WSL2 + Ubuntu 22.04.1: xdg-open: no method available for opening "https://www...." #8892

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1. benhillis commented on Sep 26, 2022

   

   Ben Hillis (benhillis)

   on Sep 26, 2022

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   I think you may have to configure xdg-open to do this, we don't do this by default.
2. sabbour commented on Oct 13, 2022

   

   Ahmed Sabbour (sabbour)

   on Oct 13, 2022

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   az login was working for me before, but now I'm facing this issue.
3. fghamsary commented on Oct 30, 2022

   

   Farrokh Ghamsary (fghamsary)

   on Oct 30, 2022

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   I have the same issue, just installed a fresh Ubuntu 22.04 with service and GUI enabled, and the interop with browser is not working anymore on this version, there is something wired going on when using systemd with new WSL and GUI
4. fghamsary commented on Oct 30, 2022

   

   Farrokh Ghamsary (fghamsary)

   on Oct 30, 2022

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   Came accros this one: #8795
   It seems like on eariler versions there was a package installed by default wslu which is not available by default on 22.04.
   It had a wslview shell command which did the work, so by installing it, you can have the functionality back, but not sure of the drawbacks.

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5. AdamGlass commented on Jan 24, 2023

   

   Adam Glass (AdamGlass)

   on Jan 24, 2023

   Last edited by AdamGlass

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   wslu works. This really feels like a problem WSL should own -- installing the component, ensuring that the user knows the component could be installed, or forcing it to be installed due to some dependency.

   it's not even mentioned here: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/wsl/install.

   (AdamGlassMS too)

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6. lgmorand commented on Feb 13, 2023

   

   Louis-Guillaume MORAND (lgmorand)

   on Feb 13, 2023

   Last edited by lgmorand

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   Same issue here. the WSL 22.04 was working fine this morning. I did a apt-upgrade and then, the console is now broken when trying to do "az login"

   I did "sudo apt install wslu" like mentioned and it seems to fix it. pretty weird what broke it

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7. belainehi commented on Feb 27, 2023

   

   Immanuela Belaineh (belainehi)

   on Feb 27, 2023

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   I had a similar issue, considering if installing one of the "not found" packages would help. Haven't found a solution yet.
8. Biswa96 commented on Feb 27, 2023

   

   Biswapriyo Nath (Biswa96)

   on Feb 27, 2023

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   Try to add an web browser path with BROWSER environment variable before launching xdg-open. For example, let assume Firefox is installed in Windows as C:\Firefox\firefox.exe. Then set the environment variable as export BROWSER=/mnt/c/Firefox/firefox.exe and run xdg-open as usual.

   wslpath can also help to covert the path style.

   Source: https://cgit.freedesktop.org/xdg/xdg-utils/tree/scripts/xdg-open.in

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9. AndreasNasman commented on May 9, 2023

   

   Andreas Näsman (AndreasNasman)

   on May 9, 2023

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   Biswapriyo Nath (@Biswa96) Thanks for the workaround! 👍

   I had to create a symlink with ln -s /mnt/c/path/to/browser.exe and then set export BROWSER=~/path/to/symlink as my browser is installed in a directory with spaces (Program Files (86)), which xdg-open can't handle.
   https://unix.stackexchange.com/a/715404/571729

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10. LucianoCrocco commented on May 16, 2023

    

    Luciano Agustin Crocco (LucianoCrocco)

    on May 16, 2023

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    Biswapriyo Nath (@Biswa96) Thanks for the workaround! 👍

    I had to create a symlink with ln -s /mnt/c/path/to/browser.exe and then set export BROWSER=~/path/to/symlink as my browser is installed in a directory with spaces (Program Files (86)), which xdg-open can't handle. https://unix.stackexchange.com/a/715404/571729

    Thanks both of you, it worked having 401 error.
11. Kenichi Kamiya (kachick)

    added 3 commits that reference this issue on Jul 28, 2023

    Provide jump option, but this dont work in WSL2

    ...

    5a8f3d7

    Provide jump option, but this dont work in WSL2

    ...

    43b66eb

    Provide jump option, but this dont work in WSL2

    ...

    bd09576
12. jiasli commented on Jul 31, 2023

    

    Jiashuo Li (jiasli)

    on Jul 31, 2023

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    I am the developer of Azure CLI authentication.

