Could not resolve host: github.com ONLY in windows bash

Question

I have installed ubuntu 18.04(WSL) in my win 10 64 bit, 1903.

For the command git clone https://github.com/facebookresearch/fastText.git,

it works well in git bash(git for windows) and ubuntu 18.04 shell but not in bash (C:\Windows\System32\bash.exe), the error message is

$ git clone https://github.com/facebookresearch/fastText.git
Cloning into 'fastText'...
fatal: unable to access 'https://github.com/facebookresearch/fastText.git/': Could not resolve host: github.com

I have only two .gitconfig file in my pc, one for git bash and another for ubuntu 18.04 shell. I think ubuntu 18.04 shell may equal to bash in some degree but the bash must have problems.

Solution 1

It could be that your /etc/resolv.conf file is corrupt - it happened to me!

Symptoms are:

• Inside WSL /etc/resolv.conf is not plain text but some binary garbage. It should be plain text.
• You cannot e.g. ping google.com or ping stackoverflow.com from inside WSL.
• You can ping those domains OK from powershell in the windows host. Windows git also works OK.

Aside: Interestingly ping github.com fails for me today on all my machines but that doesn't stop me from visiting github in my browser or using git - strange.

The solution is to sudo rm /etc/resolv.conf and restart WSL - windows will recreate that file for you and you should be able to ping away and use git once more from within WSL.

To restart WSL - open a Powershell terminal in Administrator mode and run the following commands. (taken from @germa-vinsmoke 's answer)

wsl --shutdown
Get-Service LxssManager | Restart-Service

Solution 2

1. Edit your wsl.conf

sudo nano /etc/wsl.conf

[network]
generateResolvConf = false

2. Save this file and exit. Then edit /etc/resolv.conf.

sudo nano /etc/resolv.conf

3. Add/Edit this line

nameserver 1.1.1.1

4. Then close your WSL console. Open Powershell with admin and shutdown the wsl.

wsl --shutdown

5. At last, restart the wsl service

Get-Service LxssManager | Restart-Service

More info - WSL2 - No internet connectivity. DNS Issues(Temporary failure in name resolution)

Edit 1 By P.hunter:

When your are behind an VPN, you need to set your nameserver to same what the VPN provides.

For that -

1. Go to Network Status (On Windows) and click on change adapter settings.
2. Find the adapter of your VPN, right click on it and open properties.
3. Find IpV4 option from the dropdown, and open it.
4. Find the DNS mentioned and use the same in Step 3.

Solution 3

I can assume that you have problems with proxying.

Try it:

git config --global --unset http.proxy
git config --global --unset https.proxy

Similar problem: #20370294 and #5377703