WSL not starting - VM request not supported

Question

Some of our colleagues are recently experiencing a problem when start WSL in Windows 11 computers. It was working fine so far, and issue came on last Saturday. below is the error message.

C:\Users\user1>wsl

Failed to attach disk 'C:\Program Files\WSL\system.vhd' to WSL2: The request is not supported.

Error code: Wsl/Service/CreateInstance/CreateVm/MountVhd/HCS/0x80070032

Could you please help me to identify why this is happening and how to sort out?

Answer 1

Hello

Thank you for posting in Q&A forum.

Here are a few steps you can try:

1. Reset Winsock: Sometimes, resetting the Winsock catalog can help. Open an elevated PowerShell (Run as Administrator) and execute the following command:

netsh winsock reset

After running this command, restart your computer and try running WSL again

2. Check WSL Version: Ensure you are using the latest version of WSL. You can update WSL by running:

wsl --update

If you are already on the latest version, you might consider rolling back to a previous version that worked for you. Users have reported success by rolling back to version 2.1.4.0

3. Verify File Location: Make sure the system.vhd file exists in the specified location. If it doesn't, you might need to copy it from its old location (C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\WSL) to the new location (C:\Program Files\WSL) with elevated rights
4. Reinstall WSL: If the above steps don't work, you might need to reinstall WSL. You can do this by running:

wsl --unregister <distro_name>

Replace <distro_name> with the name of your Linux distribution. After unregistering, reinstall the distribution from the Microsoft Store.

If these steps don't resolve the issue, you might want to check the GitHub issues page for WSL for more specific solutions or to report your problem.

I hope the information above is helpful.

If you have any questions or concerns, please feel free to let us know.

Best Regards,

Daisy Zhou

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