WSL complete freeze

[schiorean]

Version

Microsoft Windows [Version 10.0.22000.918]

WSL Version

• WSL 2
• WSL 1

Kernel Version

5.15.57.1

Distro Version

Ubuntu 22.04

Other Software

PhpStorm 2022.2.1

Repro Steps

1. Open a large project in PhpStorm (starts indexing project fileds...)
2. Open another large project in PhpStorm (starts indexing project fileds...)
3. Keep switching between large projects and sooner or later WSL is completely frozen while PhpStorm is indexing files

Expected Behavior

PhpStorm finishes files indexing and WSL is usable.

Actual Behavior

WSL freezes completely including any wsl.exe command, so even wsl.exe --shutdown will hang forever. The only way to restart WSL is by doing a computer restart.

Diagnostic Logs

Uploading via Feedback Hub.

[schiorean]

Here is the Feedback Hub WLS logs https://aka.ms/AAi265d

[OneBlue]

Thanks for reporting this @schiorean. Unfortunately I'm not seeing any logs on Feedback Hub. Can you share logs here ?

[OneBlue]

/logs

[ghost]

Hello! Could you please provide more logs to help us better diagnose your issue?

To collect WSL logs, download and execute collect-wsl-logs.ps1 in an administrative powershell prompt:

Invoke-WebRequest -UseBasicParsing "https://raw.githubusercontent.com/microsoft/WSL/master/diagnostics/collect-wsl-logs.ps1" -OutFile collect-wsl-logs.ps1
Set-ExecutionPolicy Bypass -Scope Process -Force
.\collect-wsl-logs.ps1

The scipt will output the path of the log file once done.

Once completed please upload the output files to this Github issue.

Click here for more info on logging

Thank you!

[schiorean]

@OneBlue here's the log. Many thanks!

WslLogs-2022-09-13_14-38-49.zip

[OneBlue]

Thank you @schiorean. I'm not seeing anything that jumps out in the logs.

This looks like 'freeze' issue we've been investigating for a while.

If you can reproduce this consistently, can you please:

• First clear everything by running wsl --shutdown (make sure nothing is running). If this is unresponsive, kill wslservice.exe.
• Open a shell inside your the system distro (and leave it open) via: wsl --u root --system
• Install gdb in that shell via: [edited]
• Run the steps you described to get WSL into that "frozen" state in your regular distro (not inside the system distro)
• Once WSL is frozen, use the previously opened shell to dump all the 'init' processes via: gcore -a $(pgrep init)
• This will generate a few core.* files, please shares those on this issue
• Also please share a dump of wslservice.exe (you can do this via task manager, in the 'details' tab, right click on wslservice.exe, then 'Create dump file')
• Also please share the output of dmesg in the system shell

This should give us enough information to understand what's happening

[schiorean]

Hi @OneBlue,

I reproduced it again, but I don't have the gcore output because I can't figure out how to install gdb in the system shell (none of the usual commands are recognized e.g. trying apt install gdb I get -bash: apt: command not found). So until I can install gdb in the system shell (I sent an email to [edited] I am sharing here the output of dmesg and wslservice service dump.

Some extra notes, maybe it's helping:

1. Even though wsl.exe is frozen the currently open shells are still usable (btw, can't I install gdb in the normal, non-system, shell and provide the dump from there?)
2. The only way to restart WSL besides a full computer restart, is by opening a terminal as Administrator, then run hcsdiag list followed by hcsdiag kill.

I tried to upload the zip file containing the dumps here, but looks like File size is too big. I uploaded again in Feedback Hub https://aka.ms/AAi265d however when I open Details I can't see it... If you can't see it in Feedback Hub please tell me where to send the file?

[OneBlue]

Oh sorry @schiorean, that was a missed copy-paste from me.

What I meant was:
"Install gdb in that shell via tdnf install gdb"

But there was an unrelated email address in my clipboard (edited out). Sorry about that.

Can you try that and share the Linux dumps ? It should be possible to upload them directly on this issue.

[schiorean]

@OneBlue
I uploaded dmesg output, wslservice.exe dump is too big (> 25MB) and can't upload it here.
dmesg.txt

Later today I hope will provide the dbg dump too.

[OneBlue]

Thank you @schiorean. Sadly nothing jumps out from dmesg so we'll need the dumps to root cause this.

If the dumps are too big for Github, OneDrive / Google drive should work.
Given the symptoms I'm suspecting that the issue is on the Linux side, so the Linux dumps should be the most interesting files for this issue.

[philmb3487]

Hi, I am also getting random freezes like that.

