsl command via powershell this is the answer I have:

[jsandr]

Anyone else with a better idea than re-installing in loops until it starts working again ?

[withinboredom]

No, but I'm also having massive issues with ubuntu 24. After about 10 minutes, systemd entirely locks up (took forever just to get that much information) and it seems the last windows update did it in. Super frustrating.