Curious Error when mounting M.2 nvme ssd ext4 partition on WSL 2. Wsl/Service/AttachDisk/0x80070032

Question

I am trying to mount ext4 partitions from M2 slot ssd on wsl 2. I am getting error Wsl/Service/AttachDisk/0x80070032. The disk is listed below under model name CT500P2SSD8. I am currently booted on on CT1000P3SSD8. Has anyone else faced this issue?

wmic diskdrive list brief
Caption                               DeviceID            Model                                 Partitions  Size

TOSHIBA MQ01ABD100V SCSI Disk Device  \\.\PHYSICALDRIVE3  TOSHIBA MQ01ABD100V SCSI Disk Device  3           1000202273280
CT500P2SSD8                           \\.\PHYSICALDRIVE1  CT500P2SSD8                           6           500105249280

USB  SanDisk 3.2Gen1 USB Device       \\.\PHYSICALDRIVE2  USB  SanDisk 3.2Gen1 USB Device       2           30762547200

CT1000P3SSD8                          \\.\PHYSICALDRIVE0  CT1000P3SSD8                          3           1000202273280


λ wsl --mount   \\.\PHYSICALDRIVE1 --partition 3
The request is not supported.
Error code: Wsl/Service/AttachDisk/0x80070032

lsblk looks like so on drive CT500P2SSD8. It contains (in order) a Microsoft reserved partition, one windows ntfs drive, 4 ext4 linux drives, and 1 uefi fat 32 drive.

nvme1n1                    465.8G
├─nvme1n1p1                   16M
├─nvme1n1p2 ntfs            29.3G
├─nvme1n1p3 ext4     1.0   159.6G
├─nvme1n1p4 ext4     1.0    14.6G
├─nvme1n1p5 ext4     1.0    34.7G
├─nvme1n1p6 ext4     1.0   227.1G
└─nvme1n1p7 vfat     FAT32   199M

nvme1n1p1 is a Microsoft reserved Partition

I can mount ext4 partitions from \\.\PHYSICALDRIVE3 (over sata 2.5" to usb 3) just fine.

I looked for error Wsl/Service/AttachDisk/0x80070032 and I couldn't find anything specific. best I found was https://github.com/microsoft/WSL/issues/8280, which recommends enabling Hyper V feature. I have enabled Hyper V, VM and WSL. The issue still persists.

I suspected it was because of usbipd. I installed it from winget following this connect usb tutorial in windows docs.

usbipd wsl list

But the output doesn't include the disk.

wsl --version
WSL version: 1.0.3.0
Kernel version: 5.15.79.1
WSLg version: 1.0.47
MSRDC version: 1.2.3575
Direct3D version: 1.606.4
DXCore version: 10.0.25131.1002-220531-1700.rs-onecore-base2-hyp
Windows version: 10.0.19045.2311

Microsoft Version: windows 10 Version 22H2 OS BUILD 19045.2311. (I have also verified on windows 11 version 22H2)

Background Information: I am trying to mount a ext4 partition for the following reason. I have been mainly using linux for the last 3 years in a dual boot arrangement. Recently I needed to use more windows only software. I decided to try out wsl2 and see if I can do better than dual boot. My goal is to keep a bootable linux drive that I also use for wsl2. I read it is challenging to near impossible to use a dual boot disk as wsl2 target(reference and reference2) . However mounting a partition as long as it is on a separate drive is possible.  If I can modify personal files I don't mind extra space replicating core apps I use within a lean wsl linux distro. I have a well ironed doom emacs installation plus org roam (emacs) directory where I keep my documents in my linux drive. My initial goal is to run emacs within wsl (wslg) on top of these documents, keeping only a single version across operating systems without syncing.

I have posted on reddit as well.

Answer 1

According to the Microsoft article Mount a Linux disk in WSL 2, you need to mount the disk and not the partition.

The first step should be:

wsl --mount \\.\PHYSICALDRIVE1 --bare

This will make the disk available in WSL 2.

Once the disk is mounted, its partitions can be listed by running the following command inside WSL 2:

lsblk

This will display the available block devices and their partitions. You may then access the mounted partitions using the Linux syntax of /dev/<Device><Partition>.