Bug 2346114

Summary:	Fedora WSL fails to start, and installation instruction missing the "--name" argument.
Product:	[Fedora] Fedora	Reporter:	Grant Goodyear <g2boojum>
Component:	wsl-setup	Assignee:	Jeremy Cline <jeremy>
Status:	CLOSED NOTABUG	QA Contact:
Severity:	medium	Docs Contact:
Priority:	unspecified
Version:	42	CC:	cloud-sig, jeremy
Target Milestone:	---
Target Release:	---
Hardware:	x86_64
OS:	Linux
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Fixed In Version:		Doc Type:	If docs needed, set a value
Doc Text:		Story Points:	---
Clone Of:		Environment:
Last Closed:	2025-02-17 17:06:10 UTC	Type:	---
Regression:	---	Mount Type:	---
Documentation:	---	CRM:
Verified Versions:		Category:	---
oVirt Team:	---	RHEL 7.3 requirements from Atomic Host:
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Embargoed:

Description Grant Goodyear 2025-02-17 14:54:31 UTC

Here's my setup:
PS C:\Users\goodgra01> wsl --version
WSL version: 2.4.11.0
Kernel version: 5.15.167.4-1
WSLg version: 1.0.65
MSRDC version: 1.2.5716
Direct3D version: 1.611.1-81528511
DXCore version: 10.0.26100.1-240331-1435.ge-release
Windows version: 10.0.22631.4751

My system is actually Windows 11 Enterprise 23H2, OS Build 22631.4751. That presumably matches the info above, even though it says Win 10.0.xxx.


The installation instructions didn't work for me, letting me know I needed to use the "--name" option:

PS C:\Users\goodgra01> wsl --install --from-file C:\Users\goodgra01\Downloads\Fedora-Workstation-Live-x86_64-36-1.5.iso
Installing: C:\Users\goodgra01\Downloads\Fedora-Workstation-Live-x86_64-36-1.5.iso
This distribution doesn't contain a default name. Use --name to chose the distribution name.

Easy enough to fix:
PS C:\Users\goodgra01> wsl --install --from-file C:\Users\goodgra01\Downloads\Fedora-Workstation-Live-x86_64-36-1.5.iso  --name Fedora
Installing: C:\Users\goodgra01\Downloads\Fedora-Workstation-Live-x86_64-36-1.5.iso
Distribution successfully installed. It can be launched via 'wsl.exe -d Fedora'

