Cannot access some folders from file explorer

[tasso85]

Hi everyone, I hope I can have some help with this issue.

I have installed WSL2 on my development machine, and I have installed Ubuntu-20.04 from the store.

I can access the files in the linux filesystem by opening a file explored at \\wsl$\Ubuntu-20.04, however, I cannot access some of the folders, for example if I try to open /root I get the following error:

While the text is in Italian, it says that it cannot open \\wsl$\Ubuntu-20.04\root because I do not have the necessary permissions, however on this machine I am a member of the Administrator group.

Is there a way to access all of the WSL filesystem from Windows Explorer?

[Baalkikhaal]

Hi @tasso85,
I am able to access the root of my Ubuntu-18.04 distribution instance by entering the following command via address bar of Windows explorer.

\\wsl.localhost\Ubuntu-18.04

I did a search on WSL documentation with the keyword wsl.localhost. It turns out that since build 21364 the recommended way to access Linux file system from Windows has changed from \\wsl to \\wsl.localhost.

Quoting from release notes of 21364

The default path to access Linux files from Windows using the Windows Subsystem for Linux has been changed from \\wsl\\ to \\wsl.localhost\\ to improve performance and reliability. You will still be able to access Linux files using \\wsl$\\.

Please ensure your machine is rolling above 21364 release by executing winver at the Windows command shell or winver.exe at bash shell.

[tasso85]

How would I check which build I have? I just tried \\wsl.localhost on the file explorer, but it gave an error saying that it does not exist, while \\wsl$ works (notice the final $).

Also notice that, for example, I can correctly access \\wsl$\Ubuntu-20.04\home\mtassinari (my home folder on WSL), but not \\wsl$\Ubuntu-20.04\root (that is, the home folder of the root user).

[Baalkikhaal]

Also notice that, for example, I can correctly access \\wsl$\Ubuntu-20.04\home\mtassinari (my home folder on WSL), but not \\wsl$\Ubuntu-20.04\root (that is, the home folder of the root user).

Sorry I misunderstood root to mean the root of the filesystem / 😜 . Yes you are right, even I am not able to access the root folder of the WSL; even running

> explorer \\wsl.localhost\Ubuntu-18.04\root

with an elevated Command prompt. I too get the same message

This is an interesting situation where the host administrator is not able to access some files 😕 .

How would I check which build I have?

You can run

> winver

in command prompt.

[Baalkikhaal]

Also notice that, for example, I can correctly access \\wsl$\Ubuntu-20.04\home\mtassinari (my home folder on WSL), but not \\wsl$\Ubuntu-20.04\root (that is, the home folder of the root user).

Sorry I misunderstood root to mean the root of the filesystem / 😜 . Yes you are right, even I am not able to access the root folder of the WSL; even running

From the File Permissions

Accessing Linux files via \\wsl$ will use the default user of your WSL distribution. Therefore any Windows app accessing Linux files will have the same permissions as the default user.

So to access the /root folder of Ubuntu-20.04, the default user needs to be set to root.

Firstly, we need ensure that the distribution instance is not running.

D:\WSL_Backups>wsl --list --running
Windows Subsystem for Linux Distributions:
Ubuntu-18.04 (Default)
Ubuntu-copy

In case we have opened the Ubuntu filesystem in explorer, the instance is actually running. So we need to exit the filesystem also.

Now, from WSL commands, execute the following in a windows ubuntu shell

D:\>ubuntu2004 config --default-user root

[tasso85]

Setting the default user to root fixed it, thanks!