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I am trying to enable WSL with Ubuntu on a VM with Windows Server 2019. I am using the Powershell, running as Admin and following instructions here : https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/wsl/install-on-server .

After enabling WSL, I restarted and run :

Get-WindowsOptionalFeature -Online -FeatureName Microsoft-Windows-Subsystem-Linux

I can status shows as enabled. When I run wsl command I get a access denied message:

PS C:\> wsl
Access is denied.

I went ahead and downloaded Ubuntu distro and ran the executable: 

PS C:\Users\ad_svoorakk\Ubuntu> ./ubuntu1804.exe
Installing, this may take a few minutes...
Access is denied.
Please create a default UNIX user account. The username does not need to match your Windows username.
For more information visit: https://aka.ms/wslusers
Enter new UNIX username:

When I enter a username, I see an access denied message and am prompted for username again.

Enter new UNIX username: xxxxxxx
Access is denied.
Enter new UNIX username:

Is there something happening here because this is a VM and there is something I need to do differently? Or does WSL run on VMs at all?

Sridhar
  • 131

1 Answers1

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I had the same exact issue. For my particular issue, the root cause was traced to McAfee End Point Security. McAfee End Point has a McAfee-defined Access Protection rule that blocks WSL execution. Once this rule was disabled, WSL and Ubuntu started working without issue.

David Frautnick
  • 363