File explorer crashes when opening WSL folders in Windows 11

[alex180500]

Version

Windows 11 [10.0.22000.348]

WSL Version

• WSL 2
• WSL 1

Kernel Version

5.10.74.3

Distro Version

Ubuntu 20.04

Other Software

wsl --version

WSL version: 0.50.2.0
Kernel version: 5.10.74.3
WSLg version: 1.0.29
Windows version: 10.0.22000.348

Repro Steps

Just opening the "Ubuntu" folder in File Explorer.

Expected Behavior

Should open the folder.

Actual Behavior

1 out of 3 times File Explorer just become unresponsible and crashes, using the WSL terminal in the meantime works without any issue.

Diagnostic Logs

No response

[lediur]

I wonder if this is related to an issue I'm seeing as well #7773

[alex180500]

I think it is, I get your same problem when opening files using any windows software on wsl files (also this behaviour is kind of randomic, it works about 1/3 of the times)

[Venorcis]

I'm experiencing this on Windows 11 for a week or two now as well, with the WSL Preview version. Seemingly randomly but mostly after a few hours of working, the WSL drive becomes completely incessible from Windows (only the WSL terminal still works). AFAIK only a reboot can resolve it, really annoying.

[benhillis]

I'm having trouble reproducing this locally. If somebody could help narrow down how things get to this state it would be very helpful.

[alex180500]

1. Access to the files via any mean, open windows file explorer and move files, open a file using any windows app. Close it.
2. Wait 5 minutes
3. Open file explorer again and try opening the WSL folder
4. Enjoy the crash

[jsquire]

I'm having trouble reproducing this locally. If somebody could help narrow down how things get to this state it would be very helpful.

@benhillis: Opening a non-trivial project in Visual Studio from the WSL filesystem and then running the debugger is a trigger for me ~75% of the time. The build typically runs normally and then the debugger attach and symbol loading have a massive slow-down. After, just about any activity via the //wsl$ share will start to hang. Often, just working in Visual Studio against source on the WSL filesystem and saving files frequently will randomly cause the hang as well.

The last time it happened, I noticed the following, though I'm not sure if it has any significance:

