Cannot install extension on remote server

[cross-cisco]

Type: Bug

I am running VS Code 1.96.0 on a Mac, MacOS Sequoia 15.1.1, Darwin 24.1.0.
I have installed the Remote Development and Remote-SSH extensions, which work well for allowing me to edit files on a remote linux server. However, when I open the extensions panel, it shows no extensions installed on the server, and if I try to install an extension on the remote using the button on the info panel for the extension, it reports "Installing" forever.

The javascript console is reporting errors about non-existent files (on my Mac) inside of User/globalStorage that appear not to exist. I'm not sure why it's looking for extension data there.

But, assuming that error message is not the problem, there is some other problem I'm not able to see. The "Remote - SSH" Output view shows the extension copied into data/CachedExetnsionVSIXs/UUID, and then reports "Installing extension:" and a JSON block. But, then it just sits.

Extension version: 0.116.1
VS Code version: Code 1.96.0 (Universal) (138f619c86f1199955d53b4166bef66ef252935c, 2024-12-11T02:29:09.626Z)
OS version: Darwin x64 24.1.0
Modes:
Remote OS version: Linux x64 6.8.0-49-generic

System Info

Item	Value
CPUs	Intel(R) Core(TM) i9-9980HK CPU @ 2.40GHz (16 x 2400)
GPU Status	2d_canvas: enabled canvas_oop_rasterization: disabled_off direct_rendering_display_compositor: disabled_off_ok gpu_compositing: enabled multiple_raster_threads: enabled_on opengl: enabled_on rasterization: enabled raw_draw: disabled_off_ok skia_graphite: disabled_off video_decode: enabled video_encode: enabled webgl: enabled webgl2: enabled webgpu: enabled webnn: disabled_off
Load (avg)	5, 4, 4
Memory (System)	64.00GB (9.91GB free)
Process Argv	--crash-reporter-id 88d235c0-e2c1-4cbe-ba66-704cda98c861
Screen Reader	no
VM	0%

Item	Value
Remote	SSH: aced-build2.cisco.com
OS	Linux x64 6.8.0-49-generic
CPUs	Intel(R) Xeon(R) CPU E5-2670 v3 @ 2.30GHz (48 x 1200)
Memory (System)	377.77GB (370.69GB free)
VM	0%

A/B Experiments

vsliv368:30146709
vspor879:30202332
vspor708:30202333
vspor363:30204092
vscod805cf:30301675
binariesv615:30325510
vsaa593:30376534
py29gd2263:31024239
vscaat:30438848
c4g48928:30535728
azure-dev_surveyone:30548225
a9j8j154:30646983
962ge761:30959799
pythonnoceb:30805159
pythonmypyd1:30879173
h48ei257:31000450
pythontbext0:30879054
cppperfnew:31000557
dsvsc020:30976470
pythonait:31006305
dsvsc021:30996838
dvdeprecation:31068756
dwnewjupytercf:31046870
newcmakeconfigv2:31071590
nativerepl1:31139838
pythonrstrctxt:31112756
nativeloc1:31192215
cf971741:31144450
iacca1:31171482
notype1:31157159
5fd0e150:31155592
dwcopilot:31170013
stablechunks:31184530
6074i472:31201624

[joshspicer]

Thank you for taking the time to open an issue. Could you please share your logs (> Remote-SSH: Show Log in the command palette to open in the Output panel) after reproducing the issue? Also please share your "remote extension host" and "window" logs from the same Output panel

[cross-cisco]

Thank you. Okay, I opened VS Code with the prior window being a remote-ssh to the given host. It establishes the connection, many processes are running on the server, and the client seems idle.
A few minutes later, I clicked on the "Extensions" icon in the left sidebar. The sidebar showed local extensions, and an empty divider for the server with 0 extensions. There was an ongoing cylon at the top of that side panel. I'm guessing it's unable to get the list of extensions from the server and is trying at that point? After about a minute of watching it do nothing, I dumped the logs.

Second document is the two Output windows you requested.

remote-ssh-show-log.txt
Output-windows.txt

[cross-cisco]

Is there anything else I can provide? Any suggestions for a workaround? I would like to use Copilot with my remote-ssh project(s).

[joshspicer]

Do these workaround steps work? #10578

[cross-cisco]

Do these workaround steps work? #10578

No. I don't see any extensions in the remote, so I can't disable or reenable them as that workaround specific to Copilot Chat suggests.

