Vscode-remote-release: VS Code server failed to start when changing directory in bash_profile

[sammito1]

• VSCode Version: 1.34 Insider
• Local OS Version: Windows 10 1809
• Remote OS Version: N/A (locally using Ubuntu 18.04 for WSL)
• Remote Extension/Connection Type: WSL

Steps to Reproduce:

1. Open a WSL window using "Remote-WSL: New Window"
2. "Installing VS Code Server in WSL: Installing WSL components" fails with this error:

VS Code Server for WSL closed unexpectedly. Check WSL terminal for more details

And here are those details:

[2019-05-02 20:19:51.286] Starting VS Code Server inside WSL.
[2019-05-02 20:19:51.602] Launching C:\WINDOWS\System32\wsl.exe bash -i -c "./scripts/wslServer.sh 473af338e1bd9ad4d9853933da1cd9d5d9e07dc9 insider .vscode-remote  " in c:\Users\User\.vscode-insiders\extensions\ms-vscode-remote.remote-wsl-0.31.0
[2019-05-02 20:19:52.625] bash: ./scripts/wslServer.sh: No such file or directory
[2019-05-02 20:19:52.625] VS Code Server for WSL closed unexpectedly.

Does this issue occur when you try this locally?: Yes
Does this issue occur when you try this locally and all extensions are disabled?: Yes

[aeschli]

Looks like the WSL extensionsdidn't get correctly installed. Can you check the contents of
c:\Users\User.vscode-insiders\extensions\ms-vscode-remote.remote-wsl-0.31.0 ?

[jonaspetersorensen]

I got the same problem.

• VSCode Version: 1.34 Insider
• Local OS Version: Windows 10 Pro, build 17134
• Remote OS Version: N/A (locally using Ubuntu 18.04 for WSL)
• Remote Extension/Connection Type: WSL
• Ext "Remote Development" version: 0.12.0

Contents of directory "ms-vscode-remote.remote-wsl-0.32.0":

CHANGELOG.md
dist/
LICENSE.txt
package.json
package.nls.json
README.md
resources/
scripts/
tests/
tsfmt.json
tslint.json

Contents of the script dir:

wslCode-dev.sh
wslCode.sh
wslDownload.sh
wslServer.sh

[aeschli]

can you run the following in a WSL shell? (please replace YourUserName with your windows user name)
` bash -x /mnt/c/Users/YourUserName/.vscode-insiders/extensions/ms-vscode-remote.remote-wsl-0.32.0/ scripts/wslServer.sh 473af338e1bd9ad4d9853933da1cd9d5d9e07dc9 insider .vscode-remote

[jonaspetersorensen]

@aeschli That seems to work just fine from the wsl side, I end up with Extension host agent listening on 54774

[aeschli]

So maybe the problem is the relative path that we use to start the scipt.
When you open a windows command, and cd to c:\Users\YourUserName\.vscode-insiders\extensions\ms-vscode-remote.remote-wsl-0.32.0 and run wsl.exe, will it open on the corresponding folder?

[jonaspetersorensen]

@aeschli Yup, wsl will open on that folder.

[aeschli]

What about C:\WINDOWS\System32\wsl.exe bash -i -c "./scripts/wslServer.sh 473af338e1bd9ad4d9853933da1cd9d5d9e07dc9 insider .vscode-remote " in that folder?

[jonaspetersorensen]

@aeschli That works as well

[cenit]

I have a very similar problem as @sammito1 and @jonaspetersorensen: same messages on startup, no problem running

bash -x /mnt/c/Users/username/.vscode-insiders/extensions/ms-vscode-remote.remote-wsl-0.32.0/scripts/wslServer.sh 473af338e1bd9ad4d9853933da1cd9d5d9e07dc9 insider .vscode-remote

but differently from @jonaspetersorensen, in cmd.exe if i go to the folder of the extension and run wsl.exe from there, I find myself in my home and not in that folder anymore:

C:\Users\username\.vscode-insiders\extensions\ms-vscode-remote.remote-wsl-0.32.0>cd
C:\Users\username\.vscode-insiders\extensions\ms-vscode-remote.remote-wsl-0.32.0

C:\Users\username\.vscode-insiders\extensions\ms-vscode-remote.remote-wsl-0.32.0>wsl
username@laptop:~$ pwd
/home/username
username@laptop:~$

that's maybe the problem for me

[xquangdang]

@aeschli I have the same problem. In my .bash_profile, I added "cd" so that whenever I run wsl.exe, it will go to ~ instead of "system32". When run code . inside wsl, the error will occur. I try to remove "cd" line and the vscode server wsl started just fine. Hope it help

update: only happen if I set default shell to fish shell via chsh. with default bash/zsh vscode server is okay

[sammito1]

I also have a “cd” in my .bash_profile that changes the directory upon starting bash. This is probably where the problem stems from upon starting the vscode server..

[cenit]

I also have a cd in my .bashrc. Removing it solved the problem

[djmcgill]

Same for me, but interestingly it was in my ~/.config/fish/config.fish - even though vscode's terminal didn't open into fish, it opened into bash (echo $0 results in /bin/bash)

[jonaspetersorensen]

Oh, well spotted regarding the cd :)
I have one in the .bashrc, and when I remove that everything works as expected.