>> dmesg | grep 9p                                                         

[    0.867422] 9p: Installing v9fs 9p2000 file system support
[    0.869883] FS-Cache: Netfs '9p' registered for caching
[    1.057234] 9pnet: Installing 9P2000 support
[    2.840855] 9pnet_virtio: no channels available for device drvfs
[    2.965188] 9pnet_virtio: no channels available for device drvfs
[    3.523789] 9pnet_virtio: no channels available for device drvfs
[    3.631238] 9pnet_virtio: no channels available for device drvfs
[  538.577483] init: (1) ERROR: LogException:26: FS: (null) Invalid argument @D:/a/1/s/src/linux/plan9/p9protohelpers.h:142 (Name)
[  541.150688] init: (1) ERROR: LogException:26: FS: (null) Invalid argument @D:/a/1/s/src/linux/plan9/p9protohelpers.h:142 (Name)
[  541.152132] init: (1) ERROR: LogException:26: FS: (null) Invalid argument @D:/a/1/s/src/linux/plan9/p9protohelpers.h:142 (Name)
[  541.159832] init: (1) ERROR: LogException:26: FS: (null) Invalid argument @D:/a/1/s/src/linux/plan9/p9protohelpers.h:142 (Name)
[  541.166194] init: (1) ERROR: LogException:26: FS: (null) Invalid argument @D:/a/1/s/src/linux/plan9/p9protohelpers.h:142 (Name)
[  541.172368] init: (1) ERROR: LogException:26: FS: (null) Invalid argument @D:/a/1/s/src/linux/plan9/p9protohelpers.h:142 (Name)
[  541.177941] init: (1) ERROR: LogException:26: FS: (null) Invalid argument @D:/a/1/s/src/linux/plan9/p9protohelpers.h:142 (Name)
[  541.188934] init: (1) ERROR: LogException:26: FS: (null) Invalid argument @D:/a/1/s/src/linux/plan9/p9protohelpers.h:142 (Name)
[  541.198901] init: (1) ERROR: LogException:26: FS: (null) Invalid argument @D:/a/1/s/src/linux/plan9/p9protohelpers.h:142 (Name)
[ 4035.983219] init: (1) ERROR: LogException:26: FS: (null) Invalid argument @D:/a/1/s/src/linux/plan9/p9protohelpers.h:142 (Name)
[ 4038.428534] init: (1) ERROR: LogException:26: FS: (null) Invalid argument @D:/a/1/s/src/linux/plan9/p9protohelpers.h:142 (Name)
[ 4038.433433] init: (1) ERROR: LogException:26: FS: (null) Invalid argument @D:/a/1/s/src/linux/plan9/p9protohelpers.h:142 (Name)
[ 4038.441183] init: (1) ERROR: LogException:26: FS: (null) Invalid argument @D:/a/1/s/src/linux/plan9/p9protohelpers.h:142 (Name)
[ 4038.446752] init: (1) ERROR: LogException:26: FS: (null) Invalid argument @D:/a/1/s/src/linux/plan9/p9protohelpers.h:142 (Name)
[ 4038.451930] init: (1) ERROR: LogException:26: FS: (null) Invalid argument @D:/a/1/s/src/linux/plan9/p9protohelpers.h:142 (Name)
[ 4038.460326] init: (1) ERROR: LogException:26: FS: (null) Invalid argument @D:/a/1/s/src/linux/plan9/p9protohelpers.h:142 (Name)
[ 4038.464116] init: (1) ERROR: LogException:26: FS: (null) Invalid argument @D:/a/1/s/src/linux/plan9/p9protohelpers.h:142 (Name)
[ 4038.470673] init: (1) ERROR: LogException:26: FS: (null) Invalid argument @D:/a/1/s/src/linux/plan9/p9protohelpers.h:142 (Name)
[ 5005.202384] 9pnet_virtio: no channels available for device drvfsa
[ 5005.354292] 9pnet_virtio: no channels available for device drvfsa
[ 5005.504846] 9pnet_virtio: no channels available for device drvfsa
[ 5015.535921] 9pnet_virtio: no channels available for device drvfsa
[ 5015.685556] 9pnet_virtio: no channels available for device drvfsa

Environment:

>> wsl --version

WSL version: 0.50.2.0
Kernel version: 5.10.74.3
WSLg version: 1.0.29
Windows version: 10.0.22000.318

[Zeebzog]

Same problem. Works 1 in 3 times. If crashes can only be fixed by reboot.
Also since the last crash I cannot from Ubuntu start visual code by time code ., now just hangs

[jsquire]

Same problem. Works 1 in 3 times. If crashes can only be fixed by reboot. Also since the last crash I cannot from Ubuntu start visual code by time code ., now just hangs

This has happened to me as well. What worked for me was to do a wsl --shutdown, repair the "Windows Subsystem for Linux Preview" app, and then reboot.

The hang continues to happen, but I was able to launch code and other Windows tools from WSL again.

[alex180500]

Another thing to point out is that whenever you first start the wsl, file explorer (or vscode or 9p for that matter) works all the time (at least for me), these crashes only happens after a while.

[Venorcis]

I'm having trouble reproducing this locally. If somebody could help narrow down how things get to this state it would be very helpful.

@benhillis: Opening a non-trivial project in Visual Studio from the WSL filesystem and then running the debugger is a trigger for me ~75% of the time. The build typically runs normally and then the debugger attach and symbol loading have a massive slow-down. After, just about any activity via the //wsl$ share will start to hang. Often, just working in Visual Studio against source on the WSL filesystem and saving files frequently will randomly cause the hang as well.

The last time it happened, I noticed the following, though I'm not sure if it has any significance:

