Container downloads slow or failing
What to do when container jobs download at a few KB/s, restart from zero, or fail with 401, "connection reset" or "no route to host" even though your internet is fast.
What it means: Each container job is downloaded from Salad's image registries into the container environment. Jobs range from under 100 MB to several GB. When a download runs at a trickle it never finishes in time, the network may cancel the job and offer the next one - which looks like "it keeps downloading and never runs". The first download after a fresh install (the compatibility check) is affected too, so a slow path can block all paid jobs.
Why it happens: Your general internet speed is rarely the cause; the download goes through the container environment's virtual network, and that path is what breaks. Most common first:
- USB Wi-Fi adapters and unstable Wi-Fi. The virtual switch that WSL uses sits on top of your adapter, and USB Wi-Fi drivers are a well-known cause of crawling or dropping traffic inside WSL while Windows itself is fine.
- VPN clients and security products that filter network traffic (NordVPN, Tailscale, AnyConnect, Kaspersky, Norton, Bitdefender, McAfee, Avast). They intermittently drop the environment's connections: "no route to host", "connection reset by peer".
- A slow route between your ISP and the registry, on some mobile/5G and satellite connections or from some countries farther away from our registry servers. Everything else is fast but the registry download crawls.
- The Hyper-V firewall on recent Windows 11 builds blocking WSL traffic.
- A custom
.wslconfigwith networking changes. - Not enough free space on C: for the image cache ("not enough storage to cache the image").
About the 401 error
A "401 Unauthorized" part-way through a download is a consequence of slowness, not an account problem. The permission to download an image is valid for a limited time; if the download is still crawling when it runs out, the registry refuses the rest. Fix the speed and the 401 goes away.
What to do
Use a wired connection if you can
Plug a cable from the router into the PC's Ethernet port and restart the PC. This alone fixes most crawling downloads, especially with USB Wi-Fi adapters.
Run Salad without VPN and test network protection off
Disconnect VPN clients and pause your antivirus's web/network protection, Exit Salad from the tray icon, run
wsl --shutdown in PowerShell, start Salad and watch one download. If it's fast now, add exclusions for vmmem,
wslservice.exe, C:\Program Files\Salad and C:\ProgramData\Salad (antivirus guides).
Check the Hyper-V firewall (Windows 11)
In PowerShell as Administrator:
Get-NetFirewallHyperVVMSetting -Name '{40E0AC32-46A5-438A-A0B2-2B479E8F2E90}'DefaultOutboundAction should be Allow or NotConfigured. If it's Block:
Set-NetFirewallHyperVVMSetting -Name '{40E0AC32-46A5-438A-A0B2-2B479E8F2E90}' -DefaultOutboundAction AllowStuck on Wi-Fi? Turn off large send offload on the WSL adapter
As Administrator (copy and paste - the command name has a hyphen):
Get-NetAdapter -IncludeHidden | Where-Object Name -like 'vEthernet (WSL*' | Disable-NetAdapterLsowsl --shutdownThen start Salad. Also update the Wi-Fi adapter's driver from the manufacturer rather than the Windows default.
Rule out the route itself
If downloads are slow on a wired connection with no VPN, test from a different network once - a phone hotspot on another carrier is enough. If the download completes there, the slow path is between your ISP and the registry. A different DNS or a change of ISP routing is outside what Salad can fix, but tell support: patterns by country help.
Free space and .wslconfig
Keep at least 70 GB free on C: (free up space) and reset
.wslconfig if you've changed it
(restore defaults).
Don't reinstall to fix downloads
Reinstalling Salad or unregistering the container environment throws away everything downloaded so far, so the next job starts from zero over the same slow path.
Still stuck?
Send Salad Support: how the PC connects (wired, Wi-Fi, USB adapter, mobile), your country, which VPN or security products are installed, the Hyper-V firewall output, and your logs folder zipped (how to find it). The logs record each download's speed, so we can see exactly where it stalls.
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