Starting Fedora on WSL errors out, though:
PS C:\Users\goodgra01> wsl -d Fedora
<3>WSL (9 - Relay) ERROR: CreateProcessParseCommon:863: Failed to translate C:\Users\goodgra01
<3>WSL (9 - Relay) ERROR: CreateProcessParseCommon:909: getpwuid(0) failed 2
<3>WSL (9 - Relay) ERROR: UtilTranslatePathList:2878: Failed to translate C:\Program Files\PowerShell\7
<3>WSL (9 - Relay) ERROR: UtilTranslatePathList:2878: Failed to translate C:\Python\Python310\Scripts\
<3>WSL (9 - Relay) ERROR: UtilTranslatePathList:2878: Failed to translate C:\Python\Python310\
<3>WSL (9 - Relay) ERROR: UtilTranslatePathList:2878: Failed to translate C:\WINDOWS\system32
<3>WSL (9 - Relay) ERROR: UtilTranslatePathList:2878: Failed to translate C:\WINDOWS
<3>WSL (9 - Relay) ERROR: UtilTranslatePathList:2878: Failed to translate C:\WINDOWS\System32\Wbem
<3>WSL (9 - Relay) ERROR: UtilTranslatePathList:2878: Failed to translate C:\WINDOWS\System32\WindowsPowerShell\v1.0\
<3>WSL (9 - Relay) ERROR: UtilTranslatePathList:2878: Failed to translate C:\WINDOWS\System32\OpenSSH\
<3>WSL (9 - Relay) ERROR: UtilTranslatePathList:2878: Failed to translate C:\Program Files\SafeNet\Authentication\SAC\x64
<3>WSL (9 - Relay) ERROR: UtilTranslatePathList:2878: Failed to translate C:\Program Files\SafeNet\Authentication\SAC\x32
<3>WSL (9 - Relay) ERROR: UtilTranslatePathList:2878: Failed to translate C:\Program Files\dotnet\
<3>WSL (9 - Relay) ERROR: UtilTranslatePathList:2878: Failed to translate C:\Program Files\Microsoft VS Code\bin
<3>WSL (9 - Relay) ERROR: UtilTranslatePathList:2878: Failed to translate C:\Program Files\GitHub CLI\
<3>WSL (9 - Relay) ERROR: UtilTranslatePathList:2878: Failed to translate C:\Program Files\Git\cmd
<3>WSL (9 - Relay) ERROR: UtilTranslatePathList:2878: Failed to translate C:\Program Files\PowerShell\7\
<3>WSL (9 - Relay) ERROR: UtilTranslatePathList:2878: Failed to translate C:\Program Files\nodejs\
<3>WSL (9 - Relay) ERROR: UtilTranslatePathList:2878: Failed to translate C:\Users\goodgra01\AppData\Local\Programs\Python\Python312\Scripts\
<3>WSL (9 - Relay) ERROR: UtilTranslatePathList:2878: Failed to translate C:\Users\goodgra01\AppData\Local\Programs\Python\Python312\
<3>WSL (9 - Relay) ERROR: UtilTranslatePathList:2878: Failed to translate C:\Users\goodgra01\AppData\Local\Programs\Python\Launcher\
<3>WSL (9 - Relay) ERROR: UtilTranslatePathList:2878: Failed to translate C:\Program Files\SAP\EasyDmsInterface\Unicode
<3>WSL (9 - Relay) ERROR: UtilTranslatePathList:2878: Failed to translate C:\Users\goodgra01\AppData\Local\GitHubDesktop\bin
<3>WSL (9 - Relay) ERROR: UtilTranslatePathList:2878: Failed to translate C:\Users\goodgra01\AppData\Local\Microsoft\WindowsApps
<3>WSL (9 - Relay) ERROR: UtilTranslatePathList:2878: Failed to translate C:\Users\goodgra01\AppData\Local\Microsoft\WinGet\Packages\equalsraf.win32yank_Microsoft.Winget.Source_8wekyb3d8bbwe
<3>WSL (9 - Relay) ERROR: UtilTranslatePathList:2878: Failed to translate C:\Users\goodgra01\AppData\Roaming\Python\Scripts
Processing fstab with mount -a failed.
Failed to mount C:\, see dmesg for more details.

<3>WSL (9 - Relay) ERROR: operator():420: getpwuid(0) failed 2
<3>WSL (9 - Relay) ERROR: CreateProcessCommon:640: execvpe(/bin/sh) failed: No such file or directory

I do currently have Ubuntu installed as well in WSL:
PS C:\Users\goodgra01> wsl --list
Windows Subsystem for Linux Distributions:
Ubuntu (Default)
Fedora

Reproducible: Always

Comment 1 Jeremy Cline 2025-02-17 15:55:23 UTC

Hi Grant,

Thanks for the report. What image are you using? The filename implies it's a Fedora Workstation ISO from Fedora 36.

You'll need to grab the image from the link at https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Test_Day:2025-02-17_WSL#Downloading_the_Fedora_WSL_tarball

Comment 2 Grant Goodyear 2025-02-17 17:06:10 UTC

Yep, I'm an idiot. I'd downloaded the tar.xz file, and then let tab-completion pick the wrong file when I did the installation. Sorry about that!

Comment 3 Jeremy Cline 2025-02-17 17:21:32 UTC

No worries, thanks for taking the time to test and report on issues you hit!