>> dmesg | grep 9p                                                         

[    0.867422] 9p: Installing v9fs 9p2000 file system support
[    0.869883] FS-Cache: Netfs '9p' registered for caching
[    1.057234] 9pnet: Installing 9P2000 support
[    2.840855] 9pnet_virtio: no channels available for device drvfs
[    2.965188] 9pnet_virtio: no channels available for device drvfs
[    3.523789] 9pnet_virtio: no channels available for device drvfs
[    3.631238] 9pnet_virtio: no channels available for device drvfs
[  538.577483] init: (1) ERROR: LogException:26: FS: (null) Invalid argument @D:/a/1/s/src/linux/plan9/p9protohelpers.h:142 (Name)
[  541.150688] init: (1) ERROR: LogException:26: FS: (null) Invalid argument @D:/a/1/s/src/linux/plan9/p9protohelpers.h:142 (Name)
[  541.152132] init: (1) ERROR: LogException:26: FS: (null) Invalid argument @D:/a/1/s/src/linux/plan9/p9protohelpers.h:142 (Name)
[  541.159832] init: (1) ERROR: LogException:26: FS: (null) Invalid argument @D:/a/1/s/src/linux/plan9/p9protohelpers.h:142 (Name)
[  541.166194] init: (1) ERROR: LogException:26: FS: (null) Invalid argument @D:/a/1/s/src/linux/plan9/p9protohelpers.h:142 (Name)
[  541.172368] init: (1) ERROR: LogException:26: FS: (null) Invalid argument @D:/a/1/s/src/linux/plan9/p9protohelpers.h:142 (Name)
[  541.177941] init: (1) ERROR: LogException:26: FS: (null) Invalid argument @D:/a/1/s/src/linux/plan9/p9protohelpers.h:142 (Name)
[  541.188934] init: (1) ERROR: LogException:26: FS: (null) Invalid argument @D:/a/1/s/src/linux/plan9/p9protohelpers.h:142 (Name)
[  541.198901] init: (1) ERROR: LogException:26: FS: (null) Invalid argument @D:/a/1/s/src/linux/plan9/p9protohelpers.h:142 (Name)
[ 4035.983219] init: (1) ERROR: LogException:26: FS: (null) Invalid argument @D:/a/1/s/src/linux/plan9/p9protohelpers.h:142 (Name)
[ 4038.428534] init: (1) ERROR: LogException:26: FS: (null) Invalid argument @D:/a/1/s/src/linux/plan9/p9protohelpers.h:142 (Name)
[ 4038.433433] init: (1) ERROR: LogException:26: FS: (null) Invalid argument @D:/a/1/s/src/linux/plan9/p9protohelpers.h:142 (Name)
[ 4038.441183] init: (1) ERROR: LogException:26: FS: (null) Invalid argument @D:/a/1/s/src/linux/plan9/p9protohelpers.h:142 (Name)
[ 4038.446752] init: (1) ERROR: LogException:26: FS: (null) Invalid argument @D:/a/1/s/src/linux/plan9/p9protohelpers.h:142 (Name)
[ 4038.451930] init: (1) ERROR: LogException:26: FS: (null) Invalid argument @D:/a/1/s/src/linux/plan9/p9protohelpers.h:142 (Name)
[ 4038.460326] init: (1) ERROR: LogException:26: FS: (null) Invalid argument @D:/a/1/s/src/linux/plan9/p9protohelpers.h:142 (Name)
[ 4038.464116] init: (1) ERROR: LogException:26: FS: (null) Invalid argument @D:/a/1/s/src/linux/plan9/p9protohelpers.h:142 (Name)
[ 4038.470673] init: (1) ERROR: LogException:26: FS: (null) Invalid argument @D:/a/1/s/src/linux/plan9/p9protohelpers.h:142 (Name)
[ 5005.202384] 9pnet_virtio: no channels available for device drvfsa
[ 5005.354292] 9pnet_virtio: no channels available for device drvfsa
[ 5005.504846] 9pnet_virtio: no channels available for device drvfsa
[ 5015.535921] 9pnet_virtio: no channels available for device drvfsa
[ 5015.685556] 9pnet_virtio: no channels available for device drvfsa

Environment:

>> wsl --version

WSL version: 0.50.2.0
Kernel version: 5.10.74.3
WSLg version: 1.0.29
Windows version: 10.0.22000.318

For me it's roughly the same, it seems mostly working in a PhpStorm project residing on the WSL drive just randomly causes this every few minutes.

Also at that point the same behaviour as #7787 and #7371 occurs

[benhillis]

@jsquire - Could you enable 9p logging in your distro so I can see what's going on?

wsl.exe --shutdown
wsl -u root vi /etc/wsl.conf
Add this line:
fileServer.logFile=/path/to/log/file
wsl.exe --shutdown

And share the log file after you repro? Thanks!

