Running VSCode for Linux in WSL

[mredbishop]

I'm creating a new issue for this as the previous two got way off track talking about the windows version of VS Code from WSL.

I now have VS Code for Ubuntu installed in the Ubuntu WSL in windows at version 1.19.0-insider

To get to the point at which I am at, install an XServer for windows, I use VcXsrv with the following settings:

Then, in WSL you need at least the creators update, do the following:
Install the required libs

ed@ed-surface-book: sudo apt-get install libgtk2.0-0
ed@ed-surface-book: sudo apt-get install libxss1
ed@ed-surface-book: sudo apt-get install libasound2

Add VS Code repository

ed@ed-surface-book: curl https://packages.microsoft.com/keys/microsoft.asc | gpg --dearmor > microsoft.gpg
ed@ed-surface-book: sudo mv microsoft.gpg /etc/apt/trusted.gpg.d/microsoft.gpg
ed@ed-surface-book: sudo sh -c 'echo "deb [arch=amd64] https://packages.microsoft.com/repos/vscode stable main" > /etc/apt/sources.list.d/vscode.list'

Install VS Code Insiders (and code itself if you like)

ed@ed-surface-book: sudo apt-get update
ed@ed-surface-book: sudo apt-get install code
ed@ed-surface-book: sudo apt-get install code-insiders

Set the environmental paramaters

ed@ed-surface-book: export LIBGL_ALWAYS_INDIRECT=1
ed@ed-surface-book: export DISPLAY=0:0

NOTE At this point you need the DBUS service to be running (thanks @kinmanlam, I forgot :) ):

sudo service dbus start

Attempt to run VS Code Insiders with verbose logging so you see any issues

ed@ed-surface-book: code-insiders --verbose
[6398:1218/130534.978077:WARNING:audio_manager.cc(295)] Multiple instances of AudioManager detected
[6398:1218/130534.978163:WARNING:audio_manager.cc(254)] Multiple instances of AudioManager detected

I now have only two warnings about multiple instances of AudioManager being detected and no errors. When clicking exit in XServer, it reports that there are clients connected so VS Code seems to be attaching to the XServer instance however the app does not display in the XServer window.

As there are no further errors in the verbose output I am stuck as to where to go next to debug this, are there any other logs/output sources I can look into?

Related:
Running VS Code native in WSL
Support launching VS Code from Bash on Ubuntu on Windows

@commanderturner

[jack-guy]

@therealkenc Has done a lot of investigating on this. Two recent comments by him that shed some light on why this is happening:
#2293 (comment)
#2293 (comment)

FWIW in my time experimenting with running my own electron app on WSL, I believe I encountered the same event loop problem. Ultimately, the addition of

setInterval(() => {}, 1);

to the main process kept the event loop spinning in the background. I have no clue why that worked, however. Maybe someone could try plugging that line into a custom VSCode build to see if it works?

[khuongduybui]

Wait, so someone planned to close the issue in microsoft/vscode#13138 and link here because (s)he thought the issue had nothing to do with VSCode and instead a problem with WSL.

I followed the link here only to find out what the next step is probably a PR to Microsoft/vscode ???

[jack-guy]

@khuongduybui The one-liner I recommended would be a hack that could help verify the underlying event loop issue in running VS Code (if it even works). This is 100% a problem with WSL, as is elaborated on in the comments I linked.

[khuongduybui]

ok thanks for the clarification.

[mredbishop]

@khuongduybui Yeh sorry for not being clearer, based on what @therealkenc and @Harangue have found out, it looks like the event loop locks up on WSL where this doesn't happen in "clean" Linux.

[khuongduybui]

Guys, I just updated to 17063. Code is running now, wow!

[mredbishop]

This is awesome, check it out @commanderturner 😃

…

On Wed, 20 Dec 2017, 5:16 am Duy K. Bui, ***@***.***> wrote: Guys, I just updated to 17063. Code is running now, wow! [image: 2017-12-20] <https://user-images.githubusercontent.com/831343/34192252-eab8dbb0-e51a-11e7-9f87-acaf8a3f17f4.png> — You are receiving this because you authored the thread. Reply to this email directly, view it on GitHub <#2760 (comment)>, or mute the thread <https://github.com/notifications/unsubscribe-auth/ABC6ZaFztWNRpoGjUFRUMjUiPL7EhqTmks5tCJgXgaJpZM4RFc0F> .

[mredbishop]

Do I close this issue now or wait until it's in the mainstream release?

[WSLUser]

I think it's safe to say you can close it but @therealkenc or somebody will need to add the "fixed in insiders build" tag. Question is if the fix for this can be backported to 16299.

[NellyWhads]

Hey guys (espeically @khuongduybui ), been trying to set this up as well. Few questions:

1. When running code through WSL, (natively installed in WSL), will I be able to safely edit linux files? I know you can launch the windows-installed vscode from WSL, but this will not allow for safe editing since windows doesn't handle all of the permission setting required by linux.
2. Can someone test if this works with the regular version of VSCode (non-insiders)? If so, how'd you get it to work? I'm currently struggling with it (Windows Insiders build 17063)

[AndrewPardoe]

Thanks for all the investigation! I've verified that this works with non-insiders Code, on Windows Insider build 17063.

I'm running VCXsrv, multiwindow, no special configuration. I added the LIBGL line to my .bashrc, in addition to the DISPLAY line that's always been there. You also need to be running dbus: sudo service dbus start

export DISPLAY=0:0
LIBGL_ALWAYS_INDIRECT=1

I installed Code (non-insiders) using the commands from above:

curl https://packages.microsoft.com/keys/microsoft.asc | gpg --dearmor > microsoft.gpg
sudo mv microsoft.gpg /etc/apt/trusted.gpg.d/microsoft.gpg
sudo sh -c 'echo "deb [arch=amd64] https://packages.microsoft.com/repos/vscode stable main" > /etc/apt/sources.list.d/vscode.list'
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install code

Running Code is slow, but it works. A few times Code failed to launch completely and I had to kill it using Task Manager. As expected, it can create and edit files in your Linux paths.