[joshspicer]

Ok, thanks for looking. I saw "Copilot" in your response but I see now that wouldn't have helped in your scenario.

Do you have another SSH remote (maybe on your home network?) you can try to see if the issue repros? Is your remote a work machine that may have some firewall or network restrictions in place?

We might get more logging in the Remote - SHH output channel if you add an extension to the 'defaultExtensions' setting. Could you try that?

Finally, mind having a look in the other Output channel logs and sharing anything that could look related? In the command palette you can boost your "log level" up to "trace" so that more is emitted. I expected "remote extension host" or "window" to be the right places, but perhaps the issue could be found elsewhere?

cc/ @deepak1556 or @connor4312, do you have any tips you could share with me on debugging this?

[connor4312]

There's an existing bug (fixed in the release ~10 minutes from now) that fixes copilot not working on remotes microsoft/vscode#236537

[joshspicer]

@connor4312 from the sounds of what @cross-cisco is sharing this isn't the same issue.

That said, @cross-cisco please do try out the new build and let us know in case it was a different repro with the same root cause 🙏

[cross-cisco]

It's not specific to copilot. There are no extensions on the remote, according to my local VSCode, and I can't install any.
On a related note, a new update to VS Code seems to be available, and this same remote server is having no luck getting it. It's just been saying "Downloading VS Code Server..." for 10 minutes now, and I can see an empty cli/servers/Stable-fabdb6a30b49f79a7aba0f2ad9df9b399473380f.staging in my .vscode-server space.

Let me know where I can get data to help. nb, I see
[16:16:09.413] [server] Installing and setting up Visual Studio Code Server...
in the "Remote - SSH" Output, and I see multiple occurrences of
2024-12-19 16:16:08.593 [warning] Shell integration cannot be enabled for executable "/bin/sh" ...
in the Pty Host output window. However the last one of these (above) is for the "connected, do not close" then print a space every 3 minutes. And, I can see that message and the incoming space characters in my Terminal pane. So it is clearly running despite the "shell integration cannot be enabled" message.

[joshspicer]

Thanks for bearing with us. Could you check the output from the 'Server' tab after attempting to install an extension. For example, this is what I see when connected to a remote and installing a random extension:

[cross-cisco]

Right now I cannot. I am stuck at the other, possibly related, issue where the update to Visual Studio code won't install. (I also don't see "Server" in my output list, but that may just be because I'm earlier in the process.)

[cross-cisco]

Right now I cannot. I am stuck at the other, possibly related, issue where the update to Visual Studio code won't install.

I have in the past found that I can copy the updated VSCode from another system where it will install correctly. But I don't want to use that workaround and bypass the opportunity to diagnose this problem.

[cross-cisco]

Okay. I've turned off "Exec Server" in the Remote SSH settings, and now it is able to update the server installion on the remote host. However, I still see no extensions listed, and installing one continues to just appear stuck.
Let me know what to try next @joshspicer

[cross-cisco]

Let me know what information I can provide. I am able to use the remote-ssh connection to my server, however it still shows no extensions installed. I have a little clock-face icon laid over the extensions icon in the far left, and an ingoing cylon at the top of the sidebar.

[joshspicer]

Apologies for the delay, I understand you want this resolved. @deepak1556 perhaps you have some idea of how to capture extension installation logs? @cross-cisco is sharing that they do not have the 'server' tab in their output window, and i'm not sure why that is

[cross-cisco]

I'm not sure why I didn't see it earlier, but I do have "Server" output in "OUTPUT" now. Attached.

The files mentioned in the above are as follows:

cross@aced-build2 /data/cr/p/srcdir ❯ ls -lA /users/cross2/.vscode-server/data/CachedExtensionVSIXs/4404961b-478a-4324-a8b9-f7adf876f69a
-rw-r--r-- 1 cross2 eng 15199501 Jan 21 11:08 /users/cross2/.vscode-server/data/CachedExtensionVSIXs/4404961b-478a-4324-a8b9-f7adf876f69a
cross@aced-build2 /data/cr/p/srcdir ❯ ls -l /users/cross2/.vscode-server/extensions/extensions.json
-rw-r--r-- 1 cross2 eng 1426 Oct 31 11:00 /users/cross2/.vscode-server/extensions/extensions.json
cross@aced-build2 /data/cr/p/srcdir ❯ 

Noting:

• No extensions listed on the remote server
• The mark in the bar under "EXTENSIONS" at the top of the left sidebar continues to cylon, moving left-to-right forever.