[ghost]

Hello! Could you please provide more logs to help us better diagnose your issue? You can find instructions on how to attach logs here, please make sure to post the link to the Feedback Hub item in this chat so we can see it.

Thank you!

[jsquire]

@jsquire - Could you enable 9p logging in your distro so I can see what's going on?

Happy to. Is it safe to assume that the fileServer.logFile setting should go in the [automount] label in wsl.conf? That's where I've put it for now.

EDIT:
That doesn't appear to be the correct section to add it to and, unfortunately, the docs don't detail that setting. I had this enabled and just did the freeze/reboot dance and have no long to show for it.

@benhillis: I'd appreciate your insight.

[Biswa96]

It should be something like this in /etc/wsl.conf file:

[fileServer]
enabled=true
logFile=/mnt/c/MyFiles/9p.log

automount and fileServer are two different sections.

[marforon]

It seems to only happen if you have installed WSL through Microsoft Store - https://www.microsoft.com/store/productId/9P9TQF7MRM4R.
Since I uninstalled WSL as the app and installed WSL throuh wsl --install it hasn't happened yet.

Until it's fixed, it's useless. I spent lot of time with reinstalling the Windows. In my case, IDE was also freezing as it couldn't access files, very annoying.

[overflowz]

can confirm, it's really annoying. I also have WSL installed both via apps and features (long time ago) and through the microsoft store. I can't risk uninstalling it (I don't want my files on WSL to be removed).

[marforon]

can confirm, it's really annoying. I also have WSL installed both via apps and features (long time ago) and through the microsoft store. I can't risk uninstalling it (I don't want my files on WSL to be removed).

I haven't lost anything, I just had to toggle WSL feature https://pureinfotech.com/uninstall-wsl2-windows-10/. But it's not smooth change, if I wouldn't have everything backed up, I wouldn't risk it either.

[jsquire]

It should be something like this in /etc/wsl.conf file:

[fileServer]
enabled=true
logFile=/mnt/c/MyFiles/9p.log

Thanks, @Biswa96. The fileServer section isn't in the docs, so I didn't recognize the notation that Ben was using and assumed this was just an undocumented debugging key.

[Biswa96]

I requested to document it some days ago here MicrosoftDocs/WSL#1365 (comment)

[workeffortwaste]

As mentioned above simply uninstalling the WSL Preview app from the Store and letting it fallback to the WSL version supplied with Windows 11 has resolved this issue for me.

[jsquire]

@benhillis: I captured logs over several hang/reboot cycles and uploaded one via Feedback Hub as requested. It was logged as bug #37313951.

Unfortunately, the logs showed nothing unusual - just accepted/connected/disconnected info messages. During the hangs, dmesg seems to consistently capture the "no channels" message that I referenced above and often the log exception as well.

To attempt to unblock myself for now, I've shifted to the Win11 built-in WSL feature and uninstalled the preview app as has been suggested by others.

[overflowz]

Looks like uninstalling the app from the Microsoft store also solved the issue for me.

[spences10]

I've got this happening on my 'normal' Windows 11 machine also can confirm same behaviour on a new Windows 11 insiders build.

Installed Windows Subsystem for Linux Preview from the store and had the same issues with code . and explorer.exe . hanging.

I thought this was only a Ubuntu thing as using a Fedora distro I wasn't having any issues and I can have the issue happen on Ubuntu which makes it unusable I can then switch over to Fedora and use the file explorer.

[spences10]

Uninstalling reinstall didn't resolve this for me.

I even tried removing the Windows store app and going via the usual method with that issue persisting.

I'm on OS build 22509.1011.

I haven't done that same trouble shooting on my 'normal' release Win 11 but the same issue with explorer.exe was on there as well.

I started using Fedora and so far haven't had the same issue on that distribution, is it an Ubuntu specific thing?

[spences10]

Scratch that!

Still happens with my Fedora instance

[intdel]

The workaround is to remove the WSL version installed from the store as explained here:
#7754 (comment)

[DanPinGF]

If you look at the C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\WER\ReportArchive folder you might find useful information for the crash(es). Just open the .WER files in Notepad.

[OneBlue]

Thanks @marco-pm, unfortunately I don't see anything in the logs that would explain this issue.

