Missing /etc/passwd file?

[iwereth]

wsl --version
WSL version: 1.0.3.0
Kernel version: 5.15.79.1
WSLg version: 1.0.47
MSRDC version: 1.2.3575
Direct3D version: 1.606.4
DXCore version: 10.0.25131.1002-220531-1700.rs-onecore-base2-hyp
Windows version: 10.0.22621.963

I kept getting the following error whenever I tried to boot up the Clear distro

<3>WSL (22) ERROR: CreateProcessEntryCommon:358: getpwuid(0) failed 2
<3>WSL (22) ERROR: CreateProcessEntryCommon:362: getpwuid(0) failed 2

I don't have much of expertise but looking around I found that the error (2) (i.e., ENOENT) may actually be linked with the missing /etc/passwd file, and creating one with an entry for root seem to fix it

I don't have any idea for why it is not supposed to be there, in case there's some rationale

[fenandosr]

The rationale is called "stateless".

You can check it here: https://clearlinux.org/features/stateless