stablyai/orca · error · Error

Could not resolve the active WSL distribution for Claude log

Error message

Could not resolve the active WSL distribution for Claude login.

What it means

Thrown by createTemporaryClaudeConfigDir() when the managed auth runtime is 'wsl' but location.wslDistro is null/empty. A WSL login requires a concrete distro to target with `wsl.exe -d <distro>`. A null distro means the caller did not resolve the active WSL distro before requesting a WSL login.

Source

Thrown at src/main/claude-accounts/service.ts:659

      throw cleanupError
    }
    return captured!
  }

  private createTemporaryClaudeConfigDir(location: ManagedClaudeAuthLocation): {
    windowsPath: string
    linuxPath: string | null
    wslDistro: string | null
  } {
    if (location.managedAuthRuntime !== 'wsl') {
      return {
        windowsPath: mkdtempSync(join(tmpdir(), 'orca-claude-login-')),
        linuxPath: null,
        wslDistro: null
      }
    }
    if (!location.wslDistro) {
      throw new Error('Could not resolve the active WSL distribution for Claude login.')
    }
    const linuxPath = execFileSync(
      'wsl.exe',
      [
        '-d',
        location.wslDistro,
        '--',
        'bash',
        '-lc',
        'mktemp -d "${TMPDIR:-/tmp}/orca-claude-login.XXXXXX"'
      ],
      { encoding: 'utf-8', timeout: 5000 }
    )
      .replaceAll(String.fromCharCode(0), '')
      .trim()
    if (!linuxPath.startsWith('/')) {
      throw new Error('Could not create a temporary WSL Claude login directory.')
    }

View on GitHub (pinned to 1136503c6a)

Solutions

1. Resolve and pass a concrete wslDistro (from wsl.exe -l -q or the WSL distro picker) before initiating a WSL login.
2. Ensure account.wslDistro is populated when the account is created and re-read at login time.
3. If no WSL distro is available, fall back to host runtime or guide the user to install one.
4. Detect WSL availability earlier and disable the WSL login option if no distro exists.

if (location.managedAuthRuntime === 'wsl' && !location.wslDistro) {
  throw new Error('Resolve the WSL distro before starting a WSL login.')
}

When it happens

Trigger: Calling runClaudeLoginAndCapture with managedAuthRuntime='wsl' but wslDistro=null. The WSL distro detection (wsl.exe -l -q) returned empty or was not run. Account.wslDistro was not persisted at add time.

Common situations: WSL is installed but no default distro is set. The distro detection ran before WSL was ready. A stale account record lost its wslDistro. The user removed the distro after adding the account.

Related errors

• That Claude account belongs to a different runtime.
• Could not create a temporary WSL Claude login directory.
• Could not resolve the active WSL home directory for Claude l
• Managed WSL Claude auth storage is outside Orca account stor
• Managed Claude auth directory does not exist on disk.

AI-assisted analysis of stablyai/orca@1136503c6a (2026-08-12). Data as JSON: /api/errors/81858dcad14c57b0. Report an issue: GitHub.