WSL2: Why do I have to shutdown WSL to restart WSL after restarting PC

I have my windows set up WSL with Ubuntu. It has been working fine for a while, until I upgraded to WSL2.

The problem is: every time I start up my PC (or restarting my PC), it lost the connection from Ubuntu to Windows drives.

I got the message like this:

cd: Input/output error: /mnt/d/ 

The above problem could be solved easily by running this:

wsl.exe --shutdown 

I want to solve this problem permanently, instead of shutting down WSL every time I got the problem.

Any idea how to fix this permanently?

4 Answers

This sounds like a fast startup problem. Try disabling it in the Control Panel.

I haven't seen this issue anymore from the last 2 months. For more info, I upgraded windows to Windows 11 and always do Windows Update. Look like one of the latest windows update fixed this problem. So I can confirm that the issue stopped happening for me from the last 2 months.

I faced the same issue. So I made a .bat file which contains wsl --shutdown , and put it's shortcut in C:\Users\user\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\Startup so every time the PC starts, it does it automatically.

You can get the above said directory if you enter shell:startup in run window (win+r).

I'm not facing this. Could it be that your WSL is set to start when Windows starts?

Recommend looking at Start-up apps in the Task Manager, and in Windows Settings. Also, maybe look at Services and Task Scheduler.