[sammito1]

Removing my cd /mnt in .bashrc fixes the issue.

[aeschli]

Can you try this version?

remote-wsl-0.32.1.vsix.zip

• Save the extension as remote-wsl-0.32.1.vsix (GitHub limitation on files to attach)
• in the extensions viewlet, use Install from VSIX...
• check that you now see version 0.32.1

This fixes:

• when starting the wslServer.sh, no longer runs with -i, so unexpected commands (such as 'cd', running zsh) in .bash_profile no longer interfere.
• inside wslServer.sh, starts the server with the user configured shell (and -i)

See https://medium.com/@vinhp/set-and-use-zsh-as-default-shell-in-wsl-on-windows-10-the-right-way-4f30ed9592dc on how to configure a shell in wsl

Please let me know if that solves the issues.

[kumrud]

My .bashrc had cd ~ just made a clean .bashrc and it finally worked.

[idum]

I have the same problem, had to remove cd /mnt/c/code for made it working.

[woshiwpa]

Not necessarily because of cd in .bashrc or .bash_profile. If you installed VSCode in a removable drive (this can happen considering that many budget Win10 books have only 32G C:), it would fail the installation of wslServer because when wsl starts, it cannot start from any folder not in a fixed drive even if you have already added the drive in /etc/fstab. As such bash goes to your home folder instead of the extension folder. It of course cannot find wslServer.sh.

Move the whole VSCode Application to C: can definitely solve the issue although it is not recommended. Alternatively, user can change the wslDaemon.js file in the extension_folder/dist/ directory. Add
cd your_extension_folder_absolute_path &&
in front of ./scripts (there are two .scripts found in my wslDaemon.js) and it should work.

[heberleh]

I have the same problem on WSL 2 without changing anything...
Code-insiders is installed in the default path, etc.
It was working fine yesterday, turned the laptop off and on and now it gives the error.

Version: 1.36.0-insider (user setup)
Commit: b7265738444f1eee05762341b4361ee6452a4154
Date: 2019-06-27T05:22:06.378Z
Electron: 4.2.5
Chrome: 69.0.3497.128
Node.js: 10.11.0
V8: 6.9.427.31-electron.0
OS: Windows_NT x64 10.0.18922

[2019-06-27 12:12:28.090] Starting VS Code Server inside WSL (Ubuntu) [2019-06-27 12:12:28.090] Windows build: 18922. Multi distro support: enabled [2019-06-27 12:12:28.308] Launching C:\WINDOWS\System32\wsl.exe -d Ubuntu bash -c "'./scripts/wslServer.sh' 'b7265738444f1eee05762341b4361ee6452a4154' 'insider' '.vscode-server-insiders' 'C:/Users/henry/AppData/Local/Temp/vscode-remote- wsl/b7265738444f1eee05762341b4361ee6452a4154/vscode-server-linux-x64.tar.gz' " in c:\Users\henry\.vscode-insiders\extensions\ms-vscode-remote.remote-wsl-0.38.3 [2019-06-27 12:12:28.604] bash: ./scripts/wslServer.sh: No such file or directory

[aeschli]

@heberleh an you check if c:\Users\henry\.vscode-insiders\extensions\ms-vscode-remote.remote-wsl-0.38.3 has \scripts\wslServer.sh ?
If it has, can you add set -x after the copyright comments?

[heberleh]

@aeschli Thanks for replying. I checked the script at \henry\.vscode-insiders\extensions\ms-vscode-remote.remote-wsl-0.38.3\scripts and tried adding the set -x to wslServer.sh and returned the same error.

# Copyright (c) Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.
set -x   #<-- here
COMMIT=$1
QUALITY=$2
DATAFOLDER=$3
SERVER_TAR_FILE_WIN=$4

shift 4

if  [[ $4 =~ ^\-\-inspect ]]; then
    INSPECT=$4
    set -x   #<-- this one was already here
    shift
fi
...

[aeschli]

@heberleh When you open a window command prompt and cd on c:\Users\henry\.vscode-insiders\extensions\ms-vscode-remote.remote-wsl-0.38.3, enterwsl.exe -d Ubuntu bash, does the WSL shell open? What's the current directory of the WSL shell?

Looks like others have that problem too: https://stackoverflow.com/questions/56609858/vscode-remote-release-and-wsl-2

[heberleh]

@aeschli Thanks again. I am coming from Ubuntu to Windows and forgot that reboot can be a solution. Rebooting solved the problem. To answer your question:

Running \.vscode-insiders\extensions\ms-vscode-remote.remote-wsl-0.38.3>wsl.exe -d Ubuntu bash

• Before reboot, the bash started in my home directory.
• After reboot, the bash started in .../extensions/ms-vscode-remote.remote-wsl-0.38.3

I have no idea how it got to that state where it was returning the wrong path. It was working yesterday and today it was not. Rebooting solved the problem. Many thanks!

[aeschli]

Thanks a lot @heberleh, looks like a WSL2 issue.
I can add code to Remote WSL to no longer rely on the current directory when running the server script.

[aeschli]

Created https://github.com/microsoft/WSL/issues/4270