WSL2 distro failing to startup with code 4294967295

[bitcrazed]

• Your Windows build number: (Type ver at a Windows Command Prompt) 19609

• What you're doing and what's happening: (Copy&paste the full set of specific command-line steps necessary to reproduce the behavior, and their output. Include screen shots if that helps demonstrate the problem.) Was browsing my Ubuntu WSL2 instance's filesystem using the new File Explorer WSL distro integration

• What's wrong / what should be happening instead: Suddenly, File Explorer could no longer connect to the distro.

Then tried connecting to distro via Windows Terminal, but got:

A connection attempt failed because the connected party did not properly respond after a period of time, or established connection failed because connected host has failed to respond. [process exited with code 4294967295]

Can no longer access my Ubuntu WSL distro at all.

• For WSL launch issues, please collect detailed logs. Logs attached. wsl2-start-issue.zip

[therealkenc]

#4364 #4929

[ghost]

I have the same issue with the file manager, but I can still access my distro. Same build also, I did submit this to feedback hub also.

[holazt]

Solve "process exited with code 4294967295" , run netsh winsock reset as Administrator, then reboot your computer. The result like below:

❯ netsh winsock reset

Sucessfully reset the Winsock Catalog.
You must restart the computer in order to complete the reset.

[kaevans]

Solve "process exited with code 4294967295" , run netsh winsock reset as Administrator, then reboot your computer. The result like below:

❯ netsh winsock reset

Sucessfully reset the Winsock Catalog.
You must restart the computer in order to complete the reset.

Does not resolve the issue.

[ghost]

Stopping Hyper-V service from Hyper-V manager app solved this issue.

[kaevans]

I had a customer's VPN client installed on my machine (Cisco AnyConnect VPN), the customer's installation package also installed dnscrypt. Uninstalling this has resolved the issue on my machine, confirming other threads that indicate the issue is usually related to network issues... particularly port 53.

[leizhilong]

Solve "process exited with code 4294967295" , run netsh winsock reset as Administrator, then reboot your computer. The result like below:

❯ netsh winsock reset

Sucessfully reset the Winsock Catalog.
You must restart the computer in order to complete the reset.

works for me, Thanks

[larson-carter]

I'm having this issue in a variety of situations.

1.) I'm just working and I close the terminal or ubuntu. Then I'm locked out of it 2.) I have my computer running for more than 36 hours then it does this? It could be coincidental however it is unlikely. Please not I'm not checking directly at 36 hours. It's just an estimate

Nothing fixes it. None of the above stuff mentioned has fixed it, neither have any other forum pages.

The only solution for me is to leave my PC running and every few hours to come back and check to see if it's fixed or still broken.

[forecho]

https://github.com/microsoft/WSL/issues/4904#issuecomment-643883570

[larson-carter]

@forecho That does not fix it.

[truealex81]

I just tried to open vhdx file in C:\Users\TrueAlex\AppData\Local\Packages\CanonicalGroupLimited.Ubuntu20.04onWindows_79rhkp1fndgsc\LocalState and my Ubuntu isn't working anymore :( even after reboot.

[KazeZlat]

WSL2 works fine on 19640, but fails with same code on 19645. I already had my WSL2 set up, but this update failed it. Checking for updates on 19645 resulted in nothing, even though release notes mentioned we should get kernel with Windows Update.

Had to roll back to 19640 for now.

[truealex81]

I'm solved this with:

DISM /online /disable-feature /featurename:VirtualMachinePlatform /norestart
DISM /online /disable-feature /featurename:Microsoft-Windows-Subsystem-Linux /norestart

Reboot, and then:

DISM /online /enable-feature /featurename:VirtualMachinePlatform /norestart
DISM /online /enable-feature /featurename:Microsoft-Windows-Subsystem-Linux /norestart

[pedrolamas]

I was seeing the same issue and managed to fix it (at least for now!)

I opened the Resource Monitor and checked the "Listening Ports" so I could see what processes were using port 53, and found dockerd.exe and svchost.exe.

As there are too many instances of svchost.exe I used the PID to find the process on Task Manager, right-clicked and selected "Go to Service" and found out that it was "SharedAccess" (ICS).

At this point I killed dockerd.exe and stopped SharedAccess service (that immediately started again) and that was enough for me to get WSL distro running again!

