Please help. Followed instructions but corrupted my Ubuntu 20.04 and can't get back in

[ericlief]

On step 4 I substituted 2004 for 18004 and got this error:

wsl --shutdown
ubuntu2004.exe config --default-user root
Error: 0x80070057 The parameter is incorrect.

I have tried restarting but can't get back in to undo the changes I made.

[itsabadcode]

Go to %appdata%\..\Local\Packages\CanonicalGroupLimited.Ubuntu20.04onWindows_79rhkp1fndgsc\LocalState\rootfs\etc\passwd
and change shell command for user to default /bin/bash
Also you can run wsl.exe --user root if you already changed default-user

[ericlief]

@itsabadcode . Unfortunately I have tried that, and for me, ubuntu is mounted at wsl$, and when I go to edit passwd there and save like above, even with admin privileges it won't allow me to save with notepad.
The files in localstate are only
Mode LastWriteTime Length Name

---

d----- 6/5/2020 11:01 AM temp
-a---- 7/8/2020 3:19 AM 50345279488 ext4.vhdx
-a---l 6/5/2020 10:51 AM 0 fsserver
and I can't access them here.
The wsl command does not do anything for me.

[MarkL4YG]

In theory, you could just uninstall the application, delete the package folder and then re-install the app for a clean install.
That is, if that is an option for you, of course.

[SirLouen]

The default instructions are made for ubuntu1804, which corrupt bash for ubuntu2004
These are the instructions for ubuntu2004
https://github.com/chcoders/wsl2-hacks-ubunutu2004

I haven't been able to recover my ubuntu2004 after following the ubuntu1804 instructions, so had to do a clear reinstall.
I would like to discovery a way to enter some kind of "recovery mode" in WSL like common linux distros. I could not manage to undo changes via \$wsl\Ubuntu-20.04 since most files are write protected 👎

Essentially I was able to backup all the files I had in WSL via \$wsl but had to reinstall all the system from the beginning. I hope I find a way to access a full R/W mode with a recovery system in WSL in the future, because I tend to mess up with system files like these pretty frequently.