WSL Dev Server Not Working on v1.1.0? Try this!

If, like me, you’re on the Windows Insider Programme Dev channel and you use Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL) for your web development then you may have noticed some weird dev server behaviour recently.

Behaviour like, starting the dev server, then clicking around on some routes then the dev server stops responding. Starting up the dev server again, works but then the same thing happens again.

With the recent update of the Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL) on the Microsoft Store from version 1.0.3 to 1.1.0 there’s been several people noticing similar issues.

Here’s a few of the issues I found when trying to understand what was going on:

• Port forwarding repeated failure on WSL 1.1.0
• Some network connections hang (timed out) under WSL
• SSH to remote causes disconnect with client_loop: send disconnect: Broken pipe

The first issue in the list there is where I found a solution that worked for me, so might work for you if you’re having the same issue.

Basically uninstall the most recent version of WSL and install the previous version.

Thanks to this comment from rudyzeinoun which details the Windows PowerShell commands to do this.

Before running the commands, you’ll need to download the previous version of WSL from the releases page on GitHub.

I went and downloaded the Microsoft.WSL_1.0.3.0_x64_ARM64.msixbundle asset from the releases page and added it to the same location from where I was running the PowerShell commands from.

If you already have WSL running it might be a good idea to close it before running the commands.

wsl --shutdown

You’ll need to have an elevated (admin) PowerShell window open to run these commands:

$Package = Get-AppxPackage MicrosoftCorporationII.WindowsSubsystemforLinux -AllUsers
Remove-AppxPackage $Package -AllUsers
Add-AppxPackage .\Microsoft.WSL_1.0.3.0_x64_ARM64.msixbundle

The first command puts the package into a variable, the second command uninstalls the package using the variable, and the third command installs the previous package.

That’s it, I now have a working dev server again!

One thing to note is that now going to the Microsoft Store, to the WSL app page, it is prompting me to install it!

I’ll be monitoring the releases page for the WSL package over on GitHub and will probably uninstall the previous version I have installed (with the first two commands detailed earlier) before going to the Microsoft Store to install the latest version.

Leaving this here in the hope it will help someone else, and also for me and the next time I need to do this!!