ADB in WSL2

[Akira Yano (yanotoma)]

ADB (Android Debug Bridge) used to work on WSL1 but no longer in WSL2
The catch was to use the same version in both windows and linux

WSL1

WSL2

OS

[therealkenc]

/dupe #2195

[Deleted user (ghost)]

Hi! We've identified this issue as a duplicate of another one that already exists in this repository. This specific instance is being closed in favor of tracking the concern over on the referenced thread.

Thanks for your report!

[therealkenc]

TCP bridge. Likely dupe #4619 but having pulled the trigger too fast once already will let it float.

[Andrei Alecu (andreialecu)]

See #4619 (comment) for a workaround.

[m4v3r (m4v3r)]

this worked with no issues, didn't even check any versions... ;)

[Gustavo Lopes (gusflopes)]

Workaround didn't work for me...

[SKA (anaganisk)]

Gustavo Lopes (@gusflopes) For me it was windows firewall issue, check your firewall settings, after correcting that it worked.

[Anees Iqbal (steelbrain)]

Fwiw, what worked for me is to start the ADB server in WSL and make the Host Windows connect to it. Set ADB_SERVER_SOCKET=tcp:localhost:5037 in your windows environment variables.

Also make sure that your host and WSL adb are the same version or else they'll keep killing each other's servers

Alright so here's what you're gonna do:

Add the following to your WSL bashrc or zshrc:

export WSL_HOST_IP="$(tail -1 /etc/resolv.conf | cut -d' ' -f2)"
export ADB_SERVER_SOCKET=tcp:$WSL_HOST_IP:5037

Then create a firewall entry, create a new "Inbound" Rule. Select "Port" then Specific TCP port "5037" then "Allow the connection" then check all of Domain, Private and Public and add a name. After the firewall entry is added, open up its properties, go to Scope -> Remote IP Addresses -> Add "172.16.0.0/12".

Now that we're covered in the WSL2 VM and through the Firewall, you have to start the adb server with specific arguments to make it listen on all addresses (don't worry we've only whitelisted our WSL2 VM IP range so no security issues).

Create a vbs script, call it whatever and put this in it

CreateObject("WScript.Shell").Run "%USERPROFILE%\AppData\Local\Android\Sdk\platform-tools\adb.exe kill-server", 0, True
CreateObject("WScript.Shell").Run "%USERPROFILE%\AppData\Local\Android\Sdk\platform-tools\adb.exe -a -P 5037 nodaemon server", 0, True

Now all you have to do is invoke the vbs script once per reboot and your WSL VM will connect to your host ADB instance

[Daniel K. Guolo (danielkv)]

I did it all, but in the end: "Couldn't start project on Android: could not connect to TCP port 5556: Connection refused"

[Wahyu Purnomo (warifp)]

172.16.0.0/12

Thank!

[Harry (Monk3y51)]

Fwiw, what worked for me is to start the ADB server in WSL and make the Host Windows connect to it. Set ADB_SERVER_SOCKET=tcp:localhost:5037 in your windows environment variables.

Also make sure that your host and WSL adb are the same version or else they'll keep killing each other's servers

Alright so here's what you're gonna do:

Add the following to your WSL bashrc or zshrc:

export WSL_HOST_IP="$(tail -1 /etc/resolv.conf | cut -d' ' -f2)"
export ADB_SERVER_SOCKET=tcp:$WSL_HOST_IP:5037

Then create a firewall entry, create a new "Inbound" Rule. Select "Port" then Specific TCP port "5037" then "Allow the connection" then check all of Domain, Private and Public and add a name. After the firewall entry is added, open up its properties, go to Scope -> Remote IP Addresses -> Add "172.16.0.0/12".

Now that we're covered in the WSL2 VM and through the Firewall, you have to start the adb server with specific arguments to make it listen on all addresses (don't worry we've only whitelisted our WSL2 VM IP range so no security issues).

Create a vbs script, call it whatever and put this in it

CreateObject("WScript.Shell").Run "%USERPROFILE%\AppData\Local\Android\Sdk\platform-tools\adb.exe kill-server", 0, True
CreateObject("WScript.Shell").Run "%USERPROFILE%\AppData\Local\Android\Sdk\platform-tools\adb.exe -a -P 5037 nodaemon server", 0, True

Now all you have to do is invoke the vbs script once per reboot and your WSL VM will connect to your host ADB instance

This worked perfectly for me but to save me from having to run the script each time i added to script to a schedule to run at logon

I opened Task Scheduler

Create Basic Task

Add name and description (helpful to find it later if you want to delete it)

Set the trigger to "When I log on"

Leave Action as "Start a program"

Select the VBS script you created, (i placed mine in a folder named scripts that was out the way so i did not accidentally delete it)

Click finish and thats it the script will run when you login ready for if you use ADB on WSL

NOTE: When i created the VBS script it did not work for me as the adb location referenced in it was different to mine so changed the path to where ADB is located

Thank you for this solution i have been searching for weeks at different ways to get ADB working on WSL

[Eliya Cohen (Newbie012)]

I was able to connect over wifi without the need of installing on both sides. See - https://developer.android.com/studio/command-line/adb/?gclid=CjwKCAjw2dD7BRASEiwAWCtCbxKzwu63T-HpLaIp8ASO1aNA6aRl7_8Wvc2LqCvf3BI3umOlQQaOtBoCQrEQAvD_BwE&gclsrc=aw.ds#wireless

[therealkenc]

This one ("used to work on WSL1 but no longer in WSL2") is #4619. It's analogous X11 Server on Windows, Database server on Windows, etc etc. Rather than dupe, porting over to the discussion forum for tips/tricks ADB over TCP with WSL2. Thanks for the input everyone.

