Blank screen when starting up (similar to #2352)

[kurgol]

Please fill out the below information:

• Your Windows build number: (Type ver at a Windows Command Prompt)

Microsoft Windows [Version 10.0.17763.503]

• What you're doing and what's happening: (Copy&paste the full set of specific command-line steps necessary to reproduce the behavior, and their output. Include screen shots if that helps demonstrate the problem.)

Clicking the shortcut to open my Ubuntu 18.04 bash terminal (or the Debian one I installed to test appears to be affected as well).

• What's wrong / what should be happening instead:

It should be opening a functional prompt.

• Strace of the failing command, if applicable: (If some_command is failing, then run strace -o some_command.strace -f some_command some_args, and link the contents of some_command.strace in a gist here).

I can't type any commands, so not possible to run an Strace.

• For WSL launch issues, please collect detailed logs.

I have captured the detailed logs as requested (it was also mentioned on issue #2352 ):

blank-screen-when-starting-up.zip

See our contributing instructions for assistance.

[jarlva]

Same problem on two windows pc's.. If I close WSL <Ctrl+D> and later try to lauch WSL/ubuntu I get a blank screen. Windows reboot fixes the problem.

[Protazy21]

same as #4047

[Stoner60]

Same for me. I uninstall Ubuntu and WSL, but then if I start command prompt as administrator and without legacy console option of cmd, I also got a Blank screen. If i do it as "normal" User then all is fine. cmd works also fine with admin and normal user, if I activate legacy console. But then it will not work during install of ubuntu.

[Stoner60]

It seems I found the solution concerning blank screen:
Press the icon of Ubuntu in the blank screen, properties, Terminal, uncheck separate foreground and background, then you will see the output of the Terminal. Same with the cursor. Perhaps you have to reinstall Ubuntu and start again. I have a german Windows installation, hope to find the right translation.
Now I was able to create a user and give them a password, and do an update with sudo ....
But I don’t know, who or what update the properties of terminal Sessions.

[kurgol]

@Stoner60 neither of those options are selected for me, and I still can't get a functioning terminal. Also I have restarted multiple times since I opened this, and although some people say a reboot resolves the issue for them - it does not for me.

[Stoner60]

@kurgol , perhaps it help, if you play with the colours of foreground and background. For me it seems, that font colour and background is the same. Black font on black background, then you see nothing.

[kurgol]

it is not, the cursor is blinking in the top left. I have tried adjusting the foreground to white no difference. It is completely unresponsive terminal.

This is incredibly frustrating because prior to 1810 it had been working perfectly since it's the introduction so to now have a shell that doesn't function means it's effectively useless in a working environment.

[benhillis]

When you get into this state, can you check the status of the LxssManager service?

sc query lxssmanager

[kurgol]

[kurgol]

[bigxd123]

I have the exact same issue.

I dont fully know the exact steps to reproduce but it simply seems just a "time" issue, if I open it right after boot, it works fine after a few minutes after closing and not touching it the terminal goes into the frozen state.

This issue makes WSL(1) completely unusable for me.

A reboot fixes the issue.

Im on windows 10 pro (1903)

I do have BitDefender installed (maybe that does something to the files)
I also use VsCode with the Remote extension which consistently also freezes WSL

Does switching to WSL 2 fix the issue?

[Ic4r0]

Hi everyone

Me too when I try to open the bash terminal I have your same blank screen with the blinking cursor. If I restart my pc then the bash starts but then, if I close it, the problem starts all over again.

OS: Windows 10 Home (Microsoft Windows [Version 10.0.17134.829])
Ubuntu 18.04 bash terminal
LxssManager is working

Like @hnlpower I also have BitDefender installed.

[kurgol]

like the two above, I also use BitDefender!

[Ic4r0]

I've just found out that until last year there were people that had installed BitDefender and they had problems with network connection with the Ubuntu bash (that problem seems solved right now).

Maybe this is a new problem caused by that AV...

[dan-danciu]

Same problem,
I also have Bitdefender although if that is just coincidence or not I do not know.

[E14]

Anyone still able to reproduce it? I can't anymore. Previously I could reproduce the issue by

1. Open Ubuntu Bash
2. Close Ubuntu Bash
3. Wait a bit
4. Open Ubuntu Bash (Hangs here and any further attempts)

There was a BitDefender and Windows update last week

Edit: Nevermind. Just hang on me after

1. Open Ubuntu Bash
2. sudo apt update && sudo apt upgrade -y; sudo apt autoremove
3. Close Ubuntu Bash (^D)
4. Open Ubuntu Bash (hangs)

[kurgol]

I was affected yesterday @E14 and am pretty much affected by it every day. I have moved back to Cygwin as my daily driver, much to my dismay as bash has been working perfectly until the 1903 update.

