WSL2 not starting despite Hyper-V and virtualization being enabled

[WalshyDev]

Background: I used to run WSL1 & WSL2 perfectly fine, I had to disable Hyper-V along with WSL a little bit ago. Ever since I disabled them in the past I haven't been able to enable everything properly again. Hyper-V features on enabled and services running, Virtualization is enabled in BIOS but yet... I cannot start WSL.

No hardware changes or anything else significant between the last time it worked and now.

Please fill out the below information:

• Microsoft Windows [Version 10.0.19025.1051]

• What you're doing and what's happening:

C:\WINDOWS\system32>wsl
Please enable the Virtual Machine Platform Windows feature and ensure virtualization is enabled in the BIOS.
For information please visit https://aka.ms/wsl2-install

• What's wrong / what should be happening instead: It should just go into my WSL2 VM, it is instead just spitting out: Please enable the Virtual Machine Platform Windows feature and ensure virtualization is enabled in the BIOS.

wsl -l -v output:

C:\Users\Walshy\wsl-report>wsl -l -v
  NAME      STATE           VERSION
* Ubuntu    Stopped         2
  Debian    Stopped         1

Images of features, services and virtualization in task manager

Features:

Services:

Task Manager showing Virtualization enabled:

• Strace of the failing command, if applicable:

C:\Users\Walshy\wsl-report>strace wsl -d Ubuntu
--- Process 12808 created
--- Process 12808 loaded C:\Windows\System32\ntdll.dll at 00007ffa89ab0000
--- Process 12808 loaded C:\Windows\System32\kernel32.dll at 00007ffa88b80000
--- Process 12808 loaded C:\Windows\System32\KernelBase.dll at 00007ffa87610000
--- Process 12808 loaded C:\Windows\System32\ucrtbase.dll at 00007ffa878e0000
--- Process 12808 thread 14612 created
--- Process 12808 loaded C:\Windows\System32\SHCore.dll at 00007ffa88cc0000
--- Process 12808 loaded C:\Windows\System32\msvcrt.dll at 00007ffa88d80000
--- Process 12808 loaded C:\Windows\System32\combase.dll at 00007ffa87b30000
--- Process 12808 loaded C:\Windows\System32\rpcrt4.dll at 00007ffa88330000
--- Process 12808 thread 13688 created
--- Process 12808 loaded C:\Windows\System32\ws2_32.dll at 00007ffa89840000
--- Process 12808 loaded C:\Windows\System32\kernel.appcore.dll at 00007ffa85b40000
--- Process 12808 loaded C:\Windows\System32\bcryptprimitives.dll at 00007ffa87380000
--- Process 12808 loaded C:\Windows\System32\sechost.dll at 00007ffa899d0000
--- Process 12808 loaded C:\Windows\System32\clbcatq.dll at 00007ffa89550000
--- Process 12808 thread 4416 created
--- Process 12808 thread 4616 created
--- Process 12808 thread 17776 created
--- Process 12808 loaded C:\Windows\System32\lxss\LxssManagerProxyStub.dll at 00007ffa7a100000
--- Process 12808, exception e06d7363 at 00007ffa87645a29
--- Process 12808 unloaded DLL at 00007ffa7a100000
--- Process 12808, exception e06d7363 at 00007ffa87645a29
Please enable the Virtual Machine Platform Windows feature and ensure virtualization is enabled in the BIOS.
For information please visit https://aka.ms/wsl2-install
--- Process 12808 thread 14612 exited with status 0xffffffff
--- Process 12808 thread 13688 exited with status 0xffffffff
--- Process 12808 thread 4416 exited with status 0xffffffff
--- Process 12808 thread 4616 exited with status 0xffffffff
--- Process 12808 thread 17776 exited with status 0xffffffff
--- Process 12808 exited with status 0xffffffff

• I have attached the logman details (Started before running wsl and stopped after it failed): wsl-report.zip

[ghost]

Just to be sure, you do have the feature "Virtual Machine Platform" enabled, as in this picture?

[ad-on-is]

Did you try bcdedit /set hypervisorlaunchtype auto

I disabled hyper-v with bcdedit /set hypervisorlaunchtype off to do some work in VMWare, and ebabled it with auto successfully back again.

[WalshyDev]

@DropNib Yep, check the summary under wsl -l -v output and above the strace output.

@ad-on-is Yep, already tried with no success.

