WSL GUI : Error at file_io_posix.cc

Question

Hello,

I installed wsl and wslg.
Running distro : kali-linux.

I'm facing issues when running GUI applications in kali-linux.

I installed chrome from this official Microsoft link : https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/wsl/tutorials/gui-apps

But it throws me this error below :

   [0114/222316.198616:ERROR:file_io_posix.cc(144)] open /sys/devices/system/cpu/cpu0/cpufreq/scaling_cur_freq: No such file or directory (2)  
   [0114/222316.198656:ERROR:file_io_posix.cc(144)] open /sys/devices/system/cpu/cpu0/cpufreq/scaling_max_freq: No such file or directory (2)  
   Trace/breakpoint trap  

I also installed brave-browser but that also throws a similar error :

   [0114/222829.587397:ERROR:file_io_posix.cc(144)] open /sys/devices/system/cpu/cpu0/cpufreq/scaling_cur_freq: No such file or directory (2)  
   [0114/222829.587443:ERROR:file_io_posix.cc(144)] open /sys/devices/system/cpu/cpu0/cpufreq/scaling_max_freq: No such file or directory (2)  
   /usr/bin/brave-browser: line 48:   130 Trace/breakpoint trap   "$HERE/brave" "$@"  

I'm not sure on what to do now. Please help.

The reason why I need GUI apps in linux distro is because when I setup a VPN connection using linux I cannot connect to the tunnel using native windows browser. So my turnaround was using GUI apps on linux. If there's any other alternative to this, then please suggest. Thanks

Answer 1

Hello NithinR

By default WSL is not a supported configuration for building or running Chromium browsers. I would recommend you to prompt this question to Chromium or Linux specific forums as they will be more experienced into workarounds to install these browser GUI apps depending on the distro.

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--If the reply is helpful, please Upvote and Accept as answer--

Answer 2

Hey,

Thank you for the reply.

But I don't really think that's the problem. I've seen people use Chromium based browser.

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/wsl/tutorials/gui-apps : This official doc by Microsoft also says the same. There is a " Install Google Chrome for Linux " section in the doc.

Anyway, I think the problem is much more than Chromium based browsers as Firefox also doesn't seem to work.

After doing apt get install firefox-esr and running firefox, I get the below error :

   Error: no DISPLAY environment variable specified  

Please help. Thank you.

Answer 3

The product group for WSL actively monitors questions over at
https://github.com/microsoft/WSL#readme

--please don't forget to upvote and Accept as answer if the reply is helpful--

Answer 4

Hello, thanks for the reply.

I did raise an issue there and found out it was duplicate. But the solution in the original issue didn't work for me either.

Issue link : https://github.com/microsoft/WSL/issues/7896

Hope I get some assistance soon.

Thanks again.

Answer 5

Man I have the exact same issue. OpenVPN (GUI or Connect) are not working with my employer OpenVPN Server (it was with the previous one though), so I use openvpn under wsl ubuntu and it's working fine, but then, some graphical apps are working fine, some are not.
I tried everything such as installing WSL GFX drivers (intel and nvidia), installing drivers / libs under wsl ubuntu, but no change.
Some people talk about the WAYLAND_DISPLAY against DISPLAY export variable, I tried but nothing changes. Some people also talk about the firewall but really everything is correctly setup.

In my case, chrome is not starting (same error as you), but firefox is working (but errors are raised regarding the hand cursor though).
Gimp is starting, but VLC is not.
And so on.

The only thing that worked is installing vcxsrv on windows (run with access control disabled), and add the following in my ~/.bashrc :

export DISPLAY=$(route.exe print 0.0.0.0 | grep 0.0.0.0 | head -n1 | awk '{ print $4} '):0.0
export LIBGL_ALWAYS_INDIRECT=1

Then all seem ok.

Btw why are you running your vpn under wsl ? Can't you run it under windows directly ? In my case it ' s not working and all this is a workaround of that root issue.

Good luck with your troubles.