The specified service does not exist as an installed service. Error code: Wsl/0x80070424 [process exited with code 4294967295 (0xffffffff)]

[omar2535]

Windows Version

Microsoft Windows [Version 10.0.22621.2715]

WSL Version

2.0.9.0

Are you using WSL 1 or WSL 2?

• WSL 2
• WSL 1

Kernel Version

No response

Distro Version

No response

Other Software

No response

Repro Steps

WSL is now unable to launch following a Sindows update. Attempted to diagnose this issue by following the comments in #10755 (Disable hyper-v, enable virtual machine, reinstall WSL) but still doesn't work.

C:\Users\omart>wsl.exe

Expected Behavior

WSL to launch

Actual Behavior

Errored out with this:

The specified service does not exist as an installed service.
Error code: Wsl/0x80070424

Diagnostic Logs

No response

[github-actions]

Hi I'm an AI powered bot that finds similar issues based off the issue title.

Please view the issues below to see if they solve your problem, and if the issue describes your problem please consider closing this one and thumbs upping the other issue to help us prioritize it. Thank you!

Open similar issues:

• WSL --install fails with "Error: 0x80070424 The specified service does not exist as an installed service" (#10754), similarity score: 0.90
• Error code: Wsl/Service/0x8007273d (#9331), similarity score: 0.88
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[bousch]

The latest windows updates completely broke my wsl. Disabling/re-enabling features did not help. Complete uninstall and reinstall of wsl and distributions does not help. At one point the wsl executable was working again but after wsl --update it was yet again broken and reports:
PS C:\WINDOWS\system32> wsl -l
The specified service does not exist as an installed service.
Error code: Wsl/0x80070424

[bousch]

Now my wsl works again. What I did was:

• copy the ext4.vhxd file from my distribution to reimport later.
• Uninstall all Distros and WSL
• disable Windows features:
  • Hyper-V
  • Virtual Machine Platform
  • Windows Hypervisor Platform
  • Windows Subsystem for Linux
• Reboot
• wsl --install
• manually update wsl to 2.0.5 (because wsl --update breaks wsl for me)
• wsl --import-in-place ext4.vhxd

I am not sure if all the steps were necessary or if the list above is incomplete. At one time I had wsl.exe working again but it complained that it needed a kernel update. Running wsl --update resulted in the original error (The specified service does not exist as an installed service. Error code: Wsl/0x80070424) and I had to start over again.
Now I have to find a way to block all Windows Updates because this took me 4 hours to get working again.

[bousch]

Great stuff, not only did my office Windows Pro laptop had this issue, my personal Windows Home laptop has the exact same issue!

[OneBlue]

/logs

[bousch]

Sadly what I did on Windows Pro does not seem work on Windows Home. Only as Administrator priviliges I can start wsl, otherwise I get this error:
PS C:\Users\bousch> wsl -l -v
Element not found.
Error code: Wsl/ERROR_NOT_FOUND

WslLogs-2023-11-17_23-54-29.zip

I will give up on trying to get wsl to work on my personal laptop. At least I got it to work on my work laptop where I need it for work. It has taken me all day and it is a waste of time.

[OneBlue]

@bousch: Based on the output it looks like WSL is in a bad state. Can you try uninstalling WSL, and then re-install it via the MSI package ?

[omar2535]

@bousch How did you uninstall all your distros? I tried to do using the usual uninstall programs from settings but every time I restart the installation (wsl --install), the newly installed wsl still gives the same error

[bousch]

@OneBlue Thanks, yes, I have uninstalled/rebooted/reinstalled many times. I will try again today as I was not in the best mood after trying all day yesterday :)
@omar2535 if you get the wsl executable to work and "wsl -l" still lists your distro's you can use "wsl --unregister distro-name" to uninstall them. But beware this will completely delete the distro (including your ext4.vhxd file) so if you still want to keep the data make sure to copy it somewhere so you can import it later. Note for me the wsl executable worked yesterday when I started powershell or cmd as Administrator.

[omar2535]

Yea, I'm not able to get the executable working at all except for --help. I have copied the ext4.vhxd file so that's not a concern. I'll try to see if I can use the MSI package after my semi-uninstall

[bousch]

I now have WSL working also on my Windows Home laptop. I did uninstall wsl and re-installed from MSI but this resulted in the same error as before. I did notice that there were two entries in "Apps & Features"; one of 459 MB which says 2.0.9.0 and a smaller one (8 KB or 8MB) without version but with advanced options. I deleted this one.
If I remember correctly the wsl command worked after this. I did run "wsl --update --inbox" and used "wsl --install -d Distroname" to reinstall the distro's I had before. Then I ran "wsl --shutdown" and replaced the .vhxd files in %localappdata% with my backups. Now wsl seems to run fine. The WSL entries in my "Apps & Features" list are:

[omar2535]

Ok so I had the exact same thing (with two WSLs showing up), I removed the smaller one and ran the wsl --install -d Distroname command. But after that, running any wsl commands will fail except for help.

