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wiki: add WSL OpenSSH default shell + Ansible world-writable mount articles

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Two new troubleshooting articles from today's MajorRig/MajorMac Ansible setup:
- Windows OpenSSH WSL default shell breaks remote SSH commands
- Ansible silently ignores ansible.cfg on WSL2 world-writable mounts

Article count: 76

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.6 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
This commit is contained in:
Marcus Summers
2026-04-03 10:23:02 -04:00
parent bce18c75d8
commit bb27085b6b
8 changed files with 188 additions and 11 deletions
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---
title: "Windows OpenSSH: WSL as Default Shell Breaks Remote Commands"
domain: troubleshooting
category: networking
tags: [windows, openssh, wsl, ssh, majorrig, powershell]
status: published
created: 2026-04-03
updated: 2026-04-03
---
# Windows OpenSSH: WSL as Default Shell Breaks Remote Commands
## Problem
SSH remote commands fail with:
```
Invalid command line argument: -c
Please use 'wsl.exe --help' to get a list of supported arguments.
```
This happens on **every** remote command — `ssh-copy-id`, `ssh user@host "command"`, `scp`, etc. Interactive SSH (no command) may still work if it drops into WSL.
## Cause
Windows OpenSSH's default shell is set to `C:\Windows\System32\wsl.exe`. When SSH executes a remote command, it invokes:
```
<default_shell> -c "<command>"
```
But `wsl.exe` does not accept the `-c` flag. It expects `-e` for command execution, or no flags for an interactive session. Since OpenSSH hardcodes `-c`, every remote command fails.
## Fix
Change the default shell to PowerShell. Run this in an **elevated PowerShell** on the Windows host:
```powershell
New-ItemProperty -Path "HKLM:\SOFTWARE\OpenSSH" -Name DefaultShell -Value "C:\Windows\System32\WindowsPowerShell\v1.0\powershell.exe" -PropertyType String -Force
Restart-Service sshd
```
If you need to run this from within WSL (e.g., over an interactive SSH session):
```bash
powershell.exe -Command "Start-Process powershell -Verb RunAs -ArgumentList '-Command New-ItemProperty -Path HKLM:\\SOFTWARE\\OpenSSH -Name DefaultShell -Value C:\\Windows\\System32\\WindowsPowerShell\\v1.0\\powershell.exe -PropertyType String -Force; Restart-Service sshd'"
```
## After the Fix
- Remote SSH commands now execute via PowerShell
- To run Linux commands, prefix with `wsl`:
```bash
ssh user@host "wsl bash -c 'cd /mnt/d/project && git pull'"
```
- Interactive SSH sessions land in PowerShell (use `wsl` to enter Linux)
- `ssh-copy-id` still won't work for WSL's `authorized_keys` — Windows OpenSSH reads from `C:\Users\<user>\.ssh\authorized_keys`, not the WSL home directory
## Key Notes
- This registry key is the **only** supported way to change the OpenSSH default shell on Windows
- The change persists across reboots and Windows Updates
- If you previously set the default shell to `wsl.exe` to get a Linux-first SSH experience, be aware that it permanently breaks all remote command execution
- Tools like Ansible, `scp`, `rsync`, and `ssh-copy-id` all depend on `-c` working
## Related
- [Windows OpenSSH Server (sshd) Stops After Reboot](windows-sshd-stops-after-reboot.md) — sshd service startup issues
- [Microsoft Docs: OpenSSH DefaultShell](https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-server/administration/openssh/openssh-server-configuration#configuring-the-default-shell-for-openssh-in-windows)