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On Saturday, I started receiving strange errors when attempting to start Docker Desktop (v3.6.0 / Docker Engine v19.03.14, build e820475). The error messages indicated issues interacting with WSL 2.

enter image description here

After doing some extra digging, I noticed that when I run valid wsl.exe commands (e.g. wsl --set-default-version or wsl --set-version Ubuntu 2, there is no indication of success or failure; I simply get the usage message as if I had typed wsl --help, which I didn't:

command screenshot

Many of the commands that I know should be valid yield this response. I have tried the following with no success:

  • Disabling (and later re-enabling) Windows Subsystem For Linux under the Windows Features section, and then rebooting and re-enabling.

  • Disabling Containers and Hyper V, rebooting, and re-enabling.

  • Uninstalling and re-installing the Ubuntu distro

It seems like nothing that I do changes the result. I've come across others who have had similiar issues; however, the solutions often require running commands such as wsl --set-default-version 2 which does not work in my scenario. Anyone have any advice?

Brandon Avant
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  • "There is no indication of success or failure;" - This means you are not running a supported version of Windows 10. Update your installation to 20H2 or 21H1. You can verify you are running an incompatible version of Windows 10, by providing the output of `wsl --list --verbose`, if you are not running at least 2004 (which is unsupported which is the reason you should install 21H1 instead) it will indicate your Ubuntu version is 1[.](https://superuser.com/questions/1556115/windows-subsystem-for-linux-wsl-get-default-version/1556172#1556172) – Ramhound Aug 23 '21 at 19:41
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    Thanks for moving this over here, Brandon. I'm noodling on it, but can you think of any other possible changes that occurred recently? Did Docker Desktop update? Do you have a System Restore Point from before Saturday that you could roll back to? You've done all the "normal" troubleshooting that I would normally recommend already. Hmm - Noticing that Docker Desktop message looks like it is trying to upgrade the docker-desktop distro (based on the `--unregister`). But is it a cause or effect? I'm not sure. – NotTheDr01ds Aug 23 '21 at 22:58
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    I manually reverted a security update that was performed on my machine on Saturday. Once I did this, the problem went away. This is obviously not the proper long term solution as I obviously don't want to avoid using the most up-to-date security patches. – Brandon Avant Aug 24 '21 at 16:12
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    @Ramhound, I hear you that I should ensure that I'm using a version of Windows that supports WSL 2. Please be advised that WSL 2 was working until the update on Saturday morning. – Brandon Avant Aug 24 '21 at 16:14
  • @BrandonAvant I assume that was KB5005033, KB4562830, or KB5005189 as noted in [this WSL issue report](https://github.com/microsoft/WSL/issues/7332)? Might want to chime in on that issue (or report a new one if it was something different). Also, I recommend that you go ahead and self-answer the bug/workaround (and accept your answer) to at least close out the Super User question. Thanks, and good to hear you (at least temporarily) resolved what sounds like a very frustrating problem! – NotTheDr01ds Aug 24 '21 at 18:24
  • @BrandonAvant - Well your question made mention of that and it still doesn’t mention that fact. If you have resolved the issue, you should edit your question to reflect the new information, then submit a proper answer with enough information to answer the question. – Ramhound Aug 24 '21 at 22:42
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    I’m voting to close this question because the author has stated the problem was resolved by uninstalling a security update on their system. – Ramhound Aug 24 '21 at 22:43

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For now, I've gone with the solution of backing out the Windows security update for now. This at least gets me back to the point where I was previously (i.e. I'm actually able to use WSL 2). Long term, I'm hoping that there will be a permanent solution introduced.

If you run into this problem, consider looking at your Windows Update History and back out the most recent updates for now.

Brandon Avant
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