Wsl issue with /etc/passwd spotted on hn

[abathur]

sorry for the vague report, but just wanted to document something I saw someone on hn report. Don't have a windows system to corroborate/refute.

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=34963044

[cole-h]

This looks to me like the user was using WSL1. If I try to install under WSL2, everything works as expected (+-; I also ran into #280).

However, if I try to install this under WSL1, I first get an error during installation when running /nix/store/..............-nix-2.13.2/bin/nix-env -i /nix/store/...........-nix-2.13.2. This then prompts me to revert (uninstall), and saying yes to that shows me the cannot lock /etc/passwd error message:

cannot lock /etc/passwd errors

Proceed? ([Y]es/[n]o/[e]xplain): y
 INFO Revert: Leave the Nix daemon unconfigured
 INFO Revert: Configure Nix
 INFO Revert: Provision Nix
Error:
   0: Error executing action
   1: Multiple errors: Failed to execute command (Command `"userdel" "nixbld2"` failed status 1, stderr:
      userdel: lock /etc/passwd.lock already used by PID 781
      userdel: cannot lock /etc/passwd; try again later.

      ) & Failed to execute command (Command `"userdel" "nixbld3"` failed status 1, stderr:
      userdel: lock /etc/passwd.lock already used by PID 781
      userdel: cannot lock /etc/passwd; try again later.

      ) & Failed to execute command (Command `"userdel" "nixbld0"` failed status 1, stderr:
      userdel: lock /etc/passwd.lock already used by PID 781
      userdel: cannot lock /etc/passwd; try again later.

      ) & Failed to execute command (Command `"userdel" "nixbld18"` failed status 1, stderr:
      userdel: lock /etc/passwd.lock already used by PID 781
      userdel: cannot lock /etc/passwd; try again later.

      ) & Failed to execute command (Command `"userdel" "nixbld1"` failed status 1, stderr:
      userdel: lock /etc/passwd.lock already used by PID 781
      userdel: cannot lock /etc/passwd; try again later.

      ) & Failed to execute command (Command `"userdel" "nixbld4"` failed status 1, stderr:
      userdel: lock /etc/passwd.lock already used by PID 781
      userdel: cannot lock /etc/passwd; try again later.

      ) & Failed to execute command (Command `"userdel" "nixbld19"` failed status 1, stderr:
      userdel: lock /etc/passwd.lock already used by PID 781
      userdel: cannot lock /etc/passwd; try again later.

      ) & Failed to execute command (Command `"userdel" "nixbld14"` failed status 1, stderr:
      userdel: lock /etc/passwd.lock already used by PID 781
      userdel: cannot lock /etc/passwd; try again later.

      ) & Failed to execute command (Command `"userdel" "nixbld30"` failed status 1, stderr:
      userdel: lock /etc/passwd.lock already used by PID 781
      userdel: cannot lock /etc/passwd; try again later.

      ) & Failed to execute command (Command `"userdel" "nixbld5"` failed status 1, stderr:
      userdel: lock /etc/passwd.lock already used by PID 781
      userdel: cannot lock /etc/passwd; try again later.

      ) & Failed to execute command (Command `"userdel" "nixbld7"` failed status 1, stderr:
      userdel: lock /etc/passwd.lock already used by PID 781
      userdel: cannot lock /etc/passwd; try again later.

      ) & Failed to execute command (Command `"userdel" "nixbld8"` failed status 1, stderr:
      userdel: lock /etc/passwd.lock already used by PID 781
      userdel: cannot lock /etc/passwd; try again later.

      ) & Failed to execute command (Command `"userdel" "nixbld27"` failed status 1, stderr:
      userdel: lock /etc/passwd.lock already used by PID 781
      userdel: cannot lock /etc/passwd; try again later.

      ) & Failed to execute command (Command `"userdel" "nixbld24"` failed status 1, stderr:
      userdel: lock /etc/passwd.lock already used by PID 781
      userdel: cannot lock /etc/passwd; try again later.