[cross-cisco]

Checking in. I am still seeing this same behavior. When I open the remote SSH connection to my Linux servers, even before opening any directories to look at a project, the EXTENSIONS tab shows an ever-moving cylon at the top, locally installed extensions (LOCAL - INSTALLED), and nothing in either the "SSH: servername - INSTALLED" or "RECOMMENDED" sections.

What else can I try?

[cross-cisco]

Hmm. Looking through the various output windows, I see a couple of things

1. There are at least some extensions on the remote server because the "Extension Host (Remote)" output window contains:

2025-01-30 16:10:25.603 [info] Extension host with pid 2836256 started
2025-01-30 16:10:25.723 [info] ExtensionService#_doActivateExtension vscode.git-base, startup: true, activationEvent: '*', root cause: vscode.git
2025-01-30 16:10:25.725 [info] ExtensionService#_doActivateExtension mjcrouch.perforce, startup: true, activationEvent: '*'
2025-01-30 16:10:25.874 [info] ExtensionService#_doActivateExtension vscode.git, startup: true, activationEvent: '*'
2025-01-30 16:10:25.874 [info] ExtensionService#_doActivateExtension vscode.github, startup: true, activationEvent: '*'
2025-01-30 16:10:27.056 [info] Eager extensions activated
2025-01-30 16:10:27.056 [info] ExtensionService#_doActivateExtension vscode.debug-auto-launch, startup: false, activationEvent: 'onStartupFinished'
2025-01-30 16:10:27.057 [info] ExtensionService#_doActivateExtension vscode.merge-conflict, startup: false, activationEvent: 'onStartupFinished'
2025-01-30 16:10:27.935 [info] ExtensionService#_doActivateExtension vscode.emmet, startup: false, activationEvent: 'onLanguage'

2. There are a bunch of 2025-01-30 16:10:23.238 [warning] Shell integration cannot be enabled for executable "/bin/sh" and args ["-c","wget --version > /dev/null\nif [ $? -eq 0 ]\nthen\n\twget --no-config --[...] type of messages in "Pty Host (Remote)" console. I'm not sure if those are normal? They do all seem to be "metadata from cloud service" type requests and my server is not in a cloud.
3. "Main" console shows the following. Is that last [error] a real problem?

2025-01-30 16:08:19.670 [info] update#setState idle
2025-01-30 16:08:45.877 [info] Extension host with pid 22822 exited with code: 0, signal: unknown.
2025-01-30 16:08:49.442 [info] update#setState checking for updates
2025-01-30 16:08:49.745 [info] update#setState idle
2025-01-30 16:10:07.173 [info] Extension host with pid 23450 exited with code: 0, signal: unknown.
2025-01-30 16:13:55.243 [info] Extension host with pid 23008 exited with code: 0, signal: unknown.
2025-01-30 16:13:55.388 [error] Blocked vscode-file request vscode-file://vscode-app/Applications/Visual%20Studio%20Code.app/Contents/Resources/app/out/vs/workbench/contrib/output/common/outputLinkComputerMain.js#OutputLinkDetectionWorker

4. "Server" output text shows the following. (It's now 16:24 in my local time) I find that 5-minute gap interesting. Maybe not important, but I thought it was worth noting.

2025-01-30 16:10:15.605 [info] 




2025-01-30 16:10:15.852 [info] Extension host agent started.
2025-01-30 16:10:17.009 [info] [<unknown>][07c90ac5][ManagementConnection] New connection established.
2025-01-30 16:10:17.046 [info] [<unknown>][893b8f06][ExtensionHostConnection] New connection established.
2025-01-30 16:10:23.002 [info] [<unknown>][893b8f06][ExtensionHostConnection] <2836256> Launched Extension Host Process.
2025-01-30 16:15:15.853 [info] New EH opened, aborting shutdown

Anyway. As noted, this is all just on connect without opening a folder on the remote. Most of what I'd recorded in earlier comments/data was after looking into my workspaces. This all shows up just after connecting, so it's not likely related to my workspaces on the remote.

Thanks for your efforts.