WslRegisterDistribution failed with error: 0x80004005

Question

Launching Ubuntu (or any other wsl system) i get such error: "WslRegisterDistribution failed with error: 0x80004005". Tried googling it, but nothing helps. I tried to restart Lxss, tried sfc, dism, etc., but no errors were found. And i still get this. 

Answer 1

Hi Vladimir,

Thank you for writing to Microsoft Community Forums.

I suggest you to set the LxssManager service startup to Automatic, if it’s not set yet, and check if it works.

If you’re unable to set it to automatic from the services window, try the steps listed below:

Note:

Serious problems might occur if you modify the registry incorrectly. Therefore, make sure that you follow these steps carefully. For added protection, back up the registry before you modify it. Then, you can restore the registry if a problem occurs. To backup and restore registry key, refer to this link.

• Press ‘Win + R’ keys on the keyboard together to open the Run dialog box and type the following into the run box: REGEDIT
• Navigate to the following registry key:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\LxssManager

• On the right pane, locate Start and set the Value Data to 2.
• Exit REGEDIT, and reboot the machine to see if it works.

---

If the issue persists, try the steps listed below and check if it works:

• Right click the Windows icon on the taskbar and choose Windows PowerShell (admin).
• Copy paste the following command and hit Enter:

Enable-WindowsOptionalFeature -Online -FeatureName Microsoft-Windows-Subsystem-Linux

• Tap Y if it asks for confirmation**.**
• Wait for the PC to reboot and check if it works.

Hope it helps.

Regards,

Answer 2

Hello Vladimir, my name is Irisdiel and I am an independent advisor.

I suggest you follow the command shell prompt down below, as it was said to have helped many people.

open a commandline Shell

C:> bash

$ sudo apt-get update

$ sudo apt-get dist-upgrade

$ <CTRL-D>

C:&gt; exit

Refer to: https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/for...

Hope this helps!

Thank you and good luck,

Regards- Irisdiel H.

Answer 3

Thanks, but this error appears when I try to install any distro. So, i have no installed linux distros and as a result i cant use 'bash' command. System asks to install any linux distro first.

Answer 4

I've already tried to restart LxssManager. And i tried all 3 your suggestions. But no one of them helped. That's the problem... I've already tried everything, but this error.... It says nothing about what is wrong.

Answer 5

I got the same error with Ubuntu.

On Stackoverflow I found this: error 0x80004005 when install bash on ubuntu on windows 10

It mentions special characters in the windows user name, as well as changing page sizes for the hard drive.

I tried that, as well as restarting LxssManager,  re-enabled Linux-Subsystem, and all with reboots in between, nothing changed.

With openSuse 42 I'm getting a different error (Error: 0x80040302), and I see the error right away. With Ubuntu it takes some minutes.

My machine is in a domain, so some group policies are applied. I have no idea if this might be related.