Problem in WSL where every distro starts as some strange WSLg distro

[mikedoy]

Recently working with wsl for development environments with VSCode and somehow I get into a "mode" where every distro I attempt to use is not the distro expected and is something with WSLg. Here is an example :
`
PS D:\wslsandbox> wsl -l -v
NAME STATE VERSION

• Ubuntu Stopped 2
  mikeenv Stopped 2
  tam Stopped 2
  docker Stopped 2
  LMTECH-18754 Stopped 2
  java17a Stopped 2
  docker-desktop Stopped 2
  stdenv3 Stopped 2
  docker-desktop-data Stopped 2
  java17 Stopped 2
  docker2 Stopped 2
  PS D:\wslsandbox> wsl -d Ubuntu
  wslg [ /mnt/d/wslsandbox ]$ cat /etc/os-release
  NAME="Common Base Linux Mariner"
  VERSION="2.0.20230107"
  ID=mariner
  VERSION_ID="2.0"
  PRETTY_NAME="CBL-Mariner/Linux"
  ANSI_COLOR="1;34"
  HOME_URL="https://aka.ms/cbl-mariner"
  BUG_REPORT_URL="https://aka.ms/cbl-mariner"
  SUPPORT_URL="https://aka.ms/cbl-mariner"
  wslg [ /mnt/d/wslsandbox ]$ exit
  logout
  PS D:\wslsandbox> wsl -d java17a
  wslg [ /mnt/d/wslsandbox ]$ cat /etc/os-release
  NAME="Common Base Linux Mariner"
  VERSION="2.0.20230107"
  ID=mariner
  VERSION_ID="2.0"
  PRETTY_NAME="CBL-Mariner/Linux"
  ANSI_COLOR="1;34"
  HOME_URL="https://aka.ms/cbl-mariner"
  BUG_REPORT_URL="https://aka.ms/cbl-mariner"
  SUPPORT_URL="https://aka.ms/cbl-mariner"
  wslg [ /mnt/d/wslsandbox ]$ exit
  logout
  PS D:\wslsandbox> wsl -d docker2
  wslg [ /mnt/d/wslsandbox ]$ cat /etc/os-release
  NAME="Common Base Linux Mariner"
  VERSION="2.0.20230107"
  ID=mariner
  VERSION_ID="2.0"
  PRETTY_NAME="CBL-Mariner/Linux"
  ANSI_COLOR="1;34"
  HOME_URL="https://aka.ms/cbl-mariner"
  BUG_REPORT_URL="https://aka.ms/cbl-mariner"
  SUPPORT_URL="https://aka.ms/cbl-mariner"
  wslg [ /mnt/d/wslsandbox ]$ exit
  logout
  PS D:\wslsandbox> wsl --shutdown
  PS D:\wslsandbox> wsl -d Ubuntu
  mdoyle@USSPNMDOYLE02:/mnt/d/wslsandbox$ cat /etc/os-release
  NAME="Ubuntu"
  VERSION="20.04 LTS (Focal Fossa)"
  ID=ubuntu
  ID_LIKE=debian
  PRETTY_NAME="Ubuntu 20.04 LTS"
  VERSION_ID="20.04"
  HOME_URL="https://www.ubuntu.com/"
  SUPPORT_URL="https://help.ubuntu.com/"
  BUG_REPORT_URL="https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/"
  PRIVACY_POLICY_URL="https://www.ubuntu.com/legal/terms-and-policies/privacy-policy"
  VERSION_CODENAME=focal
  UBUNTU_CODENAME=focal
  mdoyle@USSPNMDOYLE02:/mnt/d/wslsandbox$ exit
  logout
  PS D:\wslsandbox> wsl -d java17a
  (lawson) landmark ->cat /etc/os-release
  NAME="Amazon Linux"
  VERSION="2"
  ID="amzn"
  ID_LIKE="centos rhel fedora"
  VERSION_ID="2"
  PRETTY_NAME="Amazon Linux 2"
  ANSI_COLOR="0;33"
  CPE_NAME="cpe:2.3:o:amazon:amazon_linux:2"
  HOME_URL="https://amazonlinux.com/"
  (lawson) landmark ->exit
  logout
  PS D:\wslsandbox> wsl -d docker2
  -bash-4.2$ cat /etc/os-release
  NAME="Amazon Linux"
  VERSION="2"
  ID="amzn"
  ID_LIKE="centos rhel fedora"
  VERSION_ID="2"
  PRETTY_NAME="Amazon Linux 2"
  ANSI_COLOR="0;33"
  CPE_NAME="cpe:2.3:o:amazon:amazon_linux:2"
  HOME_URL="https://amazonlinux.com/"
  -bash-4.2$ exit
  logout
  `

I don't know exactly what causes it but IU can make it happen with a program I am writing which :
Imports new distro image
Runs a script on the image
Upon attempting to run an additional script on the image, the script fails because the expected distro it will run on is not the correct image. (wrong user, expected software does not exist, etc).

Any help with this would be greatly appreciated, Including information on this 'phantom' distro that appears to take over.

Thanks

[mikedoy]

Sorry I tried to put that output in a code block but that didn't seem to work.