wsl: Failed to start the systemd user session for '...'. See journalctl for more details.

[marcusps]

Windows Version

Microsoft Windows [Version 10.0.26200.7093]

WSL Version

2.6.2.0

Are you using WSL 1 or WSL 2?

• WSL 2
• WSL 1

Kernel Version

6.6.87.2-1

Distro Version

Ubuntu 22.04

Other Software

No response

Repro Steps

From Windows PowerShell run wsl.exe.

Alternatively, start WSL from Windows Terminal.

Expected Behavior

No messages about systemd, and Linux shell prompt appears for normal operation.

Actual Behavior

After some delay (presumably for Linux to start) the following message appears.

wsl: Failed to start the systemd user session for 'marcusps'. See journalctl for more details.

after which the Linux shell promp appears and seems to behave normally (although occasional WSL crashes happen, unclear if connected).

Diagnostic Logs

Will be e-mail to wsl-gh-logs@microsoft.com separately.

[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'.

[marcusps]

Logs sent via e-mail.

Behaviour is similar to #13564 (from a different user). Appeared some time ago after a system update, expected to go away with subsequent updates but nothing changed since.

[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'.

[marcusps]

Logs have been sent by email.

[oising]

Hmm, my docker desktop started acting up after I changed the default distro from 24.04 to 22.04 due to no dotnet10 support on 24.x. After a reboot, I'm seeing this error. I've uninstalled docker desktop just to see, and no change.

[his-ishi]

I’m facing the same issue. The only change I made beforehand was installing an Alpine distribution on WSL. After that, the problem started occurring when launching Ubuntu. Uninstalling Alpine does not resolve the issue.

[oising]

I went to install/uninstall programs, hit the ellipsis on Ubuntu-22.04 and chose "repair" (not "reset") and it seems to have recovered. This may be a coincidence, but who knows.

[marcusps]

Hm, the repair suggestion that seems to have fixed it (shutdown WSL, terminate it just to be safe /paranoid, and then repair from Apps > Installed apps > Ubuntu before restarting Ubuntu/WSL).

Any explanation as to what might have happened?

[oising]

I guess that's a "yay" for repair, but it would have been nice to see what the config drift was.

[marcusps]

I will collect start up logs again and share via e-mail as before, that may elucidate things at least to the WSL devs.