"Error installing Cursor server" in WSL

[LeoJiang (Leo)]

Where does the bug appear (feature/product)?

Cursor IDE

Describe the Bug

When my Windows laptop sleeps and wakes, I sometimes get this error:

2026-03-19 16:12:26.865 [info] Resolving wsl remote authority 'wsl+ubuntu-24.04' (attempt #1)
2026-03-19 16:12:26.865 [info] Installing cursor-server with options: {"id":"d22f92b5d32655b610101129","commit":"b29eb4ee5f9f6d1cb2afbc09070198d3ea6ad760","line":"production","realCommit":"b29eb4ee5f9f6d1cb2afbc09070198d3ea6ad76f","extensionIds":[],"serverApplicationName":"cursor-server","serverDataFolderName":".cursor-server","forceReinstall":true,"killRunningServers":false,"host":"127.0.0.1"}
2026-03-19 16:12:27.365 [error] Error installing Cursor server [wsl exec: installServerScript] Command failed with exit code 4294967295: stdout: Catastrophic failure 
Error code: Wsl/Service/E_UNEXPECTED

Cursor fails to show any files, restarting doesn’t work. The rest of WSL works fine. This has been occurring a lot more recently. The only way to fix this is to restart WSL.
Killing Cursor processes, reinstalling the Cursor server, etc all don’t work.

> wsl --status
Default Distribution: Ubuntu-24.04
Default Version: 2
> wsl --version
WSL version: 2.6.3.0

I’m currently on the Ultra plan, might switch to Claude Code if this keeps happening.

Steps to Reproduce

Have Cursor open. Close laptop lid without turning it off. Reopen the next day.

Operating System

Windows 10/11

Version Information

Version: 2.6.20 (user setup)
VSCode Version: 1.105.1
Commit: b29eb4ee5f9f6d1cb2afbc09070198d3ea6ad760
Date: 2026-03-17T01:50:02.404Z
Build Type: Stable
Release Track: Default
Electron: 39.8.1
Chromium: 142.0.7444.265
Node.js: 22.22.1
V8: 14.2.231.22-electron.0
OS: Windows_NT x64 10.0.26200

Does this stop you from using Cursor

Yes - Cursor is unusable

[deanrie]

Hey, this is a known WSL system-level issue. The Wsl/Service/E_UNEXPECTED error happens when Windows WSL gets into a bad state after sleep and wake cycles. It’s not something Cursor can control directly.

Here’s what should help:

1. Immediate fix. Run this in PowerShell:

wsl --shutdown

Then reopen your project in Cursor.

2. Prevent it in the future. Create or edit %USERPROFILE%\.wslconfig:

[wsl2]
memory=8GB
processors=4

Then run:

wsl --shutdown
wsl --update

3. Also make sure Windows is fully updated. Some users reported pending OS updates made WSL less stable.

A user with a similar setup confirmed here that increasing WSL memory reduced the issue a lot: Cursor fails after some time when using WSL

You can also run htop inside WSL right before it happens to see if you’re hitting resource limits. That can confirm if resources are the root cause.

Let me know if this helps, or if the disconnects keep happening after the config change.