WSL2. Can no longer find 'C:\Program Files\WSL\system.vhd'

[simonlaszcz]

Windows Version

10.0.22621.3007

WSL Version

2.0.14.0

Are you using WSL 1 or WSL 2?

• WSL 2
• WSL 1

Kernel Version

No response

Distro Version

Debian

Other Software

No response

Repro Steps

Try to open console
or
try wsl --export

Expected Behavior

For it to work

Actual Behavior

Failed to attach disk 'C:\Program Files\WSL\system.vhd' to WSL2: The system cannot find the file specified.
Error code: Wsl/Service/CreateInstance/CreateVm/MountVhd/HCS/ERROR_FILE_NOT_FOUND

[process exited with code 4294967295 (0xffffffff)]
You can now close this terminal with Ctrl+D, or press Enter to restart.

Diagnostic Logs

No response

[github-actions]

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[alexbogias]

Same here after installed v2.1.1.0

[soudai]

me too.

PS C:\Users\alfta> wsl --version
WSL バージョン: 2.0.14.0
カーネル バージョン: 5.15.133.1-1
WSLg バージョン: 1.0.59
MSRDC バージョン: 1.2.4677
Direct3D バージョン: 1.611.1-81528511
DXCore バージョン: 10.0.25131.1002-220531-1700.rs-onecore-base2-hyp
Windows バージョン: 10.0.22631.3085

PS C:\Users\alfta> wsl --update
更新プログラムを確認しています。
Linux 用 Windows サブシステムの最新バージョンは既にインストールされています。
PS C:\Users\alfta>

[simonlaszcz]

I just reinstalled WSL2 in the end, after first copying the vhdx in my AppData to a safe location, just in case.
My original distro was untouched by the reinstallation and worked as expected.

[ZKBL]

mee too

[alexbogias]

I reinstalled also and worked...

[OneBlue]

This is unfortunately a known issue when upgrading from an older version. The way to solve this is to manually download and install the new version.

You can find the latest MSI there: https://github.com/microsoft/WSL/releases/tag/2.1.1

[simonlaszcz]

I have to say though, that it worked fine for a couple of days after the upgrade. Then the vhd suddenly 'disappeared overnight'. Nevertheless, I will give this a go if it happens again.

[CoreySchnedl]

@OneBlue Thank you! Confirmed this fixed the issue for me. Saved me a bunch of time, because every other thread seemed to recognize unmounting and re-installing which would have took a ton of time for me to re-setup my workspaces.

Same thing as @simonlaszcz, I updated wsl everything worked fine, next day I get this error.

[jeromefischer]

I was also using 2.0.14 and lost two days in a row the Ubuntu distro. Now I give a try with the latest version 2.1.1.

Error message in wsl 2.0.14:

Failed to attach disk 'C:\Program Files\WSL\system.vhd' to WSL2: Das System kann die angegebene Datei nicht finden.
Error code: Wsl/Service/CreateInstance/CreateVm/MountVhd/HCS/ERROR_FILE_NOT_FOUND

[ICHx]

this helped, thanks. But absolutely confusing as an 'known issue' this is nowhere to be seen

[xijujie]

Thanks @OneBlue! Upgrading to v2.1.3 fixed this issue.

[DMBerlin]

This is unfortunately a known issue when upgrading from an older version. The way to solve this is to manually download and install the new version.

You can find the latest MSI there: https://github.com/microsoft/WSL/releases/tag/2.1.1

You saved my file! Thank you!

[jtognazzi]

Same behavior here.
I update WSL2 on Friday with wsl --update.
It worked until I rebooted today, and now I have the same error.

Reinstalling wsl.2.1.5.0.x64.msi does not fix the issue !
I never got the feedback that it was successfully installed, but there was also no error...

I then went to look into the msi archive a extracted the systemd.vhd file as system.vhd.
and now it seems to work.

But this is really not a user friendly process :-(

[OneBlue]

@jtognazzi: Can you share logs of the installation of 2.1.5.0 if that doesn't solve the issue ?

You can collect them via msiexec /i /L*V C:\wsllogs.txt

[jtognazzi]

@OneBlue
Should I try to reinstall the msi package via your cmd ?
So this is what I did:
msiexec.exe /i wsl.2.1.5.0.x64.msi /L*V C:\Securiton\wsllogs.txt
and I attached the resulting logs...
wsllogs.txt

[FrameMuse]

I couldn't initiate my old vhdx disk eventually, but I handled to move all my precious data to another subsystem by mounting the disk via wsl --mount ext4.vhdx --vhd command.

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/wsl/wsl2-mount-disk

[PascalRoessnerDSA]

Same behavior here. I update WSL2 on Friday with wsl --update. It worked until I rebooted today, and now I have the same error.

Reinstalling wsl.2.1.5.0.x64.msi does not fix the issue ! I never got the feedback that it was successfully installed, but there was also no error...

I then went to look into the msi archive a extracted the systemd.vhd file as system.vhd. and now it seems to work.

But this is really not a user friendly process :-(

Exact same issue here. The proposed solution also worked -

for extracting the system.vhd file from the msi installer I ran

msiexec /a c:\tmp\wsl.2.1.5.0.x64.msi /qb TARGETDIR=c:\tmp\wsl

The file is then at the following location

c:\tmp\wsl\system.vhd

from there just copy it to C:\Program Files\WSL\system.vhd

[WangFengtu1996]

I also have same error.

(base) PS C:\Users\11487> wsl --version
WSL 版本： 2.2.4.0
内核版本： 5.15.153.1-2
WSLg 版本： 1.0.61
MSRDC 版本： 1.2.5326
Direct3D 版本： 1.611.1-81528511
DXCore 版本： 10.0.26091.1-240325-1447.ge-release
Windows 版本： 10.0.22631.3737

I copy from my colleague PC same file to my PC with same version, then it can launch. system.vhd is rootfs for OS.

[stephenLucien]

Same behavior here. I update WSL2 on Friday with wsl --update. It worked until I rebooted today, and now I have the same error.

Reinstalling wsl.2.1.5.0.x64.msi does not fix the issue ! I never got the feedback that it was successfully installed, but there was also no error...

I then went to look into the msi archive a extracted the systemd.vhd file as system.vhd. and now it seems to work.

But this is really not a user friendly process :-(

Perfect, it works for me! Actually, I extracted the systemd.vhd from latest msi archive and renamed it to system.vhd, and it works well. But I cannot extract this file directly to folder C://Program Files/WSL, it pops up a window indicating permission deny, so I extract it to other folder and then copy to C://Program Files/WSL.

[stephenLucien]

Same behavior here. I update WSL2 on Friday with wsl --update. It worked until I rebooted today, and now I have the same error.
Reinstalling wsl.2.1.5.0.x64.msi does not fix the issue ! I never got the feedback that it was successfully installed, but there was also no error...
I then went to look into the msi archive a extracted the systemd.vhd file as system.vhd. and now it seems to work.
But this is really not a user friendly process :-(

Perfect, it works for me! Actually, I extracted the systemd.vhd from latest msi archive and renamed it to system.vhd, and it works well. But I cannot extract this file directly to folder C://Program Files/WSL, it pops up a window indicating permission deny, so I extract it to other folder and then copy to C://Program Files/WSL.