Windows Boot Manager
--------------------
identifier              {bootmgr}
device                  partition=\Device\HarddiskVolume5
path                    \EFI\Microsoft\Boot\bootmgfw.efi
description             Windows Boot Manager
locale                  en-GB
inherit                 {globalsettings}
flightsigning           Yes
default                 {current}
resumeobject            {fa62a036-d7e2-11e9-8624-8aedbab3624a}
displayorder            {current}
toolsdisplayorder       {memdiag}
timeout                 0

Windows Boot Loader
-------------------
identifier              {current}
device                  partition=C:
path                    \WINDOWS\system32\winload.efi
description             Windows 10
locale                  en-GB
inherit                 {bootloadersettings}
recoverysequence        {3f7b4696-0c00-11ea-b600-ebdd96078e40}
displaymessageoverride  Recovery
recoveryenabled         Yes
isolatedcontext         Yes
flightsigning           Yes
allowedinmemorysettings 0x15000075
osdevice                partition=C:
systemroot              \WINDOWS
resumeobject            {fa62a036-d7e2-11e9-8624-8aedbab3624a}
nx                      OptIn
bootmenupolicy          Standard
hypervisorlaunchtype    Auto

[ad-on-is]

Stupid question, but, did you reboot Windows after enabling everything? 😅

[WalshyDev]

@ad-on-is Oh yes. There's been many many reboots during the process of trying to fix this over the last month. Even rebooted since last night when I posted this but yeah... nothing :/

[Gareth001]

I was having this same problem. I disabled AMD SVM, booted, then re-enabled AMD SVM and it worked again. Hope this helps

[Hambugers]

I got the same problem,now I can only use wsl1.

[onomatopellan]

First of all, if you are in Windows 10 Pro try to run an hyper-v VM or launch Windows Sandbox. If those don't work either then the problem is in hyper-v.

[singhdharmveer311]

Did you try bcdedit /set hypervisorlaunchtype auto

I disabled hyper-v with bcdedit /set hypervisorlaunchtype off to do some work in VMWare, and ebabled it with auto successfully back again.

So, It is not possible to use VM and WSL2 at same time?

[benhillis]

@moriarity9211 - VMware Workstation 15.5 supports it.

https://blogs.vmware.com/workstation/2020/05/vmware-workstation-now-supports-hyper-v-mode.html

[ravesonly]

@benhillis How it's going to help on original issue, did anyone solved this original issue in Win 10 home edition successfully? Can you please elaborate valid steps? Thanks in advance!

[soccerdude288]

Did you try bcdedit /set hypervisorlaunchtype auto

I disabled hyper-v with bcdedit /set hypervisorlaunchtype off to do some work in VMWare, and ebabled it with auto successfully back again.

Mine was working fine till I started up an Android Studio Emulator last week. Since then I've been fighting to try and get wsl2 working again. BIOS was good, features were turned on, but no dice.

Finally tried the command above with a reboot and it worked!

[singhdharmveer311]

It works for me after update. I tried both bcdebit /set hypervisorlaunchtype auto & off it works but i have to restart my pc every time to update setting. After update it is working fine.

[benhillis]

VMWare Workstation 15.5.5 Pro supports using the Microsoft Hypervisor Platform APIS. You will need to be running that version or later.

WSL2 requires the "Virtual Machine Platform" optional component which is available on all SKUs.

[johannfenech]

This fixed it for me https://blog.johannfenech.com/fix-wslregisterdistribution-failed-with-error-0x80370102/

It took me days and two formats to figure out !

[kubichris]

Did you try bcdedit /set hypervisorlaunchtype auto I disabled hyper-v with bcdedit /set hypervisorlaunchtype off to do some work in VMWare, and ebabled it with auto successfully back again.

Mine was working fine till I started up an Android Studio Emulator last week. Since then I've been fighting to try and get wsl2 working again. BIOS was good, features were turned on, but no dice.

Finally tried the command above with a reboot and it worked!

Yes, it work for wsl, but doesn't good for VirtualBox.

WSL : bcdedit /set hypervisorlaunchtype auto + RESTART VirtualBox: bcdedit /set hypervisorlaunchtype off + RESTART

[parikshit90900]

Did you try bcdedit /set hypervisorlaunchtype auto

I disabled hyper-v with bcdedit /set hypervisorlaunchtype off to do some work in VMWare, and ebabled it with auto successfully back again.

Mine worked after this command

wsl doesn't work with other software using virtualization I installed Andy Android Emulator and then this error code '0x80370102' appeared maybe some VMs changes the windows features and wsl don't work after that

[ZayenJS]

Did you try bcdedit /set hypervisorlaunchtype auto

I disabled hyper-v with bcdedit /set hypervisorlaunchtype off to do some work in VMWare, and ebabled it with auto successfully back again.