Besides the Feedback hub logs, the 9p verbose logs would be really useful here. Quoting @Biswa96, the way to enable the logs is to add:

[fileServer]
logFile=/9p-logs.txt

to /etc/wsl.conf (let's not use /mnt/c since something is clearly wrong with 9p).

Then share the resulting 9p-logs.txt after a repro.

[marco-pm]

Thanks @marco-pm, unfortunately I don't see anything in the logs that would explain this issue.

Besides the Feedback hub logs, the 9p verbose logs would be really useful here. Quoting @Biswa96, the way to enable the logs is to add:

[fileServer]
logFile=/9p-logs.txt

to /etc/wsl.conf (let's not use /mnt/c since something is clearly wrong with 9p).

Then share the resulting 9p-logs.txt after a repro.

Done.
At first (for several hours, while I was using File Explorer normally) only a series of these three connection entries:

INFO:     PostAccept
INFO:     Accepted connection.
INFO:     Connection disconnected.

After the issue arose, the logging simply stopped. No errors, no more entries.
After a shutdown and restart of WSL2, Server started. is logged, but after that still no more entries.

[OneBlue]

Thanks @marco-pm. Can you share both the 9p logs and the rest of the wsl logs from the same repro ?

[swichers]

This may be weirdly related to the 500 series NVIDIA driver. I was having this issue (and various other ones that stem from it) consistently and daily. I recently downgraded to 472.12 and cannot duplicate the problem any longer. Worth checking if you have an NVIDIA card.

[alex180500]

I don't think the problem is GPU related, I've got an AMD card (RX 580). Maybe you have problem replicating it because this bug is really unpredictable, I also have difficulties replicating this bug consistently.

[marco-pm]

Thanks @marco-pm. Can you share both the 9p logs and the rest of the wsl logs from the same repro ?

Like others, I'm struggling a bit to reproduce the bug and collect the logs.
It has almost never happened in the last few days, which I strange because practically nothing has changed in my system (no system/drivers/store updates, no changes to installed apps, etc.).
Collecting the logs with wpr is a bit of a hassle because if left running over time it generates a bigger and bigger (like 2 GB) trace file, so until the bug shows up I have to stop it and restart it manually every 1-2 hours or so (to avoid having a huge trace file). And again, it appears that this log and the 9p logs are not very helpful in identifying the cause of the problem.

[benhillis]

Thanks everybody for your help so far, I'm actively working on getting a local repro.

[ByteProject]

Thanks @benhillis, I have the same problem here. And it is not only the file explorer. It's generally if you're trying to execute an Windows binary from WSL. Could be Explorer.exe could be Notepad.exe, it really doesn't matter. It keeps crashing and only a reboot is capable of getting back to normal. The only thing that really helped is uninstalling the Store version. This issue is definitely somehow connected to the Store version as the issues began after I installed it and completely went away after I uninstalled the store version.

[jsquire]

Since reverting to the bundled Windows feature version, I've noticed that the hang behavior does not present, but accessing the WSL filesystem from Windows does seem to degrade over time. This was also an issue in the Windows Store version, but I had assumed it was related to the hang.

In my scenario, I've got source code in the WSL file system that I'm editing with Visual Studio. When I first start working in a directory, running and debugging takes place with the same general performance as doing so for items in the Windows filesystem. Over time, it takes several (~5-10) minutes for Visual Studio to fully launch the test host and attach the debugger. If I nuke the directory, recreate, and clone the repository, performance is normal for a bit and then degrades again.

To be fair, I cannot rule out Visual Studio 2022 and/or Windows 11 as the culprit here; I did not have these issues with the same scenario using Win10 / VS2019 / and the bundled WSL - they started after a clean format + rebuild with Win11. To date, I have not yet gotten around to reinstalling VS2019 to see if the experience is equivalent.

[marco-pm]

I don't know if this may help identify the cause and if others are experiencing the same: when the problem occurs, not only the WSL filesystem becomes inaccessible from File Explorer, but also:

• directories (any Windows path, including desktop) no longer refresh automatically to reflect file changes; I have to refresh them manually
• when using an "Open File" dialog in any application, after selecting the file, the loading of the file afterwards freezes for about 3-4 seconds

[newcron]

Having the same issue. My theory is that this might be caused by filesystem activity inside WSL while using the same files from windows. e.g. having filesystem watches for continuous rebuilds of code inside WSL while files are open in the IDE on windows, or doing git commands from commandline while IDE is open.

