Error code: Wsl/Service/E_UNEXPECTED

[Kirayo]

Windows Version

Microsoft Windows [Verson 10.0.26220.7523]

WSL Version

2.6.3.0

Are you using WSL 1 or WSL 2?

• WSL 2
• WSL 1

Kernel Version

6.6.87.2-1

Distro Version

ArchLinux

Other Software

No response

Repro Steps

• Open a PowerShell or Command Prompt window, and execute the command wsl to launch the Windows Subsystem for Linux
• Observe that the error Error code: Wsl/Service/E_UNEXPECTED occurs

Expected Behavior

Running wsl (or wsl -d Arch) should successfully start the Arch Linux distribution, launching the default user's shell without any errors, allowing normal interaction with the Linux environment.

Actual Behavior

When I start the wsl again I get the following error:
Fatal Error
Error code: Wsl/Service/E_UNEXPECTED

Diagnostic Logs

$RO41N7A.zip

[github-actions]

The log file doesn't contain any WSL traces. Please make sure that you reproduced the issue while the log collection was running.

Diagnostic information

.wslconfig found
Failed to parse .wslconfig: doesn't support inline comment[wsl2]                      # 核心配置
autoProxy=true             # 是否强制 WSL2/WSLg 子系统使用 Windows 代理设置（请根据实际需要启用）
dnsTunneling=false          # WSL2/WSLg DNS 代理隧道，以便由 Windows 代理转发 DNS 请求（请根据实际需要启用）
firewall=false               # WSL2/WSLg 子系统的 Windows 防火墙集成，以便 Hyper-V 或者 WFP 能过滤子系统流量（请根据实际需要启用）
guiApplications=true        # 启用 WSLg GUI 图形化程序支持
#localhostForwarding=true    # 启用 localhost 网络转发支持（新版已不支持在 mirrored 模式下使用，会自动忽略，所以无需注释掉，只是启用会有条烦人的警告而已）
memory=4GB                  # 限制 WSL2/WSLg 子系统的最大内存占用
nestedVirtualization=true   # 启用 WSL2/WSLg 子系统嵌套虚拟化功能支持
networkingMode=mirrored     # 启用镜像网络特性支持
#pageReporting=true          # 启用 WSL2/WSLg 子系统页面文件通报，以便 Windows 回收已分配但未使用的内存
processors=8                # 设置 WSL2/WSLg 子系统的逻辑 CPU 核心数为 8（最大肯定没法超过硬件的物理逻辑核心数）
vmIdleTimeout=-1            # WSL2 VM 实例空闲超时关闭时间，-1 为永不关闭，根据参数说明，目前似乎仅适用于 Win11+

[experimental]                  # 实验性功能（按照过往经验，若后续转正，则是配置在上面的 [wsl2] 选节）
autoMemoryReclaim=gradual       # 启用空闲内存自动缓慢回收，其它选项：dropcache / disabled（立即/禁用）
hostAddressLoopback=true        # 启用 WSL2/WSLg 子系统和 Windows 宿主之间的本地回环互通支持
sparseVhd=true                  # 启用 WSL2/WSLg 子系统虚拟硬盘空间自动回收
bestEffortDnsParsing=true       # 和 dnsTunneling 配合使用，Windows 将从 DNS 请求中提取问题并尝试解决该问题，从而忽略未知记录（请根据实际需要启用）
#ignoredPorts=3306               # 见：https://learn.microsoft.com/zh-cn/windows/wsl/wsl-config#experimental-settings
Detected appx version: 2.6.3.0
Found no WSL traces in the logs

[Kirayo]

OK,I have collected new logs after properly reproducing the issue.

Steps:

1. Ran wsl to trigger the "Catastrophic failure" with error code Wsl/Service/E_UNEXPECTED.
2. Immediately pressed a key in the running collect-wsl-logs.ps1 script to save the logs.

Attached the new diagnostic zip file.