I was having the same problem, this worked great, thanks a lot !

[mrivard]

@WalshyDev, at 2:58 in, this YouTuber says to not enable Windows Hypervisor Platform when adding WSL2. He doesn't say why, though.

[feland207]

Did you try bcdedit /set hypervisorlaunchtype auto I disabled hyper-v with bcdedit /set hypervisorlaunchtype off to do some work in VMWare, and ebabled it with auto successfully back again.

So, It is not possible to use VM and WSL2 at same time?

I quote this question. Is any way to have both WSL2 and VM ?

[yiqiangjizhang]

Did you try bcdedit /set hypervisorlaunchtype auto I disabled hyper-v with bcdedit /set hypervisorlaunchtype off to do some work in VMWare, and ebabled it with auto successfully back again.

So, It is not possible to use VM and WSL2 at same time?

I quote this question. Is any way to have both WSL2 and VM ?

I quote this reply as well, I want to have both WSL and VM working, is this possible? Thanks to all community for helping out!

[zhangxj19]

Did you try bcdedit /set hypervisorlaunchtype auto

I disabled hyper-v with bcdedit /set hypervisorlaunchtype off to do some work in VMWare, and ebabled it with auto successfully back again.

It really works if you ever tried android emulator.

[yiqiangjizhang]

Did you try bcdedit /set hypervisorlaunchtype auto I disabled hyper-v with bcdedit /set hypervisorlaunchtype off to do some work in VMWare, and ebabled it with auto successfully back again. It really works if you ever tried android emulator.

Yeah it worked finally!

I used:

Activate VirtualBox (Disable Hyper-V):
bcdedit /set hypervisorlaunchtype off

Activate WSL (Enable Hyper-V):
bcdedit /set hypervisorlaunchtype auto

to enable and disable Hyper V so I can run WSL or VM. However, the PC needs restart

[Soromeister]

I have Hyper-V, Virtual Machine Platform and all the required features enabled, but this still doesn't work for me even after setting the bcd entry to auto.

[geekyshubham]

bcdedit /set hypervisorlaunchtype auto

oops i did something similar. Thanks It worked.

[Kenttleton]

I had a similar issue after an upgrade on the dev channel to Windows 10.0.22000 (Windows 11) Pro. Having the Windows features Windows Subsystem for Linux and Virtual Machine Platform checked and Hyper-V unchecked allowed me to run VirtualBox and WSL2 at the same time. I also needed to bcdedit /set hypervisorlaunchtype auto as this was set to off during the upgrade likely causing my issue.

[ElCosmoXD]

I have the same issue, I have all the required features enabled (with the virtualization enabled in the BIOS). I don't have any emulator like the Android simulator, VMware, VirtualBox or anything like that. I tried everything but nothing solves this issue.

[husniadil]

Had no problem last week. But this is now happening to me. I didn't touch anything about the VirtualMachinePlatform. I didn't touch any BIOS settings. I'm relying on WSL2 for my work and now suddenly not working

I tried:

• reinstall WSL via Turn on/off features
• run dism thingy to disable and enable WSL2 and Virtual Machine Platform
• disable + re-enable the VT-d and Intel Vietualization Technology
• run bcedit thingy to auto, and off as well
• enable / disable hypervisor
• uninstall docker desktop
• uninstall windows subsystem for android
• reset network adapters
• reset winsock
• restart the computer many times
• check windows event viewer: no error related to wsl
• subscribe to beta channel

Nothing worked for me.

[fellipec]

Had no problem last week. But this is now happening to me. I didn't touch anything about the VirtualMachinePlatform. I didn't touch any BIOS settings. I'm relying on WSL2 for my work and now suddenly not working

I tried:

• reinstall WSL via Turn on/off features
• run dism thingy to disable and enable WSL2 and Virtual Machine Platform
• disable + re-enable the VT-d and Intel Vietualization Technology
• run bcedit thingy to auto, and off as well
• enable / disable hypervisor
• uninstall docker desktop
• uninstall windows subsystem for android
• reset network adapters
• reset winsock
• restart the computer many times
• check windows event viewer: no error related to wsl
• subscribe to beta channel

Nothing worked for me.

Same thing as you.

[husniadil]

I ended up re-installing Windows and tried to reinstall all programs one by one that were previously installed in my system. Took several hours for me (re-installed Windows multiple times) until I figured out which program did ruin the WSL.

Turned out that the culprit was spacedesk. So, my solution was to not install spacedesk after re-installing Windows.