Error code: Wsl/Service/HCS_E_CONNECTION_TIMEOUT after update

[RhysWheater]

Windows Version

Microsoft Windows [Version 10.0.26200.8037]

WSL Version

WSL version: 2.6.3.0

Are you using WSL 1 or WSL 2?

• WSL 2
• WSL 1

Kernel Version

Kernel version: 6.6.87.2-1

Distro Version

Ubuntu 24.04.4 LTS

Other Software

No response

Repro Steps

Since I last ran wsl --update I see the following error every time I start wsl:

The operation timed out because a response was not received from the virtual machine or container.
Error code: Wsl/Service/HCS_E_CONNECTION_TIMEOUT

[process exited with code 4294967295 (0xffffffff)]
You can now close this terminal with Ctrl+D, or press Enter to restart.

The error is resolved after running wsl --shutdown but after a short time WSL prompt becomes unresponsive and wsl --shutdown command has to be repeated.

> wsl --version
WSL version: 2.6.3.0
Kernel version: 6.6.87.2-1
WSLg version: 1.0.71
MSRDC version: 1.2.6353
Direct3D version: 1.611.1-81528511
DXCore version: 10.0.26100.1-240331-1435.ge-release
Windows version: 10.0.26200.8037

Expected Behavior

I would expect to see my linux command prompt without the above error.

Actual Behavior

I see the following error when opening WSL terminal every time I restart my machine:

The operation timed out because a response was not received from the virtual machine or container.
Error code: Wsl/Service/HCS_E_CONNECTION_TIMEOUT

[process exited with code 4294967295 (0xffffffff)]
You can now close this terminal with Ctrl+D, or press Enter to restart.

Diagnostic Logs

WslLogs-2026-04-14_10-24-20.zip

[github-actions]

Diagnostic information

Detected appx version: 2.6.3.0
Detected user visible error: Wsl/Service/HCS_E_CONNECTION_TIMEOUT

[OneBlue]

Could you capture logs of a complete boot ? By starting log collection, running wsl --shutdown and then reproducing the issue again ?

We'd need logs for the VM boot to figure out what's going on here