    Because of this change, Python's built-in module webbrowser stops working on Ubuntu 22.04 in WSL:

    $ python -c "import webbrowser; print(webbrowser.open('https://login.microsoftonline.com/'))"
    True
    (py310) user2@DESKTOP-A79F1:~$ /usr/bin/xdg-open: 882: x-www-browser: not found
    /usr/bin/xdg-open: 882: firefox: not found
    /usr/bin/xdg-open: 882: iceweasel: not found
    /usr/bin/xdg-open: 882: seamonkey: not found
    /usr/bin/xdg-open: 882: mozilla: not found
    /usr/bin/xdg-open: 882: epiphany: not found
    /usr/bin/xdg-open: 882: konqueror: not found
    /usr/bin/xdg-open: 882: chromium: not found
    /usr/bin/xdg-open: 882: chromium-browser: not found
    /usr/bin/xdg-open: 882: google-chrome: not found
    /usr/bin/xdg-open: 882: www-browser: not found
    /usr/bin/xdg-open: 882: links2: not found
    /usr/bin/xdg-open: 882: elinks: not found
    /usr/bin/xdg-open: 882: links: not found
    /usr/bin/xdg-open: 882: lynx: not found
    /usr/bin/xdg-open: 882: w3m: not found
    xdg-open: no method available for opening 'https://login.microsoftonline.com/'
    

    This affects MSAL's PublicClientApplication.acquire_token_interactive: https://github.com/AzureAD/microsoft-authentication-library-for-python/blob/64141cacdb4ea3a02a2b3cb45bc8fb3be4f93f36/msal/oauth2cli/authcode.py#L58

    Then affects Azure CLI's az login: https://github.com/Azure/azure-cli/blob/f0c87ca820e0bd3f9dd403ef96c21ed49b734d16/src/azure-cli-core/azure/cli/core/auth/identity.py#L153

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13. lgmorand commented on Jul 31, 2023

    

    Louis-Guillaume MORAND (lgmorand)

    on Jul 31, 2023

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    Jiashuo Li (@jiasli) what does that mean ? that we should consider az cli not working properly anymore on WSL 22.04 ?
14. kierzorz commented on Aug 7, 2023

    

    kierzorz

    on Aug 7, 2023

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    Louis-Guillaume MORAND (@lgmorand)
    If you are using powershell on WSL then set the BROWSER ENV variable like so....

    $Env:BROWSER = '/mnt/c/Program Files/Google/Chrome/Application/chrome.exe'

    For bash on wsl to open with your default browser use:

    export BROWSER 'explorer.exe'
    and set this line in your bash profile to make it permanent:
    nano ~/.profile
15. lgmorand commented on Aug 7, 2023

    

    Louis-Guillaume MORAND (lgmorand)

    on Aug 7, 2023

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    kierzorz thanks but that's not the point. WSL is configured and install by MS, az CLI is packaged by MS. Can't we expect either a fix upstream or a built-in workaround. For instance, WSL is installed on Windows where edge is here by default (even if not default browser), so for me, the env could be setup to point to edge install path. it would be sufficient to open a web page for auth
16. leslie-corbalt commented on Oct 20, 2023

    

    Leslie Klein (leslie-corbalt)

    on Oct 20, 2023

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    I just installed Ubuntu 22.04. I had to do 2 things:

    1. install xdg utilities (sudo apt install xdg-utils) and
    2. install wslu following the instructions here: https://wslutiliti.es/wslu/install.html (Scroll down to **Ubuntu Warning**. Follow the steps for PPA version:
       sudo add-apt-repository ppa:wslutilities/wslu
sudo apt update
sudo apt install wslu

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17. cianetech commented on Oct 25, 2023

    

    cianemibs (cianetech)

    on Oct 25, 2023

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    Leslie Klein (@leslie-corbalt) I had a lot of issues because of xdg-open not really working. Thanks to you and to the other people who mentioned about WSLU. It worked for me. I followed the steps you mentioned above.
18. jiasli commented on Dec 1, 2023

    

    Jiashuo Li (jiasli)

    on Dec 1, 2023

    Last edited by jiasli

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    Without xdg-utils installed, webbrowser from Python 3.11 now reports a different error:

    $ sudo apt remove xdg-utils
    $ sudo apt install python3.11
    $ python3.11 -c "import webbrowser; print(webbrowser.open('https://login.microsoftonline.com/'))"
    True
    gio: https://login.microsoftonline.com/: Operation not supported
19. ackalker commented on Feb 26, 2024

    

    Alain Kalker (ackalker)

    on Feb 26, 2024

    Last edited by ackalker

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    I'm using this on WSL2 Ubuntu with default Windows integrations (such as ability to run .exe from Linux) enabled:

    $ sudo apt install xdg-utils
    $ export BROWSER="cmd.exe /c start" # add to ~/.profile to make permanent
    $ xdg-open https://www.microsoft.com/
    '\\wsl.localhost\Ubuntu\home\<username_redacted>'
    CMD.EXE was started with the above path as the current directory.
    UNC paths are not supported.  Defaulting to Windows directory.