[schiorean]

@OneBlue finally, attached are the core files.
And in case you missed it WSL Service logs I uploaded a few days ago #8824 (comment)

core.zip

[schiorean]

@OneBlue here's another core dump, this time it happened faster compared with the previous one. I estimate about ~20 minutes since started WSL & system console.

core-take-2.zip

[nexton-winjeel]

We've hit a similar issue here. I can't reliably reproduce it, but I do have a workaround that fixes our specific problem. In our case:

• We have a CI build that is running inside WSL.
• If Windows Defender starts scanning the build folder, WSL will freeze (as per @schiorean's description).
• If we exclude the build folder from Windows Defender, we don't see this behaviour.

As I said, I can't reliably reproduce this issue, but it seems to happen most often when a file is deleted in WSL (it seems to occur more frequently in the clean stage of our build).

[zed76r]

There is another way to restore WSL usable.

1. win+s Search WSL
2. right-click, "App Settings (应用设置 in my localized)"
3. then click "reset".

[schiorean]

If we exclude the build folder from Windows Defender, we don't see this behaviour.

@sypaq-nexton Unortunately, I have the WSL home folder added in "Virus & threat protection" exclusion for many months already, so it's not a solution (for me at least).

[OneBlue]

Thanks a lot for the dumps @schiorean.

We've published a new version of store wsl, if you can still reproduce the issue with the latest version, can you please share the Windows and Linux dumps of the same repro?

That would help us a lot

[schiorean]

@OneBlue wsl --update says I'm already at the latest version intalled (0.66.2.0).

[OneBlue]

If you're not enrolled in Windows insider, that makes sense since we haven't published that package everywhere yet.

You can install it without an insider account by downloading the package and running something like (elevated PowerShell) :

$installedPackage = Get-AppxPackage MicrosoftCorporationII.WindowsSubsystemforLinux -AllUsers
Remove-AppxPackage $installedPackage -AllUsers
Add-AppxPackage /path/to/msixbundle

[schiorean]

@OneBlue so it happened again with 0.67.6.0. I attached linux core dump and dmesg.
wslservice.exe dump file I uploaded via Feedback hub again, if for some reason you can't access it I will upload it in Google Drive, let me know please.
core_take_3.zip
dmesg.log

[schiorean]

Actually here's the wslservice.exe dump as well https://drive.google.com/file/d/19nPGc6-NOpv_f0RSp8-5kgRwW1Y-1y5n

[OneBlue]

Thanks @schiorean.

After looking at all the dumps, I have a good idea of where the issue is, but I'll need a bit more info to root cause it.

I built a private version of the package with extra logging: https://1drv.ms/u/s!AiWXuqXSX5K2d45U1MHyOchps0k?e=w8SSjC
To install it (elevated powershell):

# Remove the installed package
$installedPackage = Get-AppxPackage MicrosoftCorporationII.WindowsSubsystemforLinux -AllUsers
Remove-AppxPackage $installedPackage -AllUsers

# Trust the private package's certificate (since it's not an official build, it's not signed with the official Microsoft certificate)
(Get-AuthenticodeSignature "/path/to/msixbundle").SignerCertificate | Export-Certificate -FilePath private-wsl.cert
Import-Certificate -FilePath .\private-wsl.cert -CertStoreLocation Cert:\LocalMachine\Root

# Install the package
Add-AppxPackage /path/to/msixbundle

Once the package is installed:

• before doing anything please start the log collection with collect-wsl-logs.ps1
• Open a shell inside your the system distro (and leave it open) via: wsl --u root --system
• Reproduce the hang
• Inside the system distro shell, run: ss -lap --vsock, ls -la /proc/*/fd and dmesg and share the output of the three commands
• Dump wslservice.exe

This should give us more information to identify what's happening.

[schiorean]

@OneBlue attached are the logs are per your latest instructions (took a 2-3 hours until hang happened). wslservice.exe dump uploaded separately here https://drive.google.com/file/d/19nPGc6-NOpv_f0RSp8-5kgRwW1Y-1y5n/view?usp=sharing

WslLogs-2022-09-26_11-09-22.zip
dmesg.txt
proc.txt
vsoc.txt

[OneBlue]

Thank you @schiorean.

With this information, our current theory is that this issue was introduced by the latest Linux kernel upgrade.

To validate this, can you please:

• Download the previous 5.10 kernel: https://1drv.ms/u/s!AiWXuqXSX5K2eGpAFOyDE9DjUEI?e=Zbe8Lf
• Force wsl to use this kernel by adding this entry in %userprofile%/.wslconfig:

[wsl2]
kernel=C:\\path\\to\\kernel-5-10

(Make sure that the '\' are doubled)

• Then shutdown wsl via: wsl.exe --shutdown
• Run: wsl uname -a to make sure that the correct kernel is in use. It should say: Linux [hostname] 5.10.102.1-microsoft-standard-WSL2 #1 SMP Wed Mar 2 00:30:59 UTC 2022 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux
• Then try to reproduce the issue (please share dmesg output if you can reproduce again with this kernel)

[schiorean]

@OneBlue sorry but it happened again with the 5.10 kernel as well. Attached is the dmesg, I didn't have the system console started but was able to get it from normal console.
Let me know if I can do anything else to help you guys. This is really frustrating and I really don't want to leave Windows, it's perfect for my development besides this thing.

