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The Problem

I'm running Ubuntu 20.04 under Windows through WSL. I installed Docker for Windows so as to be able to run an old MySQL, because I was told I need docker in WSL to talk to Windows Docker if I want docker working in WSL1. I restarted my computer to finish the docker installation and, upon reboot, Ubuntu was no longer accessible. I get the rather opaque error "Access is Denied" when I try to open a WSL shell.

I tried to figure out how to fix this error for a while - one site recommended restarting LxxsManager, among other things. None of them worked, so I decided to install another WSL distro, this time Ubuntu 20.04 LTS (I'm not sure which version the one called just "Ubuntu" is, but that's what I was running before).

A day passed, in which I set back up my development environment and rebuilt a bunch of software in WSL. I then tried to run docker, which involved installing docker in WSL and connecting it to Docker for Windows. Docker for Windows was refusing to run because I was not in the docker-users group, so I added myself to that group and logged out and back in for the changes to take effect.

Unfortunately, when I logged back in, I was no longer able to access WSL - the "Access is Denied" error had returned.

Context

I am running Windows 10, Version 1909 (Build 18363.836). My user is not an administrator, but I have a local user account that is an administrator that I can run commands as. There seem to be 2 LxxsManager services running, one of them belonging to my user and one to the system(?).

What I want help with

All I wanted was to run MySQL 5.7 on modern Ubuntu, but now I've re-set-up my entire linux system and I don't want to have to do it again.

I would be interested in advice on how to get back into my WSL system. I spent most of today installing things to get it working. I would also be interested in advice on how to debug this, since I'm not terribly familiar with the inner workings of Windows.

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Jakob Weisblat
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  • **“I'm not sure which version the one called just "Ubuntu"”** - It’s the same version, this was verified, by one of my past [answers](https://superuser.com/questions/1523541/installing-ubuntu-windows-subsystem-for-linux-on-win10-without-using-the-sto/1523553#1523553). It’s currently 20.04 LTS if you are wondering as of today. Where exactly did you read you need Docker within a WSL 1 instance to communicate with Docker Desktop on Windows? Additionally, you might consider, just upgrading to WSL (i.e. Windows Version 2004) that was released today – Ramhound May 27 '20 at 22:18
  • Be sure you are editing your question instead of submitting a comment – Ramhound May 27 '20 at 22:23
  • see https://devblogs.microsoft.com/commandline/wsl2-will-be-generally-available-in-windows-10-version-2004/ and https://winaero.com/blog/wsl2-will-ship-with-windows-10-version-2004-with-kernel-updates-via-windows-update/ – K7AAY May 27 '20 at 22:28
  • If WSL 2 is out today, then maybe I don't need this answered. I tried to install it earlier but my organization settings prevented me from changing my windows insiders ring. – Jakob Weisblat May 27 '20 at 22:32
  • I'm under the impression that I can't run docker natively in WSL, so I wanted it to talk to docker in windows. – Jakob Weisblat May 27 '20 at 22:33
  • You just want to a docker instance to access a MySQL service by Windows, right? – Jorge Luiz May 28 '20 at 01:29
  • I want my WSL program to be able to talk to a MySQL 5.7 server. It seemed like the easiest way to make this happen was to run such a server in docker. I no longer believe this is true, but now what I want is my WSL system back so I can find and install mysql 5.7 directly in it without having to go through my dev environment setup again. – Jakob Weisblat May 28 '20 at 07:33
  • The “access denied” error is caused by permissions on the service caused by a group policy. Are you positive this isn’t an issue caused by the configuration intentionally implemented by your organization. Your IT Administrator would be the best person (only) to determine if that’s the case. – Ramhound May 28 '20 at 09:39
  • @Ramhound how can I view or change the permissions on a service? I have access to an administrator account on the computer, I just don't use it for everything as a security precaution. – Jakob Weisblat May 28 '20 at 15:36
  • @JakobWeisblat - You indicated you are not an Administrator, that you only have access to the local user Administrator account, which would indicate you are NOT an Administrator on the domain. However, I don't have my notes on this subject, so I can't provide the instructions to modify the group policy to allow the service. I am also only guessing it's caused by a group policy due to the fact this machine is likely connected to an AD domain (although you have not specifically indicated that is the case). – Ramhound May 28 '20 at 16:10
  • I'm not sure if there even is a domain. – Jakob Weisblat May 28 '20 at 23:19

1 Answers1

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I upgraded to build 2004 in order to use WSL 2, but upgrading to that build mysteriously fixed the problem. I ended up converting to WSL 2 anyway.

Jakob Weisblat
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