"Error 71 (Protocol error) dispatching to Wayland display." After Maximizing Apps, Closing, Trying to Open Again

[MarjaE2]

Windows Version

Microsoft Windows [Version 10.0.26100.4652]; Windows 11 Home 24H2

WSL Version

WSL version: 2.6.1.0

Are you using WSL 1 or WSL 2?

• WSL 2
• WSL 1

Kernel Version

6.6.87.2-microsoft-standard-WSL2

Distro Version

Ubuntu 24.04

Other Software

No response

Repro Steps

Open a Gnome app you don't need in Wsl. e.g. run gnome-sudoku in the shell. It affects multiple Gnome apps, I'm not sure if it affects any non-gtk apps.

Maximize the app.

Close the app while maximized.

Reopen the app in Wsl, e.g. run gnome-sudoku again.

Expected Behavior

It should open again, instead of throwing this error.

Actual Behavior

It fails to open, with "Error 71 (Protocol error) dispatching to Wayland display." appearing in the shell. Quitting and restarting wsl, purging and reinstalling the app, etc. have no effect.

Some bug reports suggest similar issues in other Linux builds.

I usually maximize apps, due to visual issues, so only being able to use each app once is a bit of a pain.

Diagnostic Logs

No response

[github-actions]

Logs are required for review from WSL team

If this a feature request, please reply with '/feature'. If this is a question, reply with '/question'.
Otherwise, please attach logs by following the instructions below, your issue will not be reviewed unless they are added. These logs will help us understand what is going on in your machine.

How 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 script will output the path of the log file once done.

If this is a networking issue, please use collect-networking-logs.ps1, following the instructions in Collect WSL logs for networking issues

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

See Collect WSL logs (recommended method).

If you choose to email these logs instead of attaching them to the bug, please send them to wsl-gh-logs@microsoft.com with the GitHub issue number in the subject, and include a link to your GitHub issue comment in the message body, and reply with '/emailed-logs'.

[MarjaE2]

Sorry, I can't do that.

If I open Powershell as admin, it opens in dark mode and I can't read it. I tried switching the colors, but still can't read it, or revert it.

[MarjaE2]

I see there are some instructions saying to restore powershell by manually reverting everything you've changed. But I don't know what I've changed I can't read the color interface.

[MarjaE2]

It looks like [Console]::ResetColor() does revert those settings. I usually turn gamma way down to make black text more readable, but I've turned it way up to try to read this.

WslLogs-2025-09-29_21-45-25.zip

[github-actions]

Diagnostic information

Detected appx version: 2.6.1.0