Hyper: "Unable to start terminal process: CreateProcess failed" when opening new tab under WSL

[alexiskknox]

EDIT: Noticed that this is a duplicate, but still relevant.

Issue:
Receiving "CreateProcess failed" error when attempting to open new tab under the Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL). Full error below.

Steps to reproduce this issue:

• Run Windows Subsystem for Linux (any shell) and hit CTRL+Shift+T (or select New Tab from menu)
• Receive error.

Additional notes:
This issue has occurred on 3 separate installations of Windows 10. It doesn't matter if it is running as the default Hyper shell or through cmd to start.

---

Hyper 1.4.8
Electron 1.7.8
win32 x64 10.0.16299

[alanaasmaa]

I get the same error when running git bash.

I will add screenshot when i get this. It does not come every time.

[markozxuu]

@alanaasmaa @alexiskknox Hi 👋 could try to use the canary version, if the problem persists let me know 🙏

[alanaasmaa]

@MAPESO actually I'm using canary version

[mokahaiku]

Removing hypercwd plugin fixed this for me.

[opes]

What fixed it for me was changing the shell specified in .hyper.js to use wsl.exe instead of ubuntu.exe:

// ...
shell: 'wsl.exe',

// for setting shell arguments (i.e. for using interactive shellArgs: ['-i'])
// by default ['--login'] will be used
shellArgs: [],
// ...

[stereokai]

I was getting that error too. Following the @ope's solution, I'm getting this error:

[Stanzilla]

@stereokai you have to use the full path, so shell: 'C:\\Windows\\System32\\wsl.exe',

[stereokai]

@Stanzilla Thank you!

[bnkamalesh]

@Stanzilla when I gave the full path, hyper does not open at all

[Stanzilla]

@bnkamalesh post your full config please

[bnkamalesh]

// Future versions of Hyper may add additional config options,
// which will not automatically be merged into this file.
// See https://hyper.is#cfg for all currently supported options.

module.exports = {
  config: {
    // choose either `'stable'` for receiving highly polished,
    // or `'canary'` for less polished but more frequent updates
    updateChannel: 'stable',

    // default font size in pixels for all tabs
    fontSize: 14,

    // font family with optional fallbacks
    fontFamily: 'Menlo, "DejaVu Sans Mono", Consolas, "Lucida Console", monospace',

    // default font weight: 'normal' or 'bold'
    fontWeight: 'normal',

    // font weight for bold characters: 'normal' or 'bold'
    fontWeightBold: 'bold',

    // terminal cursor background color and opacity (hex, rgb, hsl, hsv, hwb or cmyk)
    cursorColor: 'rgba(248,28,229,0.8)',

    // terminal text color under BLOCK cursor
    cursorAccentColor: '#000',

    // `'BEAM'` for |, `'UNDERLINE'` for _, `'BLOCK'` for █
    cursorShape: 'BLOCK',

    // set to `true` (without backticks and without quotes) for blinking cursor
    cursorBlink: false,

    // color of the text
    foregroundColor: '#fff',

    // terminal background color
    // opacity is only supported on macOS
    backgroundColor: '#000',

    // terminal selection color
    selectionColor: 'rgba(248,28,229,0.3)',

    // border color (window, tabs)
    borderColor: '#333',

    // custom CSS to embed in the main window
    css: '',

    // custom CSS to embed in the terminal window
    termCSS: '',

    // if you're using a Linux setup which show native menus, set to false
    // default: `true` on Linux, `true` on Windows, ignored on macOS
    showHamburgerMenu: '',

    // set to `false` (without backticks and without quotes) if you want to hide the minimize, maximize and close buttons
    // additionally, set to `'left'` if you want them on the left, like in Ubuntu
    // default: `true` (without backticks and without quotes) on Windows and Linux, ignored on macOS
    showWindowControls: '',

    // custom padding (CSS format, i.e.: `top right bottom left`)
    padding: '12px 14px',

    // the full list. if you're going to provide the full color palette,
    // including the 6 x 6 color cubes and the grayscale map, just provide
    // an array here instead of a color map object
    colors: {
      black: '#000000',
      red: '#C51E14',
      green: '#1DC121',
      yellow: '#C7C329',
      blue: '#0A2FC4',
      magenta: '#C839C5',
      cyan: '#20C5C6',
      white: '#C7C7C7',
      lightBlack: '#686868',
      lightRed: '#FD6F6B',
      lightGreen: '#67F86F',
      lightYellow: '#FFFA72',
      lightBlue: '#6A76FB',
      lightMagenta: '#FD7CFC',
      lightCyan: '#68FDFE',
      lightWhite: '#FFFFFF',
    },

    // the shell to run when spawning a new session (i.e. /usr/local/bin/fish)
    // if left empty, your system's login shell will be used by default
    //
    // Windows
    // - Make sure to use a full path if the binary name doesn't work
    // - Remove `--login` in shellArgs
    //
    // Bash on Windows
    // - Example: `C:\\Windows\\System32\\bash.exe`
    //
    // PowerShell on Windows
    // - Example: `C:\\WINDOWS\\System32\\WindowsPowerShell\\v1.0\\powershell.exe`
    shell: 'C:\\Windows\\System32\\wsl.exe',