[flojon]

I got this today after using WSL for a month on a new computer...

[flojon]

After a few reboots it's working again. I also had problem with a folder that could not be deleted so I had to boot into command prompt to get rid of it. Not sure if that's related. I'm using Windows 10 Pro with BitLocker and Symantec Endpoint Protection.

[kurgol]

still not working on a daily basis for me, if the devs want any more triage please let me know what else I can provide other than what I put in the issue up top?

[alexejk]

I have been experimenting with this issue and right now it seems to work for me on boot when Hyper-V is enabled and fully working. I was facing this issue when VMWare Workstation was installed and Hyper-V disabled. Note that this is for WSL v1 which I do not really understand the reason for Hyper-V dependency and what it worked after reboot (but had a hunch that seems to help workaround)..

[dan-danciu]

It is working again for me.
There was a BD update a couple of days ago. I have not had any issues since then.

[kurgol]

@dan-danciu I have not had an occurrence for the last few days either.

@alexejk this problem affects me on two different systems, one has Hyper-V fully installed and the other does not have it installed at all - so I think the Hyper-V is unrelated.

[alexejk]

@kurgol, its a fair note. It seemed to be something else indeed because now its back. Even though my PC was of for an hour after enabling Hyper-V yesterday things worked as expected. Today they are broken again.

Interesting enough I have Bitdefender as well but it's still causing issues.
Would you or @dan-danciu mind sharing Versions of BitDefender and what protections are enabled? I would like to see how it differs from my setup.

[kurgol]

@alexejk I'm using fully updated versions of Bitdefender Antivirus Free on both.

[dan-danciu]

[alexejk]

I'm on the same version as @dan-danciu but the issue still seems to persist for me. And contrary to what I previously thought - HyperV does not make a difference.

What is still extremely confusing is that a reboot always solves the problem.

[kurgol]

@alexejk a reboot does not always solve the problem for me.

[alexejk]

Even more confusing then, I guess. For me now I basically have to take it as a routine to start & reboot if i want to use WSL which hasnt failed me yet. But I guess we all have slightly different problem that manifest the same way..

@kurgol when it's "not working" for you, I assume wsl commands hang no matter what you do with it, right?

[kurgol]

As noted in the original bug report, all I get is a completely unresponsive black window, and everything I have tried is documented in this thread - if you haven't seen me mention it - I haven't tried it.

[Padi2312]

Recently i found out that turning off and on the function of linux subsystem is solving the error.

[Fearswe]

I think I have found the cause of the issue. Disabling Fast Startup prevents it from happening. I'm guessing the LxssManager enters some sort of error state during start/shutdown with Fast Startup.

[alexejk]

Really? I've tried disabling it before but it still happened fairly consistentl. For me the fix was doing full system repair which detected some issues. After that no issues for a few weeks so far.

[Padi2312]

You have to go to Windows Settings and then on Features and Programs. While you there disable Windows Subystem for Linux. Reboot, activated again reboot and the error is fixed.

[jorgii]

Disabling and re-enabling WSL did not work for me.
What worked for me was holding updates for wslu: sudo apt-mark hold wslu.

The problem is with the wslu package (or its dependencies). Holding updates for the package via
sudo apt-mark hold wslu
solved the issue for me.
P.S. I don't use Bit Defender so the issue wasn't related to it in my case.

[Oeffner]

After following the advice on #4490 to see if the LXSS Manager service is running (it wasn't) and then manually starting it I finally got a working Ubuntu shell. I'm confused as to why my system has two LXSS Manager services. One is named LxssManagerUser_1a0068 and starts automatically. The other one is named LxssManager and is set to start manually. That's the one I started manually. I get access denied if trying to set it to start it automatically, even as administrator. I'm running Windows10 version 1909 build 18363.592

[jey07]

I am into this issue in midst of my project. Does anyone has permanent solution

[tummybunny]

I had the same issue, but it turned out to be the color issue.
I can see the terminal after I made the following changes to the properties below, note the two check boxes on top are unchecked:

And make sure the text and background color not the same, thenclick Ok, button, and viola!

