Distro not booting with systemd enabled

[quater]

Windows Version

Microsoft Windows 10 Pro 10.0.19045 N/A Build 19045

WSL Version

1.1.3.0

Are you using WSL 1 or WSL 2?

• WSL 2
• WSL 1

Kernel Version

5.15.90.1-microsoft-standard-WSL2

Distro Version

Ubuntu 22:04

Other Software

No response

Repro Steps

The Problem

I cannot get WSL 2 to run the Ubuntu 22.04 distro with systems.

The Steps

I have followed the steps as documented
https://devblogs.microsoft.com/commandline/systemd-support-is-now-available-in-wsl/
https://ubuntu.com/blog/ubuntu-wsl-enable-systemd

1. Connect to Ubuntu 22.04 instance terminal and create the wsl.conf file with the command sudo nano /etc/wsl.conf.
2. I added the text below and saved the file.

[boot]
systemd=true

3. In the Powershell terminal, I run the command wsl --shutdown
4. In the Powershell terminal, I connected to the terminal with wsl -d Ubuntu-20.04
5. Run the command ps 1

$ ps 1
    PID TTY      STAT   TIME COMMAND
      1 ?        Ss     0:00 /sbin/init

The History

In August 2022, I got this freshly installed laptop, and right started to use WSL. The first thing I did was to enable WSL2, but I did not check whether there are new versions of WSL2 available.

Recently I had the need to install a service that required systemd. I then learned that WSL2 can run the distro with systemd. I then followed the steps provided at https://devblogs.microsoft.com/commandline/systemd-support-is-now-available-in-wsl/ but it did not work. To see whether it's an issue with WSL2, I tried to get the WSL version by running wsl --version but that did not work either. Eventually, I learned that I can upgrade WSL2 with the command wsl --update command. Once done, the wsl --version command started to work, which now displays 1.1.3.0.

However, WSL2 refuses to run Ubuntu 22.04 or 20.04 with systemd as process 1. I then unregistered the distros in the hope that this will make it work by forcing them to download a new WSL distro but that did not work either.

Is there a bug with this particular version of Windows 10?

Host Name:                 C00415
OS Name:                   Microsoft Windows 10 Pro
OS Version:                10.0.19045 N/A Build 19045
OS Manufacturer:           Microsoft Corporation
OS Configuration:          Member Workstation
OS Build Type:             Multiprocessor Free
Registered Owner:          <obfuscated>
Registered Organization:   <obfuscated>
Product ID:                00331-10000-00001-AA298
Original Install Date:     12/08/2022, 09:59:41
System Boot Time:          27/03/2023, 08:32:33
System Manufacturer:       LENOVO
System Model:              20XWS0Y700
System Type:               x64-based PC
Processor(s):              1 Processor(s) Installed.
                           [01]: Intel64 Family 6 Model 140 Stepping 1 GenuineIntel ~1201 Mhz
BIOS Version:              LENOVO N32ET79W (1.55 ), 27/07/2022
Windows Directory:         C:\WINDOWS
System Directory:          C:\WINDOWS\system32
Boot Device:               \Device\HarddiskVolume1
System Locale:             en-au;English (Australia)
Input Locale:              en-us;English (United States)
Time Zone:                 (UTC+10:00) Brisbane
Total Physical Memory:     32.487 MB
Available Physical Memory: 20.353 MB
Virtual Memory: Max Size:  37.351 MB
Virtual Memory: Available: 25.338 MB
Virtual Memory: In Use:    12.013 MB
Page File Location(s):     C:\pagefile.sys
Domain:                    <obfuscated>
Logon Server:              <obfuscated>
Hotfix(s):                 17 Hotfix(s) Installed.
                           [01]: KB5011487
                           [02]: KB5022502
                           [03]: KB5003791
                           [04]: KB5012170
                           [05]: KB5015684
                           [06]: KB5023696
                           [07]: KB5011352
                           [08]: KB5011651
                           [09]: KB5014032
                           [10]: KB5014035
                           [11]: KB5014671
                           [12]: KB5015895
                           [13]: KB5016705
                           [14]: KB5018506
                           [15]: KB5020372
                           [16]: KB5022924
                           [17]: KB5005260
Network Card(s):           5 NIC(s) Installed.
                           [01]: Intel(R) Wi-Fi 6 AX201 160MHz
                                 Connection Name: Wi-Fi
                                 DHCP Enabled:    Yes
                                 DHCP Server:     <obfuscated>
                                 IP address(es)
                                 [01]: <obfuscated>
                                 [02]: <obfuscated>
                                 [03]: <obfuscated>
                                 [04]: <obfuscated>
                           [02]: Bluetooth Device (Personal Area Network)
                                 Connection Name: Bluetooth Network Connection
                                 Status:          Media disconnected
                           [03]: PANGP Virtual Ethernet Adapter Secure
                                 Connection Name: Ethernet 2
                                 DHCP Enabled:    No
                                 IP address(es)
                                 [01]: 192.168.231.138
                           [04]: Hyper-V Virtual Ethernet Adapter
                                 Connection Name: vEthernet (WSL)
                                 DHCP Enabled:    No
                                 IP address(es)
                                 [01]: <obfuscated>
                                 [02]: <obfuscated>
                           [05]: Realtek USB GbE Family Controller
                                 Connection Name: Ethernet 5
                                 Status:          Media disconnected
Hyper-V Requirements:      A hypervisor has been detected. Features required for Hyper-V will not be displayed.

Expected Behavior

Distro to run /lib/systemd/systemd as process 1.

Actual Behavior

Process 1 runs with init daemon.

$ ps 1
    PID TTY      STAT   TIME COMMAND
      1 ?        Ss     0:00 /sbin/init

Diagnostic Logs

No response

[elsaco]

@quater please check with systemctl status if systemd is running. Using the same Windows build (10.0.19045.2728) this is sample output on my system:

[elsaco@RIPPER ~]$ systemctl status --user
● RIPPER
    State: running
    Units: 138 loaded (incl. loaded aliases)
     Jobs: 0 queued
   Failed: 0 units
    Since: Sun 2023-03-26 21:22:33 PDT; 34s ago
  systemd: 253.1-3-arch
   CGroup: /user.slice/user-1000.slice/user@1000.service
           └─init.scope
             ├─120 /usr/lib/systemd/systemd --user
             └─121 "(sd-pam)"

[elsaco@RIPPER ~]$ ps 1
    PID TTY      STAT   TIME COMMAND
      1 ?        Ss     0:00 /sbin/init

Notice that PID=1 is init not systemd

[quater]

@elsaco Thanks for your response and the suggestion. Yes, I see it's running.

$ systemctl status --user
● C00415
    State: running
     Jobs: 0 queued
   Failed: 0 units
    Since: Mon 2023-03-27 14:35:03 AEST; 2s ago
   CGroup: /user.slice/user-1000.slice/user@1000.service
           └─init.scope
             ├─692 /lib/systemd/systemd --user
             └─693 (sd-pam)

$ ps 1
    PID TTY      STAT   TIME COMMAND
      1 ?        Ss     0:00 /sbin/init

So my expectation was wrong for the first process to be systemd.