Bash in system32 always throws WSL error CreateProcessCommon:800

[olcariz]

Windows Version

Microsoft Windows [version 10.0.26200.7462]

WSL Version

2.6.3.0

Are you using WSL 1 or WSL 2?

• WSL 2
• WSL 1

Kernel Version

6.6.87.2

Distro Version

24.04

Other Software

No response

Repro Steps

• Open a terminal
• Run the bash command or specifically C:\WINDOWS\system32\bash.exe if your system env doesn't point to System32 (which would be very odd)

Expected Behavior

It should open a GUI for git bash

Actual Behavior

What does bash do in system32 ? First time says it needs WSL running to work, then throws the following error all the time:

<3>WSL (9 - Relay) ERROR: CreateProcessCommon:800: execvpe(/bin/bash) failed: No such file or directory

Diagnostic Logs

Reinstalled WSL and distrib, same thing happens

[github-actions]

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.\collect-wsl-logs.ps1

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[olcariz]

WslLogs-2025-12-23_12-52-25.zip

[github-actions]

Diagnostic information

Detected appx version: 2.6.3.0

[OneBlue]

Thank you for reporting this @olcariz. Could you share an strace output of the error you're seeing ? strace -f bash.exe should give us context on what's going on here.

[olcariz]

So strace -f bash.exe ran into a infinite loop that i couldn't kill, here is the beginning, the last line repeats itself indefinitely:

--- Process 13692 created
--- Process 13692 loaded C:\Windows\System32\ntdll.dll at 00007ffd8fce0000
--- Process 13692 loaded C:\Windows\System32\kernel32.dll at 00007ffd8f540000
--- Process 13692 loaded C:\Windows\System32\KernelBase.dll at 00007ffd8d2e0000
--- Process 13692 thread 4624 created
--- Process 13692 loaded C:\Windows\System32\user32.dll at 00007ffd8f7c0000
--- Process 13692 loaded C:\Users\olo06\scoop\apps\git\2.50.0\usr\bin\msys-2.0.dll at 0000000210040000
--- Process 13692 loaded C:\Windows\System32\win32u.dll at 00007ffd8d2b0000
--- Process 13692 thread 25652 created
--- Process 13692 loaded C:\Windows\System32\gdi32.dll at 00007ffd8ed70000
--- Process 13692 loaded C:\Windows\System32\gdi32full.dll at 00007ffd8cf70000
--- Process 13692 loaded C:\Windows\System32\msvcp_win.dll at 00007ffd8cec0000
--- Process 13692 loaded C:\Windows\System32\ucrtbase.dll at 00007ffd8d160000
--- Process 13692 thread 33268 created
    0       0 [main] bash (13692) **********************************************
  240     240 [main] bash (13692) Program name: C:\Users\olo06\scoop\apps\git\2.50.0\usr\bin\bash.exe (windows pid 13692)
   72     312 [main] bash (13692) OS version:   Windows NT-10.0
   48     360 [main] bash (13692) **********************************************
--- Process 13692 loaded C:\Windows\System32\advapi32.dll at 00007ffd8f990000
--- Process 13692 loaded C:\Windows\System32\msvcrt.dll at 00007ffd8eda0000
--- Process 13692 loaded C:\Windows\System32\sechost.dll at 00007ffd8e7b0000
--- Process 13692 loaded C:\Windows\System32\rpcrt4.dll at 00007ffd8e510000
--- Process 13692 loaded C:\Windows\System32\cryptbase.dll at 00007ffd8c530000
--- Process 13692 loaded C:\Windows\System32\bcryptprimitives.dll at 00007ffd8d6e0000
 2018    2378 [main] bash (13692) sigprocmask: 0 = sigprocmask (0, 0x0, 0x21035E370)
  432    2810 [main] bash (13692) open_shared: name shared.5, shared 0x1A0000000 (wanted 0x1A0000000), h 0x128, m 0, created 0
  101    2911 [main] bash (13692) user_heap_info::init: heap base 0xA00000000, heap top 0xA00000000, heap size 0x20000000 (536870912)
   73    2984 [main] bash (13692) open_shared: name S-1-5-21-3798508088-3378432650-723833875-1001.1, shared 0x1A0010000 (wanted 0x1A0010000), h 0x12C, m 1, created 0
   84    3068 [main] bash (13692) user_info::create: opening user shared for 'S-1-5-21-3798508088-3378432650-723833875-1001' at 0x1A0010000
   84    3152 [main] bash (13692) user_info::create: user shared version AB1FCCE8
   94    3246 [main] bash (13692) fhandler_pipe::create: name \\.\pipe\msys-2bdb8369dcd36442-13692-sigwait, size 65472, mode PIPE_TYPE_MESSAGE
   84    3330 [main] bash (13692) fhandler_pipe::create: pipe read handle 0x140
   58    3388 [main] bash (13692) fhandler_pipe::create: CreateFile: name \\.\pipe\msys-2bdb8369dcd36442-13692-sigwait
   64    3452 [main] bash (13692) fhandler_pipe::create: pipe write handle 0x144
   66    3518 [main] bash (13692) dll_crt0_0: finished dll_crt0_0 initialization
--- Process 13692 loaded C:\Windows\System32\imm32.dll at 00007ffd8fa50000
--- Process 13692, exception c0000005 at 00000002100cea3f
--- Process 13692, exception c0000005 at 0000000000000000
--- Process 13692, exception c0000005 at 0000000000000000
--- Process 13692, exception c0000005 at 0000000000000000
--- Process 13692, exception c0000005 at 0000000000000000
--- Process 13692, exception c0000005 at 0000000000000000

[OneBlue]

@olcariz: What I meant was to run strace -f from inside your linux distribution. Something like: wsl -d <distro> strace -f </path/to/bash.exe>

[olcariz]

Allright, so i dug a little more, problem seems to be coming from docker-desktop distribution.

I have installed docker-desktop distribution with .exe provided by docker.

When i set it by default wsl --set-default docker-desktop i have the bash error:
<3>WSL (485 - Relay) ERROR: CreateProcessCommon:800: execvpe(/bin/bash) failed: No such file or directory

When i set another available distrib, everything is fine with bash outside WSL.

Didn't know a bash was there in system32 just to provide it from distribution, is that right ?