Switching to WSL 2 fails with The request is not supported.

[K2AAE]

C:>ver Microsoft Windows [Version 10.0.19546.1000]

I had installed WSL 1 with Ubuntu-18.04 then I joined insiders and it finished installing this morning. I surfed around for a while to find how to get WSL 2 running and found a command line from PS:

PS C:\WINDOWS\system32> dism.exe /online /enable-feature /featurename:Microsoft-Windows-Subsystem-Linux /all /norestart

It finished and I restarted.
From an Admin command prompt I tried:
wsl --set-version Ubuntu-18.04 2
and got the 'Request is not supported' message.

I tried:
PS C:\WINDOWS\system32> Enable-WindowsOptionalFeature -Online -FeatureName Microsoft-Windows-Subsystem-Linux

Path :
Online : True
RestartNeeded : False

PS C:\WINDOWS\system32> wsl -l -v
NAME STATE VERSION

• Ubuntu-18.04 Stopped 1

PS C:\WINDOWS\system32> wsl --set-version Ubuntu-18.04 2
Conversion in progress, this may take a few minutes...
For information on key differences with WSL 2 please visit https://aka.ms/wsl2
The request is not supported.

[K2AAE]

I just tried to install Ubuntu (it will not allow me to install a 2nd version of 18.04???) and got :

Installing, this may take a few minutes...
WslRegisterDistribution failed with Error: 0x80070032
Error: 0x80070032 The request is not supported.

[K2AAE]

I removed all WSL installations of linux, rebooted and tried to install Ubuntu-18.04 and all I get is:
Installing, this may take a few minutes...
WslRegisterDistribution failed with Error: 0x80070032
Error: 0x80070032 The request is not supported.

Thank you Microsoft

[K2AAE]

Its been a long day, discovered the online ENGLISH WSL documentation, it mentioned virtual machine, I turned it on and installed another Ubuntu-18.04 and this one worked. It was version 2 but when I compiled the code that took three minutes to compile and link with WSL 1 with WSL 2 it now took 30~45.
RIP WSL 2.

[lukepuplett]

I ran into this error after installing Windows 10 v2004 build 19041.21 in order to get WSL2. I then tried to update the version of my original Ubuntu WSL1 distro which failed with the error below.

I unregistered Ubuntu and reinstalled Ubuntu 18.04 LTS from the Windows Store. This took a little while to install but seemed to work. Then, trying to change it to WSL2 it failed again.

PS C:\WINDOWS\system32> wsl --set-version Ubuntu-18.04 2
Conversion in progress, this may take a few minutes...
For information on key differences with WSL 2 please visit https://aka.ms/wsl2
The request is not supported.

[lukepuplett]

I solved this by ensuring that Virtual Machine Platform was installed/ticked in Turn Windows features on or off.

[brucedkyle]

Hopefully this is a related issues. In my case, I am trying to install Ubuntu-20.04 and set the version in WSL 2 to that version.

PS C:\Users\bruce> wsl --list --verbose
  NAME                   STATE           VERSION
* Ubuntu-16.04           Stopped         1
  Ubuntu-18.04           Stopped         1
  Ubuntu-20.04           Stopped         2
  docker-desktop-data    Running         2
  docker-desktop         Running         2
PS C:\Users\bruce> wsl --set-version Ubuntu-20.04 2
Conversion in progress, this may take a few minutes...
For information on key differences with WSL 2 please visit https://aka.ms/wsl2
The distribution is already the requested version.
PS C:\Users\bruce> wsl
bruce@LAPTOP-2F5D148E:/c/Users/bruce$ lsb_release -a
No LSB modules are available.
Distributor ID: Ubuntu
Description:    Ubuntu 16.04.6 LTS
Release:        16.04
Codename:       xenial

But Ubuntu tells me I am running the previous version.
Rebooting the Virtual Machine Platform did not fix this issue.
Perhaps I am missing something?

[vivi168]

I solved this by ensuring that Virtual Machine Platform was installed/ticked in Turn Windows features on or off.

I also had to enable Hyper-V and Hypervisor Plateform in Turn windows feature on/off, after rebooting it finally worked.

[rennu]

@brucedkyle Your default distributions seems to be 16.04 (asterisk on the left side). Try running wsl with -d Ubuntu-20.04 argument.

[vwal]

Sadly, it seems when the Virtual Machine Platform is enabled, VMware Workstation guests no longer start. Apparently WSL2 and VMWare Workstation cannot coexist on the same host.

[Brandin]

I can confirm that if you remove VMWare Workstation the issue with converting the version in WSL goes away.

[Gorthog]

I installed Nox Player and LdPlayer. I guess one (or both) disabled windows features that prevented WSL from working.
In order to bring WSL back online, I had to enable these two:

And then I had to restart the machine.

[Adarsh1999]

I installed Nox Player and LdPlayer. I guess one (or both) disabled windows features that prevented WSL from working.
In order to bring WSL back online, I had to enable these two:

And then I had to restart the machine.

Thanks man actually I had also installed nox and this problem came and I was worried so thanks a lot it helped me a lot

[carsonpowers]

PS C:\Users\bruce> wsl --set-version Ubuntu-20.04 2
The distribution is already the requested version.
Perhaps I am missing something?

try wsl --setdefault Ubuntu-20.04 2 instead

[jbrunath-tc]

I solved this by ensuring that Virtual Machine Platform was installed/ticked in Turn Windows features on or off.