[skamensky]

I was using Intellij''s Android developement setup inside of WSL2. IntelliJ/Android Studio does not let you set the
ADB_SERVER_SOCKET environment variable. It's hardcoded to 127.0.0.1:5037. So the #4692 (comment) answer didn't work exactly for me.

The fix I came up with was to use socat to forward the windows 5037 port to the linux 5037 port.

export WSL_HOST_IP="$(tail -1 /etc/resolv.conf | cut -d' ' -f2)"
socat TCP-LISTEN:5037,reuseaddr,fork TCP:$WSL_HOST_IP:5037

Make sure to run this in a separate process before starting up Intellij/Android Studio, since the IDE will start up an adb server if it detects that one is not yet running. Once it starts up the server, you will not be able to run the above socat command, and it will result in an error of something to the effect of socat[276040] E bind(5, {AF=2 0.0.0.0:5037}, 16): Address already in use

[m4v3r (m4v3r)]

I actually updated WSL and Ubuntu and basically reset the environment to defaults and now everything just works between Linux and Windows network -side as well as USB passthrough with no futher configuration or anything. (different project than yours but I had similar problems)

[Ninh Huynh (ninh-huynh)]

The socat command works. Now I'm able to run Android Studio inside WSL2, and connect the emulator from Windows host. Without socat, we are only able to use adb in WSL2.

[eynopv]

Getting error: could not connect to TCP port 5554: Connection refused on adb emu.
The adb devices shows list of available devices and I am able to use adb shell.

I have set those environment variables in WSL

export WSL_HOST=$(tail -1 /etc/resolv.conf | cut -d' ' -f2)
export ADB_SERVER_SOCKET=tcp:$WSL_HOST:5037

And starting adb in windows as

adb -a -P 5037 nodaemon server start

WSL2 distribution
Linux eynopv-pc 5.15.90.1-microsoft-standard-WSL2 #1 SMP Fri Jan 27 02:56:13 UTC 2023 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux

adb Windows
Android Debug Bridge version 1.0.41
Version 34.0.1-9979309

adb WSL
Android Debug Bridge version 1.0.41
Version 34.0.1-9979309

[Jean-Pascal Hövel (jeanfortheweb)]

same problem here, occured after upgrading react-native. did you find a solution?

[eynopv]

no

[Tan Zi Gang (zigang93)]

same issue...

[Duane Cary (bouncydragon)]

After following some guide, I still cannot connect my WSL2 React Native build to the emulator of my Android Studio in Windows. The run returns me this message:

While the adb -a nodaemon server start returns me this:

[John Ber (JhnBer)]

After two days of research, here is what helped solve my problem in my case.
I used Netish interface portproxy to add a port proxy that connects the host port to the WSL virtual machine.
netsh interface portproxy add v4tov4 listenport=<yourPortToForward> listenaddress=0.0.0.0 connectport=<yourPortToConnectToInWSL> connectaddress=(wsl hostname -I)

In my case, the device used port 21503. Therefore, the command looked like:
netsh interface portproxy add v4tov4 listenport=21503 listenaddress=0.0.0.0 connectport=21503 connectaddress=127.0.1.1

Then run cat /etc/resolv.conf in WSL and use nameserver value with adb connect.

More information here https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/wsl/networking

In fact, for me this was the only option since I couldn't use WSL 1 (which connects to localhost without problems since it is not a VM).

[Yohanes Bagas Ari Widatama (Cryxto)]

should i use wsl2 mirrored network or just default network mode of wsl2 ?

[arodriala (aleixrodriala)]

For the wireless-device case mentioned a few times above: the setup that's been painless for me is to not run a Linux adb server inside WSL2 at all — call the Windows adb.exe through interop (e.g. alias adb='/mnt/c/Users/<you>/AppData/Local/Android/Sdk/platform-tools/adb.exe') so Windows owns the single adb server, and connect the phone over Wi-Fi instead of fighting USB passthrough.

The remaining friction is adb pair — reading codes and ip:ports off the phone screen — and the existing QR-pairing tools don't work from WSL2 because they run their own mDNS listener, and LAN multicast never crosses the NAT. I built a small CLI that does Android-Studio-style QR pairing but delegates discovery to the adb server itself (adb mdns services), so it works fine from WSL2 driving adb.exe: https://github.com/aleixrodriala/adb-qr — uvx adb-qr, scan, paired and connected (disclosure: I'm the author).

No usbipd, no firewall rules, no port proxying.

[foxvirtual]

To fix all of those problems , try these.

unset ADB_SERVER_SOCKET

ls "/mnt/c/Users/<<USER>>/AppData/Local/Android/Sdk/platform-tools/"

You should see:

adb.exe
fastboot.exe

Then run "/mnt/c/Users/<<USER>>/AppData/Local/Android/Sdk/platform-tools/adb.exe" devices

You should get:

List of devices attached
emulator device

Make it convenient

alias adb='/mnt/c/Users/<<USER>>/AppData/Local/Android/Sdk/platform-tools/adb.exe'
then run
adb devices

To make the alias permanent:

echo "alias adb='/mnt/c/Users/<<USER>>/AppData/Local/Android/Sdk/platform-tools/adb.exe'" >> ~/.bashrc
source ~/.bashrc