WSL Unexpectedly Stopped Working

[radiophonic]

Windows Version

Microsoft Windows [Version 10.0.19045.5854]

WSL Version

WSL version: 2.4.13.0

Are you using WSL 1 or WSL 2?

• WSL 2
• WSL 1

Kernel Version

5.15.167.4-1

Distro Version

Ubuntu 24

Other Software

None

Repro Steps

Open Windows Terminal or, standard terminal.
Launch ubuntu.

Expected Behavior

WSL launches properly.

Actual Behavior

Launch Windows Terminal (or standard command terminal.)
Launch ubuntu.
Wait 2-3 minutes (screen will be blank.)

Receive message "Installing, this may take a few minutes..."

Wait another 5 minutes.

Receive error:

WslRegisterDistribution failed with error: 0x80080005
Error: 0x80080005 Server execution failed

Press any key to continue...

[process exited with code 1 (0x00000001)]
You can now close this terminal with Ctrl+D, or press Enter to restart.

[github-actions]

The log file doesn't contain any WSL traces. Please make sure that you reproduced the issue while the log collection was running.

Diagnostic information

Detected appx version: 2.5.7.0
Found no WSL traces in the logs

[radiophonic]

Notes: I had been using WSL successfully up until 2 days ago when it simply stopped working. No software had been installed prior, no windows updates had been applied to my knowledge. It simply stopped working.

[radiophonic]

Please provide a method for collecting WSL traces so that I may provide them. System logs do not show any relevant information.

[OneBlue]

Thank you for reporting this @radiophonic. Could you try to install ubuntu with wsl --install ubuntu and see if that solves the issue ?

[radiophonic]

Sure. It isn't going to remove my existing configurations or home folder is it?

[OneBlue]

No, uninstalling or upgrading WSL doesn't affect the installed distributions.

[radiophonic]

Okay thanks. I'll get to it now.

[radiophonic]

Unfortunately, this also fails.

The download completes then WSL begins the installation process which seems to hang for roughly 10 minutes without disk activity then outputs the following error:

C:\Users\mypri>wsl --install ubuntu
Downloading: Ubuntu
Installing: Ubuntu
Server execution failed
Error code: Wsl/InstallDistro/0x80080005