Interestingly, after I removed the smaller WSL entry from Apps & Features, anything I ran (such as wsl --update --inbox) would just prompt the help menu

[bousch]

I also had this exact situation where every wsl command showed the help text. I think I then executed "wsl --update --inbox" as Administrator in a cmd.exe Command prompt. It would not work from Powershell as Administrator. Or it was the other way around. Sorry about that, I have tried so many combinations that I can't remember exactly. Also check some of the other issue threads, some issues of the last couple of days are related/similar. For instance #10782 and #10767. I was able to fix it on both my laptops with slightly different steps.

…

On Sat, 18 Nov 2023, 18:25 Omar Tsai, ***@***.***> wrote: Ok so I had the exact same thing (with two WSLs showing up), I removed the smaller one and ran the wsl --install -d Distroname command. But after that, running any wsl commands will fail except for help. Interestingly, after I removed the smaller WSL entry from Apps & Features, anything I ran (such as wsl --update --inbox) would just prompt the help menu [image: image] <https://user-images.githubusercontent.com/9442294/284013797-3bdc6446-70fd-4747-8f11-a51512a46851.png> — Reply to this email directly, view it on GitHub <#10779 (comment)>, or unsubscribe <https://github.com/notifications/unsubscribe-auth/ADAEFJF2KQS555NTTW3YQXTYFDVRVAVCNFSM6AAAAAA7PEKX7CVHI2DSMVQWIX3LMV43OSLTON2WKQ3PNVWWK3TUHMYTQMJXGU3TMNJRGA> . You are receiving this because you were mentioned.Message ID: ***@***.***>

[jbgomond]

Just updated my W10 PC and I now have the same problem. WSL shows version 2.0.9, it does not work in user mode but works only in administrator mode ...

C:\Users\XXX> wsl
Élément introuvable.
Error code: Wsl/ERROR_NOT_FOUND

Installing, this may take a few minutes...
WslRegisterDistribution failed with error: 0x80070490
Error: 0x80070490 ╔lÚment introuvable.
Press any key to continue...

[omar2535]

Ok. I finally fixed WSL. I haven't re-imported my files, but what I had to do was a complete re-installation of WSL. These were the steps I took:

1. Go to features and turn off the following: Hyper-V, Windows Subsystem for Linux, and Virtual Machine Platform
2. Go to Windows Add or remove programs and remove everything related to WSL (one of them was a very big WSL one that kept erroring when I tried to remove it, I ignored this)
3. Further make sure WSL is uninstalled using the troubleshooter
4. Reboot
5. Re-enable features: Windows Subsystem for Linux and Virtual Machine Platform
6. Reboot
7. Open the command prompt as admin, run wsl -l and make sure it runs without the "service does not exist" error
   
8. Install WSL package directly from releases: 2.0.8
9. Install WSL distro
   

and now it works. I also tried using #10764 as previously mentioned, but I wasn't able to find that registry entry so skipped the steps. (Also note that I'm too afraid to update to 2.0.9 in-case anything bricks 😬) Additionally, I haven't imported my ext4.vhxd file yet, but will soon. Thanks @bousch :)

[omar2535]

Closing as solved for now.

[pahar0]

Launching WSL from a terminal with administrator privileges seems like a temporal workaround. Can somebody else confirm?
#10788 (comment)

[bousch]

Ok. I finally fixed WSL. I haven't re-imported my files, but what I had to do was a complete re-installation of WSL. These were the steps I took:

1. Go to features and turn off the following: Hyper-V, Windows Subsystem for Linux, and Virtual Machine Platform
2. Go to Windows Add or remove programs and remove everything related to WSL (one of them was a very big WSL one that kept erroring when I tried to remove it, I ignored this)
3. Further make sure WSL is uninstalled using the troubleshooter
4. Reboot
5. Re-enable features: Windows Subsystem for Linux and Virtual Machine Platform
6. Reboot
7. Open the command prompt as admin, run wsl -l and make sure it runs without the "service does not exist" error
   
8. Install WSL package directly from releases: 2.0.8
9. Install WSL distro
   

and now it works. I also tried using #10764 as previously mentioned, but I wasn't able to find that registry entry so skipped the steps. (Also note that I'm too afraid to update to 2.0.9 in-case anything bricks 😬) Additionally, I haven't imported my ext4.vhxd file yet, but will soon. Thanks @bousch :)

Nice! BTW afaik you do not have to import the ext4 file. You can just install the same distribution, do wsl --shutdown and overwrite the ext4 file in localappdata with your ext4 backup file.

[bousch]

Launching WSL from a terminal with administrator privileges seems like a temporal workaround. Can somebody else confirm? #10788 (comment)

yes, in the end you should be able to run wsl as your regular user. Try to follow the steps Omar2535 described. Something similar worked for me on Windows 10 Pro. On Windows Home the same steps did not work for me, than maybe follow the steps I described above. I also did not mess with the windows registry.