    This opens https://www.microsoft.com/ in whatever happens to be my default Windows web browser.
    The 'UNC paths are not spported' message seems to be harmless.

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20. leandiazz commented on Aug 30, 2024

    

    L (leandiazz)

    on Aug 30, 2024

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    Same issue here. the WSL 22.04 was working fine this morning. I did a apt-upgrade and then, the console is now broken when trying to do "az login"

    I did "sudo apt install wslu" like mentioned and it seems to fix it. pretty weird what broke it

    This work for me. Thanks!

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21. tgiacaman commented on Oct 8, 2024

    

    Tomás Giacaman (tgiacaman)

    on Oct 8, 2024

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    I just installed Ubuntu 22.04. I had to do 2 things:

    1. install xdg utilities (sudo apt install xdg-utils) and
    2. install wslu following the instructions here: https://wslutiliti.es/wslu/install.html (Scroll down to **Ubuntu Warning**. Follow the steps for PPA version:
       sudo add-apt-repository ppa:wslutilities/wslu
sudo apt update
sudo apt install wslu

    I'm using WSL2 on Windows using Ubuntu v22.04.5 LTS. --> I just execute $ sudo apt install xdg-utils and the call to a browser was solved and the "gio warning" dissapears
22. copdips commented on Oct 11, 2024

    

    Xiang ZHU (copdips)

    on Oct 11, 2024

    Last edited by copdips

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    @Biswa96 Thanks for the workaround! 👍

    I had to create a symlink with ln -s /mnt/c/path/to/browser.exe and then set export BROWSER=~/path/to/symlink as my browser is installed in a directory with spaces (Program Files (86)), which xdg-open can't handle. https://unix.stackexchange.com/a/715404/571729

    you can do it like this, with quotes around the part having spaces, but not the full path

    export BROWSER=/mnt/c/'Program Files (x86)'/Microsoft/Edge/Application/msedge.exe

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23. khacnha commented on Feb 7, 2025

    

    Win Nguyen (khacnha)

    on Feb 7, 2025

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    For those who are lazy, just copy the displayed link in command line and open it in the browser, the command can still receive feedback after you finish working in the browser.
24. vadimkantorov commented on May 17, 2025

    

    Vadim Kantorov (vadimkantorov)

    on May 17, 2025

    Last edited by vadimkantorov

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    same problem in WSL1 + Ubuntu 24.04. It would be nice if somehow WSL provided some help in this

    ---

    What worked: export BROWSER=/mnt/c/Progra~1/Google/Chrome/Application/chrome.exe

    In Ubuntu 24.04, somehow workarounds like export BROWSER=/mnt/c/'Program Files'/Google/Chrome/Application/chrome.exe stopped working - maybe because of some recent changes to the /usr/bin/xdg-open shell script

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25. slatian commented on May 20, 2025

    

    Slatian (slatian)

    on May 20, 2025

    Last edited by slatian

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    xdg-utils maintianer here:

    Thanks to Vadim Kantorov (@vadimkantorov) for opening an upstream bug

    TL;DR The xdg-utils aren't the only program that makes use of the BROWSER variable, so xdg-open tries to stay compatible resulting in what looks like ignoring the problem.

    The official xdg-utils workaround is creating a shell script that opens your favorite browser and put that into the BROWSER variable. (Will be in the manpage on the next release too)

    Example shell script:

    #!/bin/sh
    
    exec "/mnt/c/Program Files (x86)/my/favorite/browser.exe" "$@"

    In case anyone from the WSL project is reading this: I'd be great to have someone I can ping to get WSL knowledge and who can test changes to avoid/prevent breakages like this in the future.

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26. trallnag commented on Jul 2, 2025

    

    Tim Schwenke (trallnag)

    on Jul 2, 2025

    Last edited by trallnag

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    Note that https://github.com/wslutilities/wslu has been discontinued.

    And note that https://launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/wslu is outdated and the latest version of wslu is only available in the aforementioned GitHub repo or as PPA https://launchpad.net/~wslutilities/+archive/ubuntu/wslu

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27. gabriellaXL commented on Aug 4, 2025

    

    Xinlei Guo (gabriellaXL)

    on Aug 4, 2025

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    It worked after I downloaded wslu.
    sudo add-apt-repository ppa:wslutilities/wslu
    sudo apt update
    sudo apt install wslu

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28. dellch commented on Jun 27, 2026

    

    Chris (dellch)

    on Jun 27, 2026

    Last edited by dellch

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    I can at least confirm xdg-open (after installing it with sudo apt install xdg-utils) works out of the box in WSL2 with Ubuntu-26.06 without installing any additional packages like wslu .