WSL2 Won't Run on EC2 Windows Server? Use WSL1

Most EC2 Windows Server instances don't expose nested virtualization to the guest OS. WSL2 requires Hyper-V extensions, so it simply won't start. WSL1 works fine — it's a translation layer, not a VM.

Enable the WSL feature and reboot in an Admin powershell window:

Enable-WindowsOptionalFeature -Online -FeatureName Microsoft-Windows-Subsystem-Linux
Restart-Computer

After reboot, pin the default version to 1:

wsl --set-default-version 1

On Windows Server, Add-AppxPackage is often broken or unavailable, so the standard wsl --install route fails. Use wsl --import with a rootfs tarball instead:

Now use a non-admin powershell:

mkdir $HOME\WSL
mkdir $HOME\WSL\Ubuntu

Then:

wsl --import Ubuntu $HOME\WSL\Ubuntu .\ubuntu.tar.gz --version 1

What you lose with WSL1: no Docker, no real Linux kernel, no systemd, weaker filesystem compatibility. Fine for CLI tooling, scripting, and build environments. If you need a real kernel, spin up a native Linux EC2 instance instead.

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