    // for setting shell arguments (i.e. for using interactive shellArgs: `['-i']`)
    // by default `['--login']` will be used
    shellArgs: ['--login'],

    // for environment variables
    env: {},

    // set to `false` for no bell
    bell: 'SOUND',

    // if `true` (without backticks and without quotes), selected text will automatically be copied to the clipboard
    copyOnSelect: false,

    // if `true` (without backticks and without quotes), hyper will be set as the default protocol client for SSH
    defaultSSHApp: true,

    // if `true` (without backticks and without quotes), on right click selected text will be copied or pasted if no
    // selection is present (`true` by default on Windows and disables the context menu feature)
    // quickEdit: true,

    // URL to custom bell
    // bellSoundURL: 'http://example.com/bell.mp3',

    // for advanced config flags please refer to https://hyper.is/#cfg
  },

  // a list of plugins to fetch and install from npm
  // format: [@org/]project[#version]
  // examples:
  //   `hyperpower`
  //   `@company/project`
  //   `project#1.0.1`
  plugins: ['hypercwd', 'hyper-search', "hyper-material-theme"],

  // in development, you can create a directory under
  // `~/.hyper_plugins/local/` and include it here
  // to load it and avoid it being `npm install`ed
  localPlugins: [],

  keymaps: {
    // Example
    // 'window:devtools': 'cmd+alt+o',
  },
};

[Stanzilla]

// the shell to run when spawning a new session (i.e. /usr/local/bin/fish)
    // if left empty, your system's login shell will be used by default
    // make sure to use a full path if the binary name doesn't work
    // (e.g `C:\\Windows\\System32\\bash.exe` instad of just `bash.exe`)
    // if you're using powershell, make sure to remove the `--login` below
    // shell: 'C:\\Windows\\System32\\cmd.exe',
    shell: 'C:\\Windows\\System32\\wsl.exe',

    // for setting shell arguments (i.e. for using interactive shellArgs: ['-i'])
    // by default ['--login'] will be used
    shellArgs: [],

[bnkamalesh]

@Stanzilla I'm assuming you changed shellArgs, that did help the crash. Now it starts, but can't open a new tab, the CreateProcess error is thrown.

Edit: Like someone already mentioned above, removing the hypercwd plugin helps

[Stanzilla]

it does not error if you do exactly what I posted though. Is your WSL installed properly? what happens when you start wsl.exe manually?

[bnkamalesh]

When I run it manually, the default Ubuntu bash opens.

[Stanzilla]

And in Hyper you get "CreateProcess failed"? Tried without Hyper plugins?

Edit: Ah okay, godammit hypercwd. You can try installing it again, maybe you were stuck on a old version.

[srchulo]

I am not using hypercwd and I still get this error whenever I try to create a new tab:

[Stanzilla]

@srchulo post your config please

[srchulo]

https://gist.github.com/srchulo/f635c6ad7317854f71d341aa63e1db1a

[Stanzilla]

Well you have no shell set, that will error.

// the shell to run when spawning a new session (i.e. /usr/local/bin/fish)
    // if left empty, your system's login shell will be used by default
    // make sure to use a full path if the binary name doesn't work
    // (e.g `C:\\Windows\\System32\\bash.exe` instad of just `bash.exe`)
    // if you're using powershell, make sure to remove the `--login` below
    // shell: 'C:\\Windows\\System32\\cmd.exe',
    shell: 'C:\\Windows\\System32\\wsl.exe',

    // for setting shell arguments (i.e. for using interactive shellArgs: ['-i'])
    // by default ['--login'] will be used
    shellArgs: [],

is what I use and works

[deejcoder]

Also nice to do ln -s /mnt/c/users/<username>/ ~/c to shorten the path displayed but also as a shortcut in general.
dy1zan@erei:~/c$ is nicer than dy1zan@erei:/mnt/c/users/dy1zan$

Actually using wsl doesn't work either for me. Same result as before.

    // shell: "C:\\Program Files\\Git\\git-cmd.exe",
    shell: 'C:\\Windows\\System32\\wsl.exe',

    // for setting shell arguments (i.e. for using interactive shellArgs: `['-i']`)
    // by default `['--login']` will be used
    //shellArgs: ['--command=usr/bin/bash.exe', '-l', '-i'],
    shellArgs: [],

edit;
removing hypercwd fixed it....

[srchulo]

@Stanzilla thanks! Your suggestion seems to have fixed it.

[gspalato]

I still have this problem. When I first used hyper (had hypercwd), this error didn't happen. I stopped using hypercwd, used Hyper for some time without any problem and now the error pops up.

My .hyper.js

(Edit: already reinstalled hyper, deleted the .hyper_plugins folder and reinstalled my other plugins. Same error.)

[mnpenner]

hyperterm-working-directory seems to cause this issue too.