Error code: Wsl/Service/E_UNEXPECTED

[Pilotindream]

Windows Version

Microsoft Windows [Version 10.0.26200.8037]

WSL Version

2.6.3.0

Are you using WSL 1 or WSL 2?

• WSL 2
• WSL 1

Kernel Version

6.6.87.2-1

Distro Version

Ubuntu 22.04

Other Software

Repro Steps

Open Powershell as Administrator and execute wsl command.

Expected Behavior

WSL starts without errors

Actual Behavior

I receive below error:

Catastrophic failure
Error code: Wsl/Service/E_UNEXPECTED

Also tried to run wsl --shutdown as well as wsl --update

PS C:\WINDOWS\system32> wsl --update
Checking for updates.
The most recent version of Windows Subsystem for Linux is already installed.

In Windows optionalfeatures, I disabled and enabled with PC reboot Windows Subsystem for Linux and Virtual Machine Platform options.

After couple hours I decided to backup files with wsl --export Ubuntu C:\backup_ubuntu.tar and then to create reinstall. On export command i receive below error:

PS C:\WINDOWS\system32> wsl --export Ubuntu C:\backup_ubuntu.tar
Export in progress, this may take a few minutes. (588 MB)bsdtar: (null)


Exporting the distribution failed.
Error code: Wsl/Service/WSL_E_EXPORT_FAILED

Diagnostic Logs

WslLogs-2026-03-17_16-14-15.zip

[github-actions]

The logs shows that a disk mount error occurred. Try to follow these repair instructions and see if that solves the issue.

Diagnostic information

.wslconfig found
Detected appx version: 2.6.3.0
Detected user visible error: Wsl/Service/E_UNEXPECTED
Found evidence of ext4 error: [    1.067806] EXT4-fs error (device sdd): ext4_validate_block_bitmap:421: comm ldconfig.real: bg 1489: bad block bitmap checksum