And when I dumped dmesg I confirmed the kernel version:

sorin@think:~$ uname -a
Linux think 5.10.102.1-microsoft-standard-WSL2 #1 SMP Wed Mar 2 00:30:59 UTC 2022 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux

dmesg.log

[michaelarnauts]

I have the same problem as OP. Same usecase (Phpstorm that causes WSL to hang during indexing, or probably, anything that does high IO). It happens multiple times a day, and I can reproduce this quite easily.

A faster way to get a fresh WSL env without rebooting (since the wsl --shutdown indeed hangs forever) is to kill wslservice.exe from the task manager.

The output of collect-wsl-logs.ps1 is here:
WslLogs-2022-09-28_14-05-40.zip

wsl --version:

WSL version: 0.66.2.0
Kernel version: 5.15.57.1
WSLg version: 1.0.42
MSRDC version: 1.2.3401
Direct3D version: 1.606.4
DXCore version: 10.0.25131.1002-220531-1700.rs-onecore-base2-hyp
Windows version: 10.0.22000.1042

I'll try the "unpublished" package above and retry.

[XhmikosR]

Unfortunately, this is definitely an issue for me too. I confirmed it on 2 different machines, and it makes WSL totally unusable. wsl --shutdown doesn't work either, so the only solution is to kill wslservice but it's not a real workaround since VS Code is stuck too...

C:\Users\user>wsl --version
WSL version: 0.70.4.0
Kernel version: 5.15.68.1
WSLg version: 1.0.45
MSRDC version: 1.2.3575
Direct3D version: 1.606.4
DXCore version: 10.0.25131.1002-220531-1700.rs-onecore-base2-hyp
Windows version: 10.0.22621.819

[bowmanjd]

I, too, had this issue for some time. I got in the habit of closing all WSL windows at the end of the day, and this seemed to help. But I would still occasionally have freezing issues even after installing the fixed WSL version.

So... last week in a terrible and painful mistake, I deleted my WSL virtual disk for the distro I use the most. Since re-creating it, I haven't had this issue at all. Go figure. @XhmikosR, I never had the "totally unusable" experience that you had; it was more of a minor inconvenience. But if it is that bad, you may want to consider redoing your WSL distros.

For what it is worth, I moved from Fedora 36 to Fedora 37. Unsure if that is relevant, though.

[XhmikosR]

The thing is that the issue just started to appear for me a few weeks ago. Before that, everything worked fine.

Now, using Docker + VS Code, breaks quite frequently during the day. The only workaround for me is stopping and starting wslservice, but it breaks my workflow, totally.

I will try reinstalling Ubuntu, but there are other people having this issue, see also #9114.

[StewartWon]

I too have been having issues with this. It always occurs when doing a large c++ cmake build (30mins). WSL freezes. This started happening a couple of months ago and basically makes WSL useless. Seems like compiling in Visual Studio in Windows and compiling in WSL makes it worse, but that may be a coincidence. This happens with multiple fresh Ubuntu installations too.

Also get:
The Windows Subsystem for Linux service is stopping........
The Windows Subsystem for Linux service could not be stopped.

A reboot is all that works

[XhmikosR]

I uninstalled any WSL Windows updates, removed my distro, disabled Virtual Machine Platform and WSL features and then installed everything again including the latest WSL from the store. I also gave WSL 6GB of RAM instead of 4GB that I was using in .wslconfig. Now it seems I'm not hitting the issue anymore, but unsure which thing exactly has fixed it.

[GeksterOne]

I have the same with
WSL version: 1.0.3.0
Kernel version: 5.15.79.1
WSLg version: 1.0.47
MSRDC version: 1.2.3575
Direct3D version: 1.606.4
DXCore version: 10.0.25131.1002-220531-1700.rs-onecore-base2-hyp
Windows version: 10.0.19045.2364

Happens mostly in Pychar,/Intellij. Sometimes in terminal

Considering to stop using wsl in favour of Linux itsef. If it haven't fixed after an year seems Microsoft spoiled technology and doesn't know what to do.

[alonbl]

On Wed, Dec 28, 2022 at 11:37 AM GeksterOne ***@***.***> wrote: Windows version: 10.0.19045.2364

I also experienced this in the past, now I have Windows version: 10.0.22621.963 which is working properly, can you please try to update and see if it helps?

…

Message ID: ***@***.***>

[GeksterOne]

Added this. It helped in case where Pychar worked with files stored in normal file system using python enterpreter from WSL. But didn;t help for Pycharm with projects stored in WSL file system. Product still as raw as meat in my fridge.

