Can't launch Arch in WSL. (/bin/sh not found, failed to mount C:\)

[dquevid]

Windows Version

Microsoft Windows [Version 10.0.22631.4317]

WSL Version

2.3.24.0

Are you using WSL 1 or WSL 2?

• [x] WSL 2
• [ ] WSL 1

Kernel Version

5.15.153.1-2

Distro Version

Arch 2024.11.01-x86_64

Other Software

No response

Repro Steps

1. Download Arch bootstrap tarball from official sources.
2. Extract with bsdtar (specify compressing algorithm if the tarball is compressed) then archive to a simple tarball again using GNU tar.
3. Import bootstrap into WSL.

   wsl.exe --import Arch $env:USERPROFILE\Documents\Arch arch-bootstrap.tar

4. Launch wsl distro.

   wsl.exe -d Arch

Expected Behavior

Bash execution in root environment.

Actual Behavior

<3>WSL (9) ERROR: CreateProcessParseCommon:763: Failed to translate C:\Users\david
<3>WSL (9) ERROR: CreateProcessParseCommon:809: getpwuid(0) failed 2
<3>WSL (9) ERROR: UtilTranslatePathList:2852: Failed to translate C:\Windows\system32
<3>WSL (9) ERROR: UtilTranslatePathList:2852: Failed to translate C:\Windows
<3>WSL (9) ERROR: UtilTranslatePathList:2852: Failed to translate C:\Windows\System32\Wbem
<3>WSL (9) ERROR: UtilTranslatePathList:2852: Failed to translate C:\Windows\System32\WindowsPowerShell\v1.0\
<3>WSL (9) ERROR: UtilTranslatePathList:2852: Failed to translate C:\Windows\System32\OpenSSH\
<3>WSL (9) ERROR: UtilTranslatePathList:2852: Failed to translate C:\Program Files (x86)\NVIDIA Corporation\PhysX\Common
<3>WSL (9) ERROR: UtilTranslatePathList:2852: Failed to translate C:\Program Files\NVIDIA Corporation\NVIDIA NvDLISR
<3>WSL (9) ERROR: UtilTranslatePathList:2852: Failed to translate C:\Program Files\Git\cmd
<3>WSL (9) ERROR: UtilTranslatePathList:2852: Failed to translate C:\Users\david\AppData\Local\Microsoft\WindowsApps
<3>WSL (9) ERROR: UtilTranslatePathList:2852: Failed to translate C:\Users\david\AppData\Local\Programs\Microsoft VS Code\bin
Processing fstab with mount -a failed.
Failed to mount C:\, see dmesg for more details.

<3>WSL (9) ERROR: CreateProcessCommon:392: getpwuid(0) failed 2
<3>WSL (9) ERROR: CreateProcessCommon:559: execvpe(/bin/sh) failed: No such file or directory

Diagnostic Logs

WslLogs-2024-11-04_14-35-24.zip wmic_output.txt

[dquevid]

Debian launches without any problems. The problem is only with Arch.

[github-actions[bot]]

View similar issues

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Closed similar issues:

• Can't boot Arch. Failed to translate Windows env variables and failed to mount disk partitions (#11567), similarity score: 0.83

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Diagnostic information

Detected appx version: 2.3.24.0

[dquevid]

In my previous issue Can't boot Arch. Failed to translate Windows env variables and failed to mount disk partitions (#11567) the problem was solved using wsl.conf. However, now it is not the case it seems.

[dquevid]

Nevermind, i fixed the issue. I just injected wsl.conf file into the bootstrap while rearchiving it, and it just worked, even though it didn't for multiple times.

For those wondering, here are the steps i follow to prepare the bootstrap (you will need at least Debian/Ubuntu installed to do this):