Error 0xc03a001a when installing ArchWSL

[ItachiSan]

IMPORTANT Please read README and Docs before creating the issue. -> Done

Please fill out the below information: Describe the issue The installer via the .zip method fails if

• the filesystem is NTFS
• the filesystem has compression enabled

To Reproduce Steps to reproduce the behavior:

1. Prepare the zip installation
2. Make the folder compressed, by
   1. Clicking Properties in an empty area of Explorer when in the folder
   2. Clicking Advanced
   3. Check the Compression option if unchecked
3. Run the installer.

Expected behavior A clear and concise description of what you expected to happen.

The issue seems a WSL one: https://github.com/microsoft/WSL/issues/4103#issuecomment-501885534 My suggestion is to report it in the README file and in the known issues.

Screenshots The error log is:

> .\ArchFail.exe
Using: D:\WSL\ArchLinux - Copy\rootfs.tar.gz
Installing...
ERROR:Installation Failed!
HRESULT:0xc03a001a
Press any key to continue...

I can make a video presenting the issue.

Enviroment:

• Windows build number: 10.0.19042.746
• Security Software: Windows Defender
• WSL version 1/2: WSL2
• ArchWSL version: 20.11.25.0
• ArchWSL Installer type: zip clean
• Launcher version: 20112500

Additional context Add any other context about the problem here.

[escape0707]

Although it's interesting to know that we should avoid installing in this way, I feel not confident about changing documentation of ArchWSL to address this kind of potential problem.

This is an issue which is caused by upstream implementation just as you've stated. And I don't feel pretty helpful to copy and list every kind of error code with their cause/solution here. Besides, the error code is consistent with what other distros will give and by searching that first people could found the answer they needed at a better place (upstream) and discuss there.

[ItachiSan]

I believe then that a good approach is to

• mention the possible issue
• refer to the upstream issue

so that

1. People know that is a WSL issue and not of this project
2. People won't have to try a bunch of stuff & Googling, which I had to do

Lemme know if you have a better suggestion 😄

[escape0707]

Hummm, that sounds interesting. For me, when I encounter errors report like this, the first thing I'll do is to Google/DuckDuckGo the error code which is 0xc03a001a here. If I don't get something related I'll go to search for WSL + error code, or ArchWSL + error code, or full error report, etc.

And actually using Google and the first search term, I can already find useful information in the first result.

But, well, I can see the error report itself is somewhat not descriptive. Maybe include some extra information like which step / system(dependency) call threw the error could be helpful. I think by that we can guide people to search for solution in the correct scope.

[ItachiSan]

Sounds quite good for me :)

So, what should be the next steps?

[escape0707]

(Sorry for being late to reply, I'm preparing for an entry level foreign language proficiency test and after the exam I'll try to look into this...

Edit: Sorry. I've switched to Arch Linux fully for a very long time before I realized that I forget about this issue. If anyone would like to take a look at this issue, please go ahead and give it a try.

Personally, I would highly recommend you to try using a bare metal Arch Linux installation. Maybe dual boot with a Windows OS. If you feel struggling to set up Arch Linux for the first time. You can try installing it from a USB external drive passed-through to a Hyper-V Arch Live ISO environment, follow the installation guide and Arch wiki page about installing to external USB. Then, after everything is done, you can simply reboot your computer from the USB drive.

Once again, I'm very sorry for being unable to keep my promise. But I look back from current perspective as a dedicated Arch user, I don't think using Arch inside a WSL environment is a good solution anymore. And you will find more trouble when you want to do anything with it or troubleshooting than the effort using a WSLed Arch can save for you.

[ItachiSan]

No problem at all! Life is busy for everyone :) In my case, work is 🤣 Ping back after the exam 😉