Runaway process when copying bitmap to clipboard

[edburns]

Environment

Windows build number: Microsoft Windows [Version 10.0.22000.318
Your Distribution version: Ubuntu 20 (from Store)
Your WSLg version: 1.0.26

Steps to reproduce

• Start WSL2.
• Tail weston.log.
• Using Edge, do Ctrl-Shift-S to capture a region of the browser window to the clipboard. FWIW, I use exactly this:
  
• Notice that the weston.log tail starts going into runaway mode.

I also observed that if I have the bitmap in the clipboard before starting WSL2, I also get into runaway mode.

WSL logs:

20211213-wslg-runaway-process.txt

Expected behavior

I can use GNU emacs under WSLg without the system going into an unusable state.

Actual behavior

Something I am doing is triggering the system going into an unusable state where the keyboard and mouse focus keeps getting stolen several times a second, lots of content is written to the weston.log (attached), and this keeps happening until I somehow managed to get Task Manager opened, find the process "Virtual machine worker" and end it. All the while I must fight with the focus stealing.

[edburns]

Even after killing the process, I find I must reboot the machine.

[edburns]

Happened again. That's twice today.
20211213-wslg-runaway-process-609-02.txt
.

[jonhoward]

I am having the same issue. Process Explorer shows that mstsc.exe is stuck launching and terminating repeatedly and I have the same problem as @edburns with the computer becoming nearly unusable because focus keeps leaving the application I'm trying to work with. I have found that the problem starts when I use Greenshot to copy some image data into the clipboard of my PC and I can get it to stop if I can manage to copy some text into the clipboard, although that is easier said than done due to the unfocusing issue.

[edburns]

I hit this again just now. I wasn't even running an X app at the time. I had to open a Windows Command Prompt and fight the focus stealing to type wsl --shutdown. It went something like this.

w
[lose focus]
[click in the window to regain focus]
[lose focus]
[click in the window to regain focus]
[lose focus]
[click in the window to regain focus]
[lose focus]
[click in the window to regain focus]
s
[lose focus]
[click in the window to regain focus]
[lose focus]
[click in the window to regain focus]
[lose focus]
[click in the window to regain focus]
[lose focus]
[click in the window to regain focus]
l
 
-
[lose focus]
[click in the window to regain focus]
[lose focus]
[click in the window to regain focus]
[lose focus]
[click in the window to regain focus]
-
[lose focus]
[click in the window to regain focus]
[lose focus]
[click in the window to regain focus]
[lose focus]
[click in the window to regain focus]
[lose focus]
[click in the window to regain focus]
[lose focus]
[click in the window to regain focus]
 
[lose focus]
[click in the window to regain focus]
[lose focus]
[click in the window to regain focus]
s
[lose focus]
[click in the window to regain focus]
[lose focus]
[click in the window to regain focus]
[lose focus]
[click in the window to regain focus]
[lose focus]
[click in the window to regain focus]
h
[lose focus]
[click in the window to regain focus]
[lose focus]
[click in the window to regain focus]
[lose focus]
[click in the window to regain focus]
u
[lose focus]
[click in the window to regain focus]
[lose focus]
[click in the window to regain focus]
[lose focus]
[click in the window to regain focus]
t
[lose focus]
[click in the window to regain focus]
[lose focus]
[click in the window to regain focus]
[lose focus]
[click in the window to regain focus]
[DAMN THIS THING]
d
[lose focus]
[click in the window to regain focus]
[lose focus]
[click in the window to regain focus]
o
[lose focus]
[click in the window to regain focus]
[lose focus]
[click in the window to regain focus]
[lose focus]
[click in the window to regain focus]
w
[lose focus]
[click in the window to regain focus]
[lose focus]
[click in the window to regain focus]
[lose focus]
[click in the window to regain focus]
[lose focus]
[click in the window to regain focus]
n
[lose focus]
[click in the window to regain focus]
[lose focus]
[click in the window to regain focus]
[lose focus]
[click in the window to regain focus]
<Enter>
[OH. MY. GOD. THIS IS AWFUL]

[edburns]

Actually, using wsl --shutdown doesn't prevent it from happening again. Soon after next time I started WSL it happened again. This time I was able to fight with the focus stealer to execute cp /mnt/wslg/weston.log <some other place> so that it would survive the reboot. Here it is.

20211221-wslg-runaway-process-609-01.txt.gz

After rebooting the machine I am able to start WSL without the focus stealer (until it happens again)

Is there any remediation less drastic than rebooting? Why isn't wsl --shutdown sufficient?

[edburns]

I suspect my use of Ditto Clipboard may be related. Today I quit Ditto and have not re-started it since I started using WSL2 for the day and I have not been able to reproduce the runaway process by following the steps that worked in the description.

[jonhoward]

While waiting on a fix to be available, is anyone able to advise on how I could continue using WSL but without the GUI part so I can use my PC without being affected by this issue? Running Linux GUI apps is not a day-to-day need I have, but using the clipboard for image data is.

[Masamune3210]

could just disable wsl if you dont need linux apps for now until the issue is fixed?

[jonhoward]

No, I believe disabling WSL entirely would prevent me from running Docker containers.

[Masamune3210]

Ah, yeah, you are probably right , was just throwing the idea out