I also had to enable Hyper-V and Hypervisor Plateform in Turn windows feature on/off, after rebooting it finally worked.

This solution finally seems to have fixed my issue after ages trying to figure out what was wrong. My issue was with WSL2, Ubuntu 20.04.1 LTS, and Cisco Anyconnect

[demdante]

For those of you wanting to continue to use vmware or other hypervisor technologies that are not hyper-v, just make sure that your wsl settings are configured to use version 1 rather than version 2. Run the below command to determine what version of wsl your machine is configured to use:

wsl --status

You will see something like this most likely:

Take note of the default version. If it is 2, then that is why you are getting the error. Just set it to 1, and the problem goes away. This is due to the additional requirements needed to run v2 wsl distributions. To set the status to one, run the below command:

wsl --set-default-version 1

Any new distributions that you install on your system will be installed using version 1 of wsl. For the distributions that already exist on your system, you will need to convert them to version 1. You do this by running the below command:

wsl --set-version <distribution name> 1

Hope this helps.

[axsk]

My WSL stopped working a while ago.
Now I tried to get it running and am stuck with the

Installing, this may take a few minutes...
WslRegisterDistribution failed with error: 0x80070032
Error: 0x80070032 The request is not supported.

error when trying to launch it from the App Store (do we really need this app store thing?!...).

I enabled Virtual Machine Platform, Hyper-V and Hypervisor Plateform in the Windows Features as suggested above.

I tried reinstalling WSL by following the Microsoft guide for manual installation, first with /disable-feature and then with the suggested /enable-feature (with all the restarts).

Still no luck. Anything else to try? What does 0x80070032 actually mean?

EDIT: Just tried un- and reinstalling as in https://pureinfotech.com/uninstall-wsl2-windows-10/ without success.

[demdante]

@axsk . Have you tried the steps that I mentioned in my post that is located litteraly right above yours? It details how you can configure wsl to deploy version 1 distributions instead of version 2. That will more likely than not fix your issue. In the event that it does not, I know that another issue that can occur with WSL is when you have compressed the files on your computer. In the event that you have compressed the files on your computer, open windows run prompt and type below command:

explorer %localappdata%\packages

This will open windows explorer to the directory you need to look in. Find the folder which contains the distribution you are trying to install, right click the folder, select properties > Advanced Button. In the dialog that pops up, if the check box next to "Compress Contents to save disk space" is checked, then uncheck it and apply those settings to the folder and all files and subdirectories. That should solve that problem

[axsk]

The good news: WSL1 works
The bad news: Its WSL1

Still better then before, thanks.
Compression was not enabled.

[jerviscui]

Have same question!

Resolved:

I solved this by ensuring that Virtual Machine Platform was installed/ticked in Turn Windows features on or off.

I also had to enable Hyper-V and Hypervisor Plateform in Turn windows feature on/off, after rebooting it finally worked.

1. Install WSL and VirtualMachinePlatform:

   dism.exe /online /enable-feature /featurename:Microsoft-Windows-Subsystem-Linux /all /norestart
   
   dism.exe /online /enable-feature /featurename:VirtualMachinePlatform /all /norestart
   

2. Enable Hyper-V:
   

[mrfoxie]

Have same question!

Resolved:

I solved this by ensuring that Virtual Machine Platform was installed/ticked in Turn Windows features on or off.

I also had to enable Hyper-V and Hypervisor Plateform in Turn windows feature on/off, after rebooting it finally worked.

1. Install WSL and VirtualMachinePlatform:

   dism.exe /online /enable-feature /featurename:Microsoft-Windows-Subsystem-Linux /all /norestart
   
   dism.exe /online /enable-feature /featurename:VirtualMachinePlatform /all /norestart
   

2. Enable Hyper-V:
   

I tried the following procedures but it didn't work for me. down are the screenshot.

[jerviscui]

Can you use wsl startup it?
My question is can't startup wsl.

Your problem is upgrade wsl to wsl2.
Must install VirtualMachinePlatform, and restart system:

dism.exe /online /enable-feature /featurename:VirtualMachinePlatform /all /norestart

Perhaps you can search 0x80041002.

[ELCBOLPL]

I have the same issue

[Chris-Loughnane]

PS C:\Users\bruce> wsl --set-version Ubuntu-20.04 2
The distribution is already the requested version.
Perhaps I am missing something?

try wsl --setdefault Ubuntu-20.04 2 instead

@carsonpowers Thanks mate, nothing else on this thread worked until I found your post.

[ericknkunda]

I faced the same issue too and I was about to give up. But as mentioned above, there some windows features that must be enabled for anyone wishing to upgrade to wsl 2. Here are these features
Note that you must be running at least windows 10.
1: Open settings->App->Optional features-> more windows features
2: On the opened window
=>tick/check containers(if you may need to use docker in Linux containers mode)
=>tick/check Hper_V
=> tick /check virtual machine platform
=> tick/check Windows Hypervisor platform
=>tick/check Windows Subsystems for Linux (WSL)
After making sure that all the above are checked, hit enter and wait a little bit. Now the problem is solved. Go on and enjoy using Linux on your windows device

[microsoft-github-policy-service]

This issue has been automatically closed since it has not had any activity for the past year. If you're still experiencing this issue please re-file this as a new issue or feature request.

Thank you!

[microsoft-github-policy-service]

This issue has been automatically closed since it has not had any activity for the past year. If you're still experiencing this issue please re-file this as a new issue or feature request.

Thank you!