[achs0]

Happens for me, too. WSL freezes completly while consuming 100% CPU.
Using Docker Desktop with a local k8s in WSL, which is more in standby because i am currently testing stuff in k8s.

WSL-Version: 1.0.3.0
Kernelversion: 5.15.79.1
WSLg-Version: 1.0.47
MSRDC-Version: 1.2.3575
Direct3D-Version: 1.606.4
DXCore-Version: 10.0.25131.1002-220531-1700.rs-onecore-base2-hyp
Windows Version: 10.0.19045.2486

Processor	AMD Ryzen 9 5900X 12-Core Processor, 3701 MHz
RAM                64 GB

What only helps for me is to kill WSL in Task-Manager and start everything up again. It's annoying.

[lawndoc]

Happens for me, too. WSL freezes completly while consuming 100% CPU.

Same problem, same versions for everything. It looks like our problem is being tracked over here

[funduck]

Windows 11
Dell XPS 9310
WSL version: 1.0.3.0
Kernel version: 5.15.79.1
WSLg version: 1.0.47
MSRDC version: 1.2.3575
Direct3D version: 1.606.4
DXCore version: 10.0.25131.1002-220531-1700.rs-onecore-base2-hyp
Windows version: 10.0.22621.1105

I get freezes every day but cannot tell what exactly causes them. I work in WSL in VScode, so I catch freezes always there, not in windows apps.
I do not use docker.
I tried to collect logs but not sure if there is anything useful since system just freezes and I can't finalize the script for logs.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1ooPJDSywR-ogUjRR9_k6CIqACKIpgMsq/view?usp=sharing

[mungojam]

see #9454 (comment) for the brute force command to shutdown WSL. Before that I always had to reboot

[funduck]

The problem is that whole Windows11 is frozen and I can't do anything except reboot hardware by holding power button for 10 seconds.

[samd1993]

wsl.exe --shutdown works for me but I am unable to run anything for a long time on this.
I wonder if people experiencing this are utilizing multiple cores? Seems to happen to me when I run a CPU intensive program (CPU usage going to 100%)

[GeksterOne]

After almost half a year since Wsl stopped working and lack of reaction from Microsoft side I think it time to state that Wsl project is dead. It time to move on towards linux/mac systems for development. We stopped using Windows/wsl in our projects

[samd1993]

After almost half a year since Wsl stopped working and lack of reaction from Microsoft side I think it time to state that Wsl project is dead. It time to move on towards linux/mac systems for development. We stopped using Windows/wsl in our projects

Does using Ubuntu on Windows 10 count as this, or did you switch to actual linux machines

[GeksterOne]

mostly macs. сб, 25 мар. 2023 г., 18:10 Samuel Degregori ***@***.***>:

…

After almost half a year since Wsl stopped working and lack of reaction from Microsoft side I think it time to state that Wsl project is dead. It time to move on towards linux/mac systems for development. We stopped using Windows/wsl in our projects Does using Ubuntu on Windows 10 count as this, or did you switch to actual linux machines — Reply to this email directly, view it on GitHub <#8824 (comment)>, or unsubscribe <https://github.com/notifications/unsubscribe-auth/AV6SSTEDYFLTW5SEJRBLJG3W54DE7ANCNFSM6AAAAAAQLMBMSA> . You are receiving this because you commented.Message ID: ***@***.***>

[schiorean]

I am the original reporter of this issue and it has been fixed for a while already. WSL is not dead at all, am using it daily at my day job.
Your problem is a different problem, please open a new issue.

[jacksimpsoncartesian]

I'm still getting this issue happen to me - I've wiped and reinstalled Windows 3 times, had Dell replace hardware like the battery and hard drive. Issue only happens after I've installed WSL, and then it occurs multiple times a day.

[lawndoc]

Hey all, I have had this problem for well over a year and I finally solved it for myself. For me the bug was when WSL generates the /etc/hosts file inside of the Linux subsystem. The hosts file generator appended a bad control character of some kind after the line that contained my hostname. Removing the character wasn't enough because WSL would regenerate the file, so I had to create /etc/wsl.conf and add

[network]
generateHosts=false

Then removing the bad character fixed it and WSL works as expected.

I don't have this issue on my home computer, so part of me wonders if this issue happens only on domain-joined systems when the hostname line includes a domain computer name. I have no evidence to back this up of course, but I'd be curious to hear from anyone else who this helps whether or not the system with the issue was domain-joined.

[befuddled9]

This happens to me as well when I have my laptop sleep with an SSH session. I would think that the session would just timeout/die but it hangs.

[Appla]

After upgrading to https://github.com/microsoft/WSL/releases/tag/2.0.12 the issue disappeared

[vlinx]

try

wsl --update --pre-release

[xz-viewray]

Just updated to wsl 2.0.14. Will see if the issue has been fixed.