      ) & Failed to execute command (Command `"userdel" "nixbld31"` failed status 1, stderr:
      userdel: lock /etc/passwd.lock already used by PID 781
      userdel: cannot lock /etc/passwd; try again later.

      ) & Failed to execute command (Command `"userdel" "nixbld20"` failed status 1, stderr:
      userdel: lock /etc/passwd.lock already used by PID 781
      userdel: cannot lock /etc/passwd; try again later.

      ) & Failed to execute command (Command `"userdel" "nixbld26"` failed status 1, stderr:
      userdel: lock /etc/passwd.lock already used by PID 781
      userdel: cannot lock /etc/passwd; try again later.

      ) & Failed to execute command (Command `"userdel" "nixbld11"` failed status 1, stderr:
      userdel: lock /etc/passwd.lock already used by PID 781
      userdel: cannot lock /etc/passwd; try again later.

      ) & Failed to execute command (Command `"userdel" "nixbld12"` failed status 1, stderr:
      userdel: lock /etc/passwd.lock already used by PID 781
      userdel: cannot lock /etc/passwd; try again later.

      ) & Failed to execute command (Command `"userdel" "nixbld6"` failed status 1, stderr:
      userdel: lock /etc/passwd.lock already used by PID 781
      userdel: cannot lock /etc/passwd; try again later.

      ) & Failed to execute command (Command `"userdel" "nixbld29"` failed status 1, stderr:
      userdel: lock /etc/passwd.lock already used by PID 781
      userdel: cannot lock /etc/passwd; try again later.

      ) & Failed to execute command (Command `"userdel" "nixbld10"` failed status 1, stderr:
      userdel: lock /etc/passwd.lock already used by PID 781
      userdel: cannot lock /etc/passwd; try again later.

      ) & Failed to execute command (Command `"userdel" "nixbld17"` failed status 1, stderr:
      userdel: lock /etc/passwd.lock already used by PID 781
      userdel: cannot lock /etc/passwd; try again later.

      ) & Failed to execute command (Command `"userdel" "nixbld25"` failed status 1, stderr:
      userdel: lock /etc/passwd.lock already used by PID 781
      userdel: cannot lock /etc/passwd; try again later.

      ) & Failed to execute command (Command `"userdel" "nixbld23"` failed status 1, stderr:
      userdel: lock /etc/passwd.lock already used by PID 781
      userdel: cannot lock /etc/passwd; try again later.

      ) & Failed to execute command (Command `"userdel" "nixbld9"` failed status 1, stderr:
      userdel: lock /etc/passwd.lock already used by PID 781
      userdel: cannot lock /etc/passwd; try again later.

      ) & Failed to execute command (Command `"userdel" "nixbld28"` failed status 1, stderr:
      userdel: lock /etc/passwd.lock already used by PID 781
      userdel: cannot lock /etc/passwd; try again later.

      ) & Failed to execute command (Command `"userdel" "nixbld15"` failed status 1, stderr:
      userdel: lock /etc/passwd.lock already used by PID 781
      userdel: cannot lock /etc/passwd; try again later.

      ) & Failed to execute command (Command `"userdel" "nixbld16"` failed status 1, stderr:
      userdel: lock /etc/passwd.lock already used by PID 781
      userdel: cannot lock /etc/passwd; try again later.

      ) & Failed to execute command (Command `"userdel" "nixbld22"` failed status 1, stderr:
      userdel: lock /etc/passwd.lock already used by PID 781
      userdel: cannot lock /etc/passwd; try again later.

      ) & Failed to execute command (Command `"userdel" "nixbld13"` failed status 1, stderr:
      userdel: lock /etc/passwd.lock already used by PID 781
      userdel: cannot lock /etc/passwd; try again later.

      )

If the reporter from HN sees this: make sure your WSL distro is set to WSL2 by checking the version in wsl --list --verbose and upgrading the desired distro to WSL2 with wsl --set-version <distro name> 2.

[Hoverbear]

Maybe we can add some detection in the planner to toss an error if it's in WSL1.