WSL distro fails to start with "Error code: Wsl/Service/CreateInstance/CreateVm/HCS/ERROR_PATH_NOT_FOUND"

[bwilliamsgryphon]

Windows Version

Microsoft Windows [Version 10.0.22621.3593]

WSL Version

2.1.5.0

Are you using WSL 1 or WSL 2?

• WSL 2
• WSL 1

Kernel Version

No response

Distro Version

Ubuntu 22.04

Other Software

No response

Repro Steps

1. Try to start default distribution with by running wsl in PowerShell

Expected Behavior

Distribution starts without error.

Actual Behavior

PowerShell output:

PS C:\> wsl
The system cannot find the path specified.
Error code: Wsl/Service/CreateInstance/CreateVm/HCS/ERROR_PATH_NOT_FOUND

Attempts to install a new distro give a similar error message:

PS C:\> wsl --install Ubuntu-24.04
Ubuntu 24.04 LTS is already installed.
Launching Ubuntu 24.04 LTS...
Installing, this may take a few minutes...
WslRegisterDistribution failed with error: 0x80070003
Error: 0x80070003 The system cannot find the path specified.

Press any key to continue...
The operation completed successfully.

Diagnostic Logs

WslLogs-2024-06-10_09-54-23.zip

[github-actions]

View similar issues

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!

Open similar issues:

• wsl.exe hangs or terminates when starting WSL session: Wsl/Service/CreateInstance/CreateVm/ConfigureGpu/HCS/ERROR_PATH_NOT_FOUND (#10918), similarity score: 0.80

Closed similar issues:

• Error code: Wsl/Service/CreateVm/ERROR_PATH_NOT_FOUND (#10170), similarity score: 0.82
• The system cannot find the path specified. (#7212), similarity score: 0.81
• Could not launch ubuntu distro. Now I cannot install any distro. error: 0x80070002 (#5510), similarity score: 0.79
• Unable to launch wsl2 (#11474), similarity score: 0.79

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Diagnostic information

Detected appx version: 2.1.5.0
Detected user visible error: Wsl/InstallDistro/WSL_E_INSTALL_PROCESS_FAILED
Detected user visible error: Wsl/Service/CreateInstance/CreateVm/HCS/ERROR_PATH_NOT_FOUND

[bwilliamsgryphon]

I've tried disabling and re-enabling Hyper-V and Virtual Machine Platform in Windows Features as described in #10170 with no improvement.

[ghost]

What files do you have under C:\Program Files\WSL\tools?

[bwilliamsgryphon]

What files do you have under C:\Program Files\WSL\tools?

@pmartincic Here's the listing:

    Directory: C:\Program Files\WSL\tools


Mode                 LastWriteTime         Length Name
----                 -------------         ------ ----
-a----         3/11/2024  10:03 PM        1928824 init
-a----         3/11/2024  10:03 PM        1929216 initrd.img
-a----         1/11/2024   3:27 AM       14284928 kernel