I know this is color issue because when I got blank screen in cmd, the screen would blink when I execute cls. Then I typed random stuff on the console and dragged my mouse to select the text, I saw bunch of blocks (not ascii) got selected, so something was there. So play with your color and don't forget to hit Ok (it takes effect only after you hit Ok)

[dchennaraidu]

This method worked for me

[Oeffner]

Actually from what I read elsewhere on the internet I have now enabled "Virtual Machine Platform" in the "Turn Windows Features on or off" (where you also enable "Windows Subsystem for Linux"). with that being enabled the bash shell works fine again without hanging.

[dreykhtman]

Same here. My terminal is a blank window with cursor blinking. Cannot type. When I try to open VSCode, it's stuck on loading and on the bottom left where it usually says "WSL: Ubuntu-18.04" it's stuck on "⟳ Opening Remote...". I enabled "Virtual Machine Platform" a while ago, so I don't think it's related like the previous poster said. I also have Bitdefender installed.

Have to restart the PC to fix the problem.

[adarshaj]

I had the same issue today after upgrading with KB4565503, I followed steps in the above comment: #4055 (comment) and it worked after disable + reboot + enable + reboot steps.

[stevenlafl]

I had the same issue today after upgrading with KB4565503, I followed steps in the above comment: #4055 (comment) and it worked after disable + reboot + enable + reboot steps.

I am also having this problem with KB4565503 and these steps do not solve the problem for me.

[stevenlafl]

Here are the ETL files for debugging when I try it. After a while, it shows The Windows Subsystem for Linux instance has terminated. I can't really understand what I'm seeing in these ETL files.
lxcore_multiple.etl.zip

[Peiqi-Hu]

This method worked for me

This works for me, although I don't have Bitdefender installed, so my situation may not apply.

[EvgeneKuklin]

I have the same problem, solutions from above are not working
Terminal is freezing forever, when I'm trying to install or to open Ubuntu
Also all WSL commands are freezing terminal too, but after system's restart - WSL commands are working fine untill I'm trying start or install Ubuntu
I think the problem apeared after apdating Windows to prerelease version (build 20221.rs_prerelease.200919-1857)(with old version (2004) there were no problems)
I had to install this version of Win to get WSL CUDA - according to this guide:
https://docs.nvidia.com/cuda/wsl-user-guide/index.html#installing-nvidia-drivers

Update 1
After calling this command DISM.exe /Online /Cleanup-image /Restorehealth
I have got a new error (The remote procedure call failed. - from russian), after every attempt to create a new user:

[stevenlafl]

An update, I had to store a copy of the WSL instance to another location and then delete the Debian WSL install, creating a new one. After that I mounted the old one and copied over all of my data using DiskInternals Linux Reader. It's worked fine since then. Very crappy situation.. it's basically equivalent to having a corrupted drive. Still no idea what caused it - it just randomly happened one day.

[ryancwalsh]

Actually from what I read elsewhere on the internet I have now enabled "Virtual Machine Platform" in the "Turn Windows Features on or off" (where you also enable "Windows Subsystem for Linux"). with that being enabled the bash shell works fine again without hanging.

@Oeffner Thank you! I think this is what fixed it for me.

[ygerbovits]

Hello,
Simpliest workaround found :
proceed to a complete reboot of Windows. (press and hold SHIFT / clic Windows / Shutdown / Reboot / Continue)

[huchim]

I almost sure I was installed Ubuntu 18.04, but after a blank console, and enable/disable linux subsystem (reboot etc) it works again but now, Ubuntu is 20.04.1... may be Ubuntu failed when it was upgrading... :/

[francogp]

Have the same issue, 2021. Windows defender as antivirus. LxssManager refuse to start.

[therealkenc]

/dupe #4047

[ghost]

Hi! We've identified this issue as a duplicate of another one that already exists in this repository. This specific instance is being closed in favor of tracking the concern over on the referenced thread.

Thanks for your report!

[FlorientR]

The problem is with the wslu package (or its dependencies). Holding updates for the package via
sudo apt-mark hold wslu
solved the issue for me.
P.S. I don't use Bit Defender so the issue wasn't related to it in my case.

This work fine for me thank you very much !

[yabuking84]

how do you even sudo apt-mark hold wslu if you cant even open the WSL ubuntu bash terminal????

[JubberyXL]

Oddly enough, ctrl-z, ctrl-x, ctrl-c in this order allowed me to use the terminal

[liveeverymoment]

I am using wsl2, I got the same issue that occured to @kurgol , I manually tried to restart Lxss Manager and then it gave error, but issue was resolved.