I'm not able to start certain apps in win-kex

[martin15560]

Environment

Windows build number: Windows 10 version 2004 build 19041
Your Distribution version: Kali 2020.3
Whether the issue is on WSL 2 and/or WSL 1: Linux version 4.19.128-microsoft-standard (WSL 2)

Expected behavior

I would like to be able to start "Window Manager" and "Disks" in Accessories and "Wireshark" app. There are probably other apps which can't be run also.

Actual behavior

When I click on the icons in Win-Kex environment in menu panel nothing happens.

[LRitzdorf]

I noticed the same issue with Wireshark on my WSL2 install. The "start menu" entry for Wireshark runs the command pkexec wireshark, so I tested pkexec in the terminal, with the following result:

$ pkexec wireshark
Error getting authority: Error initializing authority: Could not connect: No such file or directory

Also, when I raised the issue in #6178, the response mentioned that dbus and/or polkit could be the cause. I would think this shouldn't be the case, since I ran sudo apt install kali-linux-default (which installs all the standard Kali tools), but I don't know, since I have no experience with either dbus or polkit.

[sdancer75]

Same problem here

[LRitzdorf]

Initial question: do you see a dbus.service systemd unit on your Kali install? If so, check on its status, and make sure it's started successfully. If not, install dbus and try again. Let us know if this helps!

[sdancer75]

Hi,

dbus was not running, but I did it manually. Nothing changed. WireShark didn't start.

[moritzbeck13]

Will paste this here aswell:

On Kali, running Wireshark from the application menu is linked to sh -c "$(id -Gn | grep -q wireshark || echo pkexec) wireshark %f"
On WSL, the command behind the start menu entry is sh -c "$(id -Gn | grep -q wireshark || echo pkexec) wireshark

From running this command in PowerShell, I can see two things:

the quotes are not properly closed
PowerShell complains about the ||
After starting dbus, which isn't in systemd on WSL for some reason, and running sh -c "$(id -Gn | grep -q wireshark | echo pkexec) wireshark", PowerShell still complains, but Wireshark starts as expected.
I think WSL has some problems interpreting the %f and just cuts of the string altogether. Not sure about the rest.

Funnily enough; this was working for me with an existing install but recent version of Windows 11, but not on a fresh install.