[alex180500]

Maybe I found a good repro.

1. use ffmpeg to convert a file or do some task within the wsl with explorer open in a wsl folder
2. it should crash explorer within a few minutes

[deveshsangwan]

Having the same issue. My theory is that this might be caused by filesystem activity inside WSL while using the same files from windows. e.g. having filesystem watches for continuous rebuilds of code inside WSL while files are open in the IDE on windows, or doing git commands from commandline while IDE is open.

May be you are right, I was having vscode open and used git commands.

[okibcn]

Sadly I am experiencing that issue quite often. After a number of opening and closing files using vscode from WSL, the interop between Windows and WSL fails. At this time the Ubuntu 20.04 distro, installed from Microsoft Store, can't be accessed from Windows. However, it can access /mnt/c/ mount. Obviously, vscode is not working in that distro.

However, this is quite interesting, I also have the latest daily distro of Ubuntu 22.04 for WSL. I don't have any problem there. At this time, from Windows PowerShell I can do:

ls \\wsl\localhost\Ubuntu-22.04\

But when doing this, powershell hangs:

ls \\wsl\localhost\Ubuntu-20.04\

Same behavior happens when trying to access those locations with explorer.exe

wsl --shutdown doesn't fix the issue. ANd IP works perfectly, as I can create a webserver and access it from windows.

[xthiago]

This issue is happening a lot with me since December. I'm using Windows 11.

Today I received an automatic Windows Subsystem for Linux Preview update from the MS Store and the issue is happening more frequently.

wsl --version
Versão do WSL: 0.51.3.0
Versão do kernel: 5.10.93.2
Versão do WSLg: 1.0.30
Versão do Windows: 10.0.22000.493

[zzjin]

Sadly I am experiencing this issue quite often too.
When this bug appear, I can access wsl from explorer address bar using \\wsl$\Ubunutu-20.04 but cannot open wsl folders using \\wsl.localhost/Ubunutu-20.04(witch is exploer.exe's default access location)

[tovutifunk]

Same to report here. I'd been about an hour into things after after install tonight before it wasn;t happy. I have not been able to truly use it since. I was able to move a couple files now whenever I click on anything to do with Linux I crash and need to force restart.

[hbirler]

EDIT: The issue also seems to happen with Ubuntu 22.04. So my initial comment was wrong

I was having exactly the same problems with the WSL2 store version and Ubuntu 21.10. The problem did not get fixed even after multiple clean installs of Win11. However, after another recent clean install, I installed a daily build for Ubuntu 22.04 as suggested by @okibcn and do not have the problems anymore.

[okibcn]

EDIT: The issue also seems to happen with Ubuntu 22.04. So my initial comment was wrong

I was having exactly the same problems with the WSL2 store version and Ubuntu 21.10. The problem did not get fixed even after multiple clean installs of Win11. However, after another recent clean install, I installed a daily build for Ubuntu 22.04 as suggested by @okibcn and do not have the problems anymore.

Well, I wasn´t saying that 22.04 would be error-free. I was just illustrating the fact that when the error happens, it affects only one distro, not all of them. If you want to get rid of the issue so far the only workaround is to uninstall the WSL Preview from the MS Store and continue using the older WSL2 installed as part of Windows Feature set.

[geoff-maddock]

I'm also having this issue with WSL1. If I start WSL, Ubuntu 22.04 it dies with

The I/O operation has been aborted becayse of either a thread exit or an application request
[process exited with code 4294967295]

I've tried to restart WSL, but it fails:

PS C:\Users\cutups> wsl
The I/O operation has been aborted because of either a thread exit or an application request.

[rvanlaak]

I two months ago did try excluding causes by trying to reproduce the issue on Alpine, and had it for both the non-store and the store preview version.

[OneBlue]

Thanks a lot to everyone who posted logs and helped with this investigation.

We have identified the root cause of this issue in #7883 (see this comment for the detailed explanation).

Closing this as duplicate.

[patric-r]

If you're suing Avira (or potentially another anti-virus software)
try #7479 (comment)

This fixed the issue for me. So we don't have to blame MS, we have to blame the anti virus guys...