podman machine init fail on Windows

[rgaiacs]

Steps to Reproduce

podman machine init

Observed Output

Looking up Podman Machine image at quay.io/podman/machine-os-wsl:5.4 to create VM
Getting image source signatures
Copying blob 41b5da163d89 done   |
Copying config 44136fa355 done   |
Writing manifest to image destination
41b5da163d8967e02aa82c141b214ad8ee188f6ad4e7c1a75fcd020d3e801b5e
Extracting compressed file: podman-machine-default-amd64: done
Importing operating system into WSL (this may take a few minutes on a new WSL install)...
{Application Error} The exception %s (0x
Error code: Wsl/Service/ERROR_UNHANDLED_EXCEPTION
Error: the WSL import of guest OS failed: command C:\Users\costadre\AppData\Local\Microsoft\WindowsApps\wsl.exe [--import podman-machine-default C:\Users\costadre\.local\share\containers\podman\machine\wsl\wsldist\podman-machine-default C:\Users\costadre\.local\share\containers\podman\machine\wsl\podman-machine-default-amd64 --version 2] failed: exit status 0xffffffff

Expected Output

Successful installation of podman machine.

Additional information

The file C:\Users\costadre\.local\share\containers\podman\machine\wsl\wsldist\podman-machine-default does NOT exist.

dir C:\Users\costadre\.local\share\containers\podman\machine\wsl\wsldist\

 Volume in drive C is Windows
 Volume Serial Number is EEAE-9F57

 Directory of C:\Users\costadre\.local\share\containers\podman\machine\wsl\wsldist

27/03/2025  19:04    <DIR>          .
27/03/2025  19:04    <DIR>          ..
               0 File(s)              0 bytes
               2 Dir(s)  115,379,052,544 bytes free

Also, the file C:\Users\costadre\.local\share\containers\podman\machine\wsl\podman-machine-default-amd64 --version 2 does NOT exists.

dir C:\Users\costadre\.local\share\containers\podman\machine\wsl

 Volume in drive C is Windows
 Volume Serial Number is EEAE-9F57

 Directory of C:\Users\costadre\.local\share\containers\podman\machine\wsl

27/03/2025  19:04    <DIR>          .
27/03/2025  19:04    <DIR>          ..
27/03/2025  19:04    <DIR>          cache
27/03/2025  19:04    <DIR>          wsldist
               0 File(s)              0 bytes
               4 Dir(s)  115,379,474,432 bytes free

Podman client

podman info

podman info
OS: windows/amd64
provider: wsl
version: 5.4.1

Cannot connect to Podman. Please verify your connection to the Linux system using `podman system connection list`, or try `podman machine init` and `podman machine start` to manage a new Linux VM
Error: unable to connect to Podman socket: failed to connect: dial tcp 127.0.0.1:22: connectex: No connection could be made because the target machine actively refused it.

WSL

wsl.exe --version

WSL version: 2.4.11.0
Kernel version: 5.15.167.4-1
WSLg version: 1.0.65
MSRDC version: 1.2.5716
Direct3D version: 1.611.1-81528511
DXCore version: 10.0.26100.1-240331-1435.ge-release
Windows version: 10.0.19045.5608

and

WSL version: 2.4.13.0
Kernel version: 5.15.167.4-1
WSLg version: 1.0.65
MSRDC version: 1.2.5716
Direct3D version: 1.611.1-81528511
DXCore version: 10.0.26100.1-240331-1435.ge-release
Windows version: 10.0.19045.5608

Windows Info

Windows 10 Enterprise (version 22H2, build 19045.5608)

[baude]

anything special about your windows environment other than its Windows 10? I assume it is bare metal ?

[rgaiacs]

To the best of my knowledge, nothing special.

[baude]

Ok, I installed a new VM and the installation and podman commands were successful.

PS C:\Users\baude> wsl --version
WSL version: 2.4.13.0
Kernel version: 5.15.167.4-1
WSLg version: 1.0.65
MSRDC version: 1.2.5716
Direct3D version: 1.611.1-81528511
DXCore version: 10.0.26100.1-240331-1435.ge-release
Windows version: 10.0.19045.5608

It looks like the wsl version is newer? I also made sure all Windows 10 updates were installed.

[rgaiacs]

Thanks @baude. I continue to experience the problem after update WSL2. But It might be because of my machine. Thanks for checking. I will close the discussion for now.