WSL cannot be executed from a windows service using local admin account

[s3menzer]

Version

Windows Version: 10.0.19044.2364

WSL Version

• WSL 2
• WSL 1

Kernel Version

5.15.79.1

Distro Version

Ubuntu 22.04

Other Software

WSL-Version: 1.0.3.0
Kernelversion: 5.15.79.1
WSLg-Version: 1.0.47
MSRDC-Version: 1.2.3575
Direct3D-Version: 1.606.4
DXCore-Version: 10.0.25131.1002-220531-1700.rs-onecore-base2-hyp
Windows Version: 10.0.19044.2364

Repro Steps

Setup a windows service that executes wsl.exe to run linux commands (in our case it a bamboo build agent)

Expected Behavior

WSL version is printed out

Actual Behavior

%ERRORLEVEL% is set to 1 and with the follwing output:

Das System kann auf die Datei nicht zugreifen.

Diagnostic Logs

The behavior exists after wsl was updated to the current release

If I run wsl -l -v with the same user on a windows terminal, I get the following output instead:

WSL-Version: 1.0.3.0
Kernelversion: 5.15.79.1
WSLg-Version: 1.0.47
MSRDC-Version: 1.2.3575
Direct3D-Version: 1.606.4
DXCore-Version: 10.0.25131.1002-220531-1700.rs-onecore-base2-hyp
Windows Version: 10.0.19044.2364

[s3menzer]

It is working as long as the local user account which is used by the service to authenticated is not part of the group of local admins

[aki-k]

I thought this was the same case as trying to run wsl from task scheduler

#9231

[OneBlue]

/dupe #9231

[ghost]

Hi! We've identified this issue as a duplicate of another one that already exists in this repository. This specific instance is being closed in favor of tracking the concern over on the referenced thread.

Thanks for your report!

[s3menzer]

Found a solution now:

In some cases, wsl (LxssManager service may hang while shutting down. Therefore the service
must be started in unprotected mode.

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\LxssManager]
"LaunchProtected"=dword:00000000

With this setting set, the service can be killed by the following command:

taskkill /F /FI "SERVICES eq LxssManager"

If you kill it before starting "wsl.exe", everything will be fine

[aki-k]

@s3menzer

It is working as long as the local user account which is used by the service to authenticated is not part of the group of local admins

Thank you very much. This resolved my issue of starting WSL as a Windows service at boot.