VS Code Remote - Can't run 'code' command in WSL Ubuntu 18 or WSL 2 Ubuntu 20 - wrong path

Question

I'm having an issue when I try to run the code command from Visual Studio Code in WSL Ubuntu. I get the following error:

$ code .

/mnt/c/Users/Name/.vscode/extensions/ms-vscode-remote.remote-wsl-0.64.2/scripts/wslCode.sh: 63: /mnt/c/Users/Name/.vscode/extensions/ms-vscode-remote.remote-wsl-0.64.2/scripts/wslCode.sh: /home/barry/.vscode/bin/899d46d82c4c95423fb7e10e68eba52050e30ba3/bin/remote-cli/code: not found

When I run the following, it installs the VS Code Server and the command works as expected:

$ /mnt/c/Users/Name/AppData/Local/Programs/Microsoft\ VS\ Code/bin/code .

When I run which -a code, I can see I have two paths related to this command and I believe the correct one is /mnt/c/Users/Name/AppData/Local/Programs/Microsoft VS Code/bin/code, but I don't know how to remove the first one or how it even related two paths to this command in the first place?

barry@RandomName:~$ which -a code
/mnt/c/Program Files/Microsoft VS Code/bin/code
/mnt/c/Users/Name/AppData/Local/Programs/Microsoft VS Code/bin/code

Can anyone help please?

Answer 1

Ran into the same problem 5 min ago and this post from thesteve0 worked for me:

https://github.com/microsoft/vscode-remote-release/issues/6294#issuecomment-1031974516

Quoting from the original post:

1. Open VS Code on Windows
2. Open Extensions and then search on WSL
3. It should say the extension needs to be reloaded - go ahead and reload it
4. Open WSL and type code
5. This should force another upgrade of code and this time it should launch.

Answer 2

Just run Vscode normally on windows. This will load wsl extension and solve the issue.

Answer 3

I've managed to 'solve' it by creating a new Symlink to the correct directory so this one gets run first. I couldn't find a way to remove the incorrect directory so would appreciate it if someone knows a cleaner solution?

To add the Symlink, I ran ln -s /mnt/c/Users/Name/AppData/Local/Programs/Microsoft\ VS\ Code/bin/code /usr/local/bin/code

So now I have these 3 paths for the code command:

$ which -a code

/usr/local/bin/code
/mnt/c/Program Files/Microsoft VS Code/bin/code
/mnt/c/Users/Name/AppData/Local/Programs/Microsoft VS Code/bin/code

Whenever I tried to remove rm or unlink /mnt/c/Program Files/Microsoft VS Code/bin/code (with sudo), I get permission denied.

Answer 4

A simple sudo apt update -y and then rerunning code . fixed this for me.

Answer 5

Keep it simple S*upid method:

1. Download & install vscode again. link for windows

2. (Ubuntu example) apt update && yes | apt upgrade
3. Try to launch code from wsl

You should see something like:

Updating VS Code Server to version 5554b12acf27056905806867f251c859323ff7e9
Removing previous installation...
Installing VS Code Server for x64 (5554b12acf27056905806867f251c859323ff7e9)

Answer 6

In C:\Users<user>.vscode rename path ms-vscode-remote.remote-wsl- to ms-remote-wsl-old

In WSL run: code .

Answer 7

I got two versions of Visual Studio Code installed, one said "(user)". I uninstalled both and installed the newest version via winget.

That fixed it for me.

Answer 8

I have got two different versions of visual studio code installed on my PC. I have uninstalled the older version keeping the latest one. This resolved issue for me.