Installation script fails in Ubuntu WSL

[mirai-toto]

In a new WSL instance the installation script fails immediately:

root@WindowsPC:~# curl -sfL https://get.k3s.io | sh -
[INFO]  Finding release for channel stable
[INFO]  Using v1.30.6+k3s1 as release
[INFO]  Downloading hash https://github.com/k3s-io/k3s/releases/download/v1.30.6+k3s1/sha256sum-amd64.txt
[INFO]  Skipping binary downloaded, installed k3s matches hash
[INFO]  Skipping installation of SELinux RPM
[INFO]  Skipping /usr/local/bin/kubectl symlink to k3s, already exists
[INFO]  Skipping /usr/local/bin/crictl symlink to k3s, already exists
[INFO]  Skipping /usr/local/bin/ctr symlink to k3s, command exists in PATH at /usr/bin/ctr
[INFO]  Creating killall script /usr/local/bin/k3s-killall.sh
[INFO]  Creating uninstall script /usr/local/bin/k3s-uninstall.sh
[INFO]  env: Creating environment file /etc/systemd/system/k3s.service.env
[INFO]  systemd: Creating service file /etc/systemd/system/k3s.service
[INFO]  systemd: Enabling k3s unit
Created symlink /etc/systemd/system/multi-user.target.wants/k3s.service → /etc/systemd/system/k3s.service.
[INFO]  No change detected so skipping service start

By checking the journalctl logs:

root@WindowsPC:~# journalctl -xeu k3s.service
Nov 28 21:06:35 WindowsPC k3s[4384]: time="2024-11-28T21:06:35+01:00" level=info msg="Saving cluster bootstrap data to datastore"
Nov 28 21:06:35 WindowsPC k3s[4384]: time="2024-11-28T21:06:35+01:00" level=fatal msg="starting kubernetes: preparing server: failed to normalize server token; must be in format K10<CA-HASH>::<USERNAME>:<PASSWORD> or <PASSWORD>"
Nov 28 21:06:35 WindowsPC systemd[1]: k3s.service: Main process exited, code=exited, status=1/FAILURE
░░ Subject: Unit process exited
░░ Defined-By: systemd
...

I am not trying to run multi nodes, and am only trying to use Kubernetes locally.

[cwayne18]

Does WSL support systemd yet?

[brandond]

The installation script is NOT failing. It is succeeding, but not restarting the service because you've already installed it once with the same configuration.

[INFO] No change detected so skipping service start

Did you read the logs at all? The service is failing to start because you have an invalid token. Check your token value in the config or CLI args.

level=fatal msg="starting kubernetes: preparing server: failed to normalize server token; must be in format K10<CA-HASH>::<USERNAME>:<PASSWORD> or <PASSWORD>"

https://docs.k3s.io/cli/token#server

[mirai-toto]

Thank you for your answer, In the link you have provided.

If no token is provided when starting the first server in the cluster, one is created with a random password. The server token is always written to /var/lib/rancher/k3s/server/token, in secure format.

The server token can be used to join both server and agent nodes to the cluster. Anyone with access to the server token essentially has full administrator access to the cluster. This token should be guarded carefully.

Trying to recreate a token with k3s token create will fail.

root@xxx:~# k3s token create
FATA[0000] stat /etc/rancher/k3s/k3s.yaml: no such file or directory

The k3s.yaml is not created at the startup because K3s server did not start properly.

This doesn't seem normal. Regardless, I'll take care of it myself

[mirai-toto]

Found the issue, I already had a WSL instance with k3s running, meaning that the new k3s instance couldn't connect to localhost:6444