WSL2 fails to launch Ubuntu and Debian
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Description
**Errors observed:**
Catastrophic failure → Error code: Wsl/Service/E_UNEXPECTED
After repeated attempts: An existing connection was forcibly closed by the remote host. Error code: Wsl/Service/CreateInstance/0x80072746
**System Details**
Windows build: Windows 11 Insider build 26200.6899 (fresh reinstall already performed)
WSL version: 2.6.1.0
Kernel version: 6.6.87.2-1
WSLg version: 1.0.66
MSRDC version: 1.2.6353
Direct3D version: 1.611.1-81528511
DXCore version: 10.0.26100.1-240331-1435.ge-release
Windows version: 10.0.26200.6899
Hardware: Gigabyte Master X motherboard, Intel i7 CPU, 64 GB RAM
WSL status:
Default Distribution: Ubuntu-24.04
Default Version: 2
Hyper-V: Enabled
**Steps Already Taken**
Unregistered the broken distro with wsl --unregister Ubuntu-24.04.
Reinstalled Ubuntu 24.04 → still fails with E_UNEXPECTED.
Tried Debian (wsl --install -d Debian) → same failure.
Reinstalled Windows 11 completely → issue persists.
Ran wsl --status → shows Ubuntu-24.04 as default, version 2.
Checked memory usage:
System has 64 GB RAM.
VmmemWSL uses only ~300 MB at crash time.
Confirms this is not an OOM (out of memory) issue.
Compared with GitHub issues:
#13263 (OOM crash) → ruled out.
downloaded and reinstalled wsl 2.6.1 and 2.6.2 from github→ issue persists
**What It’s Not**
Not a memory exhaustion issue (plenty of free RAM).
Not limited to Ubuntu (Debian also fails).
Not fixed by reinstalling Windows (problem persists after clean install).
Not a single corrupted distro (fresh installs also fail).
Not due to virtualization being disabled (Hyper-V is enabled).
Not 2.6.1 release problem. 2.6.2 release shows the same behaviors.
**Observation**: Ubuntu occasionally opens successfully, but after closing it, subsequent launches fail with Wsl/Service/E_UNEXPECTED. During the successful launches, Ubuntu behaves normally. But if I close that session, it won't start again, and multiple tries are needed.
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Assessment
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