WSL crashes shortly after starting up

[J4yTr1n1ty]

Windows Version

Microsoft Windows [Version 10.0.19045.5131]

WSL Version

2.4.4.0

Are you using WSL 1 or WSL 2?

• WSL 2
• WSL 1

Kernel Version

5.15.167.4-1

Distro Version

Arch Linux (https://apps.microsoft.com/detail/9mznmnksm73x)

Other Software

No response

Repro Steps

1. Start WSL from the Terminal
2. Wait for some time

Expected Behavior

The WSL will continue to run until the specified idle time.

Actual Behavior

WSL crashes shortly after starting up. Only the message [exited] is shown.

Diagnostic Logs

Log to start WSL in the terminal with it crashing shortly after: WslLogs-2024-11-21_12-34-56.zip

[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:

• WSL crashes/shuts down periodically (#12089), similarity score: 0.79
• WSL sometimes crashes when computer wakes from sleep (#9563), similarity score: 0.76

Closed similar issues:

• WSL crashes and can't be restarted (#9767), similarity score: 0.78
• WSL crashes when building application (#12238), similarity score: 0.76
• WSL2 crashes at startup (#4768), similarity score: 0.75

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

Diagnostic information

Multiple log files found, using: https://github.com/user-attachments/files/17845005/WslLogs-2024-11-21_12-34-56.zip
.wslconfig found
Detected appx version: 2.4.4.0

[J4yTr1n1ty]

After a long time trying out different things, I have "fixed" part of the problem using the following steps:

1. Export the WSL Instance
2. Unregister the WSL Instance
3. Import the WSL Instance
4. Run into WSL as root
5. su to my user

If the default user is set to the personal user, it will still crash

This inhibits the crash. However, GUI applications still do not work.

[sboosali]

I have the same problem. It seems comes up whenever I use "too many resource" (like opening a large file from linux), despite randomly trying fixes from Google (increasing the limit in WSL config, raising priority of process, restarting wsl, etc). Rebooting the computer lets wsl work until it stops working again.

[OneBlue]

@J4yTr1n1ty: What kind of command line do you see "crashing" ? I do see that a process is exiting with error code = 1, but from what I see it's unclear whether this issue is coming from WSL itself, or from that process. The Virtual machine is still running at the end of the first trace you sent.

[J4yTr1n1ty]

Hey @OneBlue, what happened for me is that I opened up the WSL from powershell using the wsl command, and it showed [exited] after a short while. Since I have not changed anything on my I first assumed it to be a WSL issue. However, it could be very well possible that it's the distribution or a process starting up in the distribution. Is there an easy way to trace this?

[J4yTr1n1ty]

An interesting thing I found is that if I remove the default user from the WSL configuration, I can access the virtual machine as root and change my user after the shell is initialized. This completely removes the "crashing" state.