WSL crashes upon activating a config using unstable

[wyndon]

Bug description

Upon activating a config using nixos-unstable (using the default NixOS-WSL config provided in this case), WSL exits with code 1.

To Reproduce

Steps to reproduce the behavior:

sudo nix-channel --add https://nixos.org/channels/nixos-unstable nixos
sudo nix-channel --add https://github.com/nix-community/NixOS-WSL/archive/refs/heads/main.tar.gz nixos-wsl
sudo nixos-rebuild test

Logs

[nixos@nixos:~]$ sudo nixos-rebuild test
warning: Git not found; cannot figure out revision of '/nix/store/iqajr40sbp2iawj6g1f2z0vidj9f5sfd-nixos/nixos'
building the system configuration...
stopping the following units: logrotate-checkconf.service, nscd.service, systemd-sysctl.service, systemd-timesyncd.service, systemd-tmpfiles-resetup.service, systemd-udev-trigger.service, systemd-udevd-control.socket, systemd-udevd-kernel.socket, systemd-udevd.service, systemd-update-done.service
NOT restarting the following changed units: systemd-journal-flush.service, systemd-logind.service, systemd-tmpfiles-setup.service, systemd-update-utmp.service, systemd-user-sessions.service, user-runtime-dir@1000.service, user@1000.service
activating the configuration...
removing group ‘systemd-timesync’
removing user ‘systemd-timesync’
setting up /run/booted-system...
setting up /bin...
setting up /sbin...
setting up /etc...
removing obsolete symlink ‘/etc/systemd/timesyncd.conf’...
setting up /sbin/init shim...
restarting systemd...

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

WSL version

WSL version: 2.4.13.0
Kernel version: 5.15.167.4-1
WSLg version: 1.0.65
MSRDC version: 1.2.5716
Direct3D version: 1.611.1-81528511
DXCore version: 10.0.26100.1-240331-1435.ge-release
Windows version: 10.0.26100.4770

[ccritter]

I either experienced this or something similar upon rebuilding after a flake update. When trying to launch NixOS:

Catastrophic failure
Error code: Wsl/Service/E_UNEXPECTED

I was on WSL version 2.4.13. Running wsl --update to update to 2.6.1 seemed to fix the issue, as immediately after updating I was able to boot back into WSL.

[wyndon]

Thanks. I'm so confused by WSL's behavior.

Microsoft themselves say that installing wsl through wsl --install actually installs it through the Microsoft Store, so it should be getting auto updated. Yet upon getting to the store page of WSL (that is only accessible through https://aka.ms/wslstorepage or the Library in the store IF you already have it installed (???)) and having WSL updated through the latest version with wsl --update, Microsoft Store says that there's an update. Which shouldn't be the case if I was updated to the latest version.

I've uninstalled WSL using wsl --uninstall and then installed WSL through the Microsoft Store, hopefully now I'll get auto updates. WTF Microsoft. Maybe we should mention this in the docs somewhere?

Oh yeah, additionally, it has the added convenience of bypassing the automatic Ubuntu installation when you install WSL through wsl --install

[nzbr]

@wyndon does this still happen? I wasn't able to reproduce the issue

[wyndon]

As said in the previous comments, it's fixed by updating WSL (because for some reason, on some setups, WSL might not be getting updates automatically). I left the issue opened because I think we should mention this in the docs. Other people seem to have got the same issue as evidenced by the reactions to @ccritter's message

[nzbr]

Updating WSL is already mentioned as part of the (general troubleshooting steps in the docs)[https://nix-community.github.io/NixOS-WSL/troubleshooting/index.html], so I don't think anything has to be done for this. But feel free to let me know if you have a suggestion for how this could be improved if you have an idea