WslLogs-2025-12-21_02-44-58.zip

[github-actions]

Diagnostic information

.wslconfig found
Failed to parse .wslconfig: doesn't support inline comment[wsl2]                      # 核心配置
autoProxy=true             # 是否强制 WSL2/WSLg 子系统使用 Windows 代理设置（请根据实际需要启用）
dnsTunneling=false          # WSL2/WSLg DNS 代理隧道，以便由 Windows 代理转发 DNS 请求（请根据实际需要启用）
firewall=false               # WSL2/WSLg 子系统的 Windows 防火墙集成，以便 Hyper-V 或者 WFP 能过滤子系统流量（请根据实际需要启用）
guiApplications=true        # 启用 WSLg GUI 图形化程序支持
#localhostForwarding=true    # 启用 localhost 网络转发支持（新版已不支持在 mirrored 模式下使用，会自动忽略，所以无需注释掉，只是启用会有条烦人的警告而已）
memory=4GB                  # 限制 WSL2/WSLg 子系统的最大内存占用
nestedVirtualization=true   # 启用 WSL2/WSLg 子系统嵌套虚拟化功能支持
networkingMode=mirrored     # 启用镜像网络特性支持
#pageReporting=true          # 启用 WSL2/WSLg 子系统页面文件通报，以便 Windows 回收已分配但未使用的内存
processors=8                # 设置 WSL2/WSLg 子系统的逻辑 CPU 核心数为 8（最大肯定没法超过硬件的物理逻辑核心数）
vmIdleTimeout=-1            # WSL2 VM 实例空闲超时关闭时间，-1 为永不关闭，根据参数说明，目前似乎仅适用于 Win11+

[experimental]                  # 实验性功能（按照过往经验，若后续转正，则是配置在上面的 [wsl2] 选节）
autoMemoryReclaim=gradual       # 启用空闲内存自动缓慢回收，其它选项：dropcache / disabled（立即/禁用）
hostAddressLoopback=true        # 启用 WSL2/WSLg 子系统和 Windows 宿主之间的本地回环互通支持
sparseVhd=true                  # 启用 WSL2/WSLg 子系统虚拟硬盘空间自动回收
bestEffortDnsParsing=true       # 和 dnsTunneling 配合使用，Windows 将从 DNS 请求中提取问题并尝试解决该问题，从而忽略未知记录（请根据实际需要启用）
#ignoredPorts=3306               # 见：https://learn.microsoft.com/zh-cn/windows/wsl/wsl-config#experimental-settings
Detected appx version: 2.6.3.0
Detected user visible error: Wsl/Service/E_UNEXPECTED

[Kirayo]

I have fixed the inline comments in my .wslconfig file (all # comments are now on separate lines or removed the inline ones). I also temporarily commented out networkingMode=mirrored and added autoProxy=true.

However, the issue still persists.

New error message when running wsl:

WslLogs-2025-12-21_02-58-01.zip

[github-actions]

Diagnostic information

.wslconfig found
Detected appx version: 2.6.3.0
Detected user visible error: Wsl/Service/E_UNEXPECTED
Detected user visible error: Wsl/Service/E_UNEXPECTED

[OneBlue]

@Kirayo: Looking through the logs, it's looking that WSL is failing to exec() inside your distribution:

Microsoft.Windows.Lxss.Manager	GuestLog	12-20-2025 10:58:14.337	"text: 	""[  201.903131] WSL (3 - init-systemd(Arch)) ERROR: UtilCreateProcessAndWait:687: execv(/bin/mount) failed with 8 ""
vmId: 	{0ae08971-edb2-4602-8867-d70043ca6ce4}"				6604	17984	5		00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000000		

The error here is ENOEXEC so either the distribution is corrupted, or it's the wrong architecture for your machine.

[microsoft-github-policy-service]

This issue has been automatically closed since it has not had any author activity for the past 7 days. If you're still experiencing this issue please re-file it as a new issue.

Thank you!