microsoft / microsoft/WSL

WSL crashes shortly after startup

Open
#14,246 6 comments 0 reactions 0 assignees View on GitHub
Dominant language
C++
Stars
33.7k
Forks
1.8k
Avg merge
3d 17h
Merged PRs (30d)
116

Description

### Windows Version

Microsoft Windows [Version 10.0.26200.7840]

### WSL Version

2.6.3.0

### Are you using WSL 1 or WSL 2?

- [x] WSL 2
- [ ] WSL 1

### Kernel Version

6.6.87.2

### Distro Version

Ubuntu 24.04

### Other Software

_No response_

### Repro Steps

This machine previously had Ubuntu 20.04 installed on WSL2, but it was removed using `wsl --unregister`.

To reproduce the problem:
1. Execute `wsl --install` to install Ubuntu 24.04.
2. Execute `wsl` to run Ubuntu 24.04.
3. It displays
```
Provisioning the new WSL instance Ubuntu
This might take a while...
Create a default Unix user account: tzeng
logger: socket /dev/log: No such file or directory
logging to syslog failed: command line logger --id=215 --tag=adduser --priority=user.info -- Adding user `tzeng' ... returned error: 256
logger: socket /dev/log: No such file or directory
logging to syslog failed: command line logger --id=215 --tag=adduser --priority=user.info -- Selecting UID/GID from range 1000 to 59999 ... returned error: 256
logger: socket /dev/log: No such file or directory
logging to syslog failed: command line logger --id=215 --tag=adduser --priority=user.info -- Adding new group `tzeng' (1000) ... returned error: 256
logger: socket /dev/log: No such file or directory
logging to syslog failed: command line logger --id=215 --tag=adduser --priority=user.info -- Adding new user `tzeng' (1000) with group `tzeng (1000)' ... returned error: 256
logger: socket /dev/log: No such file or directory
logging to syslog failed: command line logger --id=215 --tag=adduser --priority=user.info -- Creating home directory `/home/tzeng' ... returned error: 256
logger: socket /dev/log: No such file or directory
logging to syslog failed: command line logger --id=215 --tag=adduser --priority=user.info -- Copying files from `/etc/skel' ... returned error: 256

New password:
Retype new password:
passwd: password updated successfully

logger: socket /dev/log: No such file or directory
logging to syslog failed: command line logger --id=215 --tag=adduser --priority=user.info -- Adding new user `tzeng' to supplemental / extra groups `users' ... returned error: 256
logger: socket /dev/log: No such file or directory
logging to syslog failed: command line logger --id=215 --tag=adduser --priority=user.info -- Adding user `tzeng' to group `users' ... returned error: 256
wsl: Failed to start the systemd user session for 'tzeng'. See journalctl for more details.
To run a command as administrator (user "root"), use "sudo ".
See "man sudo_root" for details.
```
4. After about 3 minutes, WSL will crash and jump back to the upper-level cmd window.

### Expected Behavior

Normal continuous execution.

### Actual Behavior

WSL crashes and jumps back to the upper-level cmd window.

### Diagnostic Logs

1. [WslLogs-2026-02-23_10-55-46.zip](https://github.com/user-attachments/files/25474916/WslLogs-2026-02-23_10-55-46.zip)

2. [WSL Debug Console](https://github.com/user-attachments/files/25475049/wsl_debug_console.log)

Contributor guide

Open the contributing guide

Research direction

Start by reproducing the failure with WSL 2, Ubuntu 24.04, and the listed Windows and kernel versions. Inspect WslLogs-2026-02-23_10-55-46.zip and wsl_debug_console.log, focusing on the delayed crash after provisioning; done means Ubuntu remains running normally instead of returning to the parent cmd window.

Written by the indexing model from the issue text.

Assessment

Tech stack
linux, ubuntu
Domain
operating-systems
Issue type
Bug
Difficulty
4/5
Estimated time
3-5 days
Activity status
Quiet
Clarity
Mostly clear
Newbie friendliness
42/100

Get new issues in your inbox

A short digest of beginner-friendly GitHub issues.