Error while trying to authenticate with `gcloud init`

I had the same problem and gcloud has slightly changed the way their auth flow works.

Run gcloud auth login and then copy the whole output (not just the URL) to a terminal on a computer that has both a web browser and gcloud CLI installed. The command you should copy looks like

gcloud auth login --remote-bootstrap="https://accounts.google.com/o/oauth2/auth?response_type=code&client_id=****.apps.googleusercontent.com&scope=openid+https%3A%2F%2Fwww.googleapis.com%2Fauth%2Fuserinfo.email+https%3A%2F%2Fwww.googleapis.com%2Fauth%2Fcloud-platform+https%3A%2F%2Fwww.googleapis.com%2Fauth%2Fappengine.admin+https%3A%2F%2Fwww.googleapis.com%2Fauth%2Fcompute+https%3A%2F%2Fwww.googleapis.com%2Fauth%2Faccounts.reauth&state=****&access_type=offline&code_challenge=****&code_challenge_method=S256&token_usage=remote"

When you run that on your computer that has a web browser, it will open a browser window and prompt you to log in. Once you authorize your app in the web browser you get a new URL in your terminal that looks like

https://localhost:8085/?state=****&code=****&scope=email%20openid%20https://www.googleapis.com/auth/userinfo.email%20https://www.googleapis.com/auth/cloud-platform%20https://www.googleapis.com/auth/appengine.admin%20https://www.googleapis.com/auth/compute%20https://www.googleapis.com/auth/accounts.reauth&authuser=0&hd=****&prompt=consent

Paste this new URL back into the prompt in your headless machine after Enter the output of the above command: (in your case, this would be in your WSL2 terminal). Press enter and you get the output

You are now logged in as [****].
Your current project is [None].  You can change this setting by running:
  $ gcloud config set project PROJECT_ID
[8]+  Done                    code_challenge_method=S256

Try

gcloud init --console-only

Then you will get the url which will work.

You must log in to continue. Would you like to log in (Y/n)?  y                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                       
WARNING: The --[no-]launch-browser flags are deprecated and will be removed on June 7th 2022 (Release 389.0.0). Use --no-browser to replace --no-launch-browser.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      
Go to the following link in your browser:                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                 

https://accounts.google.com/o/o....

update 2022-06-20. option console-only is removed for version 389.0.0. So instead use

gcloud init --no-browser

There are some workarounds and they depend on your particular Windows environment.

In this post and in this one you can check the most related issues with respect to gcloud running in WSL.

Here you can find some Google groups related threads that might be helpful.

Finally, you could check some related Windows troubleshootings that can help in issues related to WSL2 on your own environment.

EDIT:

it seems this answer and the one from @K.I. give other commands that don't rely on implementation details. I've tested those 3 commands:

gcloud init --console-only

gcloud auth login --no-launch-browser

gcloud init --no-launch-browser

Original answer, another workaround (17/07/2022):

DISPLAY=":0" gcloud auth login

is a workaround mentioned in this issue. Instead of requiring you to install gcloud CLI outside WSL2, it pretends there is a browser.

A link is printed, click it, login on your browser, and you're authenticated with the CLI.

Then run again gcloud init.

You can do it without error by using another method of gcloud installation :

curl https://sdk.cloud.google.com | bash

exec -l $SHELL #restart shell

gcloud init