[gerardojbaez]

@PedroLamas, thanks for posting what worked for you! I don't have Docker for Windows installed (so no dockerd.exe), but managed to work around the "process exited with code 4294967295" by simply stopping SharedAccess as you mentioned.

I can't believe WSL team is taking so long with this issue, which clearly is happening to many users AND is preventing us from doing our work.

[simondebbarma]

@PedroLamas It worked for me too, I don't use Docker much so I removed it. I'll reinstall it and try again later tonight.

[mishrasatyam]

Solve "process exited with code 4294967295" , run netsh winsock reset as Administrator, then reboot your computer. The result like below:

❯ netsh winsock reset

Sucessfully reset the Winsock Catalog.
You must restart the computer in order to complete the reset.

This works for me

[skorov]

I get this error every time I reboot. @PedroLamas Do you if there's a more permanent workaround until the issue gets resolved? Thanks for the investigation btw!

[pedrolamas]

@skorov I'm afraid I don't have a more permanent solution for this, that will have to come from Microsoft themselves...

[elmorekevin]

+1 None of these solutions are working for me. My machine just updated overnight and I got the Access Denied message...

[ivesovanes]

netsh winsock reset

Sucessfully reset the Winsock Catalog. You must restart the computer in order to complete the reset.

Did not work for me. My solution was:

Uninstall Docker Desktop Restart machine Install Docker Desktop

[raulftang]

same issue here. None of these solutions are working for me. Please fix this soon. Thanks

[odoucet]

I made it work by following : https://github.com/microsoft/WSL/issues/5092#issuecomment-645567980

then kill SharedAccess service.

And it wasn't enough, so I opened a powershell with Admin grants and typed : wsl -l -v wsl bash wsl -l -v then it worked.

[tomasaschan]

For me, killing SharedAccess service and restarting Docker did not help.

However, running wsl --terminate Ubuntu-20.04 fixed it instantly. I have no idea if any of the previous steps were prerequisites, but I believe not.

[emadhajjar]

None of these solutions are working for me.

I made it work by uninstalling "Windows Subsystem for Linux Update" and install it again.

[hwine]

However, running wsl --terminate Ubuntu-20.04 fixed it instantly. I have no idea if any of the previous steps were prerequisites, but I believe not.

Just this step worked for me, even though wsl --list --running did not show any running instances

[dkotama]

Today update KB4565503 breaks my wsl

I don't have docker enable, so my SharedAccess Service is turned off by default

I fixed by Disable - Restart - Enable the WSL Feature Following this One

I'm solved this with:

DISM /online /disable-feature /featurename:VirtualMachinePlatform /norestart
DISM /online /disable-feature /featurename:Microsoft-Windows-Subsystem-Linux /norestart

Reboot, and then:

DISM /online /enable-feature /featurename:VirtualMachinePlatform /norestart
DISM /online /enable-feature /featurename:Microsoft-Windows-Subsystem-Linux /norestart

After that just run wsl command again, i waited for ~5 minutes for my Ubuntu-20.04 to boot up.

[lesserevil]

Today update KB4565503 breaks my wsl

I don't have docker enable, so my SharedAccess Service is turned off by default

I fixed by Disable - Restart - Enable the WSL Feature Following this One

I'm solved this with:

DISM /online /disable-feature /featurename:VirtualMachinePlatform /norestart
DISM /online /disable-feature /featurename:Microsoft-Windows-Subsystem-Linux /norestart

Reboot, and then:

DISM /online /enable-feature /featurename:VirtualMachinePlatform /norestart
DISM /online /enable-feature /featurename:Microsoft-Windows-Subsystem-Linux /norestart

After that just run wsl command again, i waited for ~5 minutes for my Ubuntu-20.04 to boot up.

This fixed my issue. Thanks!

[lisiur]

1. open powershell as administrator
2. type wsl
3. fixed

---

(Updated: 2022/09/23)

1. open powershell as administrator
2. type wsl --shutdown
3. fixed

[dkotama]

1. open powershell as administrator

2. type `wsl`

3. fixed

Surprisingly this one works, but when using windows terminal I'm still getting permission error

Edit, I found possible "permanent" workaround Enable "Full Control" permission for user fixes for me, this link.