As it turns out, Windows Subsystem for Linux has been a game-changing feature for Windows especially when it comes to advanced users who are more into the developing field. Installing WSL is done quite easily and you can now get it done via a single command. Most of the users that have been encountering the issue in question have been using dockers and oftentimes, the problem arises when their distribution is not set as the default operating system. With that said, there are various ways using which you can resolve the problem in the discussion. So, without any further ado, let us get started and jump right into it.
Update Linux Kernel or WSL
The first thing that you should do when you encounter the problem in question is to try to update Windows Subsystem for Linux which in turn will essentially update your Linux kernel. Doing so has reportedly fixed the problem for various users so it might do the trick for you as well. This is rather simple to do and is accomplished with a single command. Follow the instructions down below to do this:
Check Default Distribution
As it turns out, in some cases, the problem can arise when you have installed docker on Windows Subsystem for Linux. As such, when you are trying to start a Linux distribution, it can run into the mentioned error message due to not being set as the default distro. In addition to that, in case you only have docker alongside the docker-desktop-data distro, the latter may be set as the default distro which can trigger the issue. If this case is applicable, you will simply have to change your default distro respectively to solve the issue. To do this, follow the instructions down below:
Install Windows Updates
Since Windows Subsystem for Linux is a part of Windows, it can directly be influenced by Windows updates. Some users have reported that the problem in question was resolved for them after they installed Windows updates. To be specific, the update KB5005191 seemed to have resolved the issue for various users. Therefore, if you haven’t installed Windows updates in a while, we would recommend updating Windows as it might fix the issue for you too. Follow the instructions down below to do this:
Uninstall Windows Hypervisor Platform
Finally, if the above methods have not fixed the problem for you, then uninstalling the Windows Hypervisor Platform feature might just work for you. This has been reported by a user who was facing a similar error message during the installation and configuration phase of Ubuntu using Windows Subsystem for Linux 2. To resolve the issue, he uninstalled the mentioned feature and the Ubuntu installations started working just fine. Follow the instructions down below to do this:
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