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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

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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
• 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

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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

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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.

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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

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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 ?

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Hi @OneBlue, yes wsl.exe does work.

from wsl.

Hi @OneBlue, yes wsl.exe does work.

Ok then this is indeed an MSIX issue.

Does re-installing the latest package solve the issue ?

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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:

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

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Hi @OneBlue, yes wsl.exe does work.

Ok then this is indeed an MSIX issue.

Does re-installing the latest package solve the issue ?

I'm having similar issues. Any wsl command is met with "Access is denied". If I run it from the Program Files it does seem fine but applying updates doesn't seem to resolve.

I've tried completely uninstalling and disabling the feature but no luck there either.

One strange thing I found is that if I go into the "Windows Subsystem for Linux" system component and then reset the component. The first command will run with WSL but after that it immediately goes back to "Access is denied" on subsequent commands. I'm using a relatively fresh Windows 11 install.

Example where I "reset" and then run two commands:

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Hi, I installed windows updates KB5035942 and KB5037853 which enabled Ubuntu again.

> wsl -l
Distributions du Sous-système Windows pour Linux :
Ubuntu-24.04 (par défaut)
Ubuntu-20.04

Now I'm missing the GUI, apps like meld or gitg starts a process but remains hanging without launching a new window.

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I wonder if this is related to a systemd bug that causes nearly the entire WSL instance to completely hang after running for about 10/15 minutes. IIRC, ubuntu 24 starts systemd by default (check in /etc/wsl.conf). I set it to false and things seem to be working much better.

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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

I migrated all of my WSL distros from the C: drive to a high capacity external drive about 2 years ago and since I did that, I have not had the same problems I was having with WSL. All my distros function pretty well now. There are some minor bugs using nano that are annoying but that's about all I've had issues with since. I have not seen a WSL related accessdenied error since then. I migrated them to reclaim some disk space on C:, but in the process it seems to have fixed the accessdenied errors I had been getting from time to time, so that was a nice bonus.

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