[BUG] VS Code extensions are not installing

[kcpevey]

OS system and architecture in which you are running QHub

GCP

Expected behavior

• VS Code extensions should be installable by users
• python extension should be installed by default

Actual behavior

• Trying to install an extension fails

How to Reproduce the problem?

1. Attempt to install any extension from VS Code Extensions

Command output

[2022-06-28 10:07:41.756] [window] [info] [Service Worker] registered
[2022-06-28 10:07:41.892] [window] [error] ["Internal: Unable to resolve nonexistent file '/opt/conda/envs/default/share/code-server/extensions'","    at /opt/conda/envs/default/share/code-server/lib/vscode/out/vs/server/node/server.main.js:146:78919","    at async Promise.all (index 1)","    at async i.scanExtensions (/opt/conda/envs/default/share/code-server/lib/vscode/out/vs/server/node/server.main.js:146:79033)"]
[2022-06-28 10:07:41.982] [window] [error] ["Internal: Unable to resolve nonexistent file '/opt/conda/envs/default/share/code-server/extensions'","    at /opt/conda/envs/default/share/code-server/lib/vscode/out/vs/server/node/server.main.js:146:78919","    at async Promise.all (index 1)","    at async i.scanExtensions (/opt/conda/envs/default/share/code-server/lib/vscode/out/vs/server/node/server.main.js:146:79033)"]
[2022-06-28 10:07:42.257] [window] [error] Unable to resolve nonexistent file '/opt/conda/envs/default/share/code-server/extensions': Internal: Unable to resolve nonexistent file '/opt/conda/envs/default/share/code-server/extensions'
    at /opt/conda/envs/default/share/code-server/lib/vscode/out/vs/server/node/server.main.js:146:78919
    at async Promise.all (index 1)
    at async i.scanExtensions (/opt/conda/envs/default/share/code-server/lib/vscode/out/vs/server/node/server.main.js:146:79033)
[2022-06-28 10:07:45.763] [window] [error] ["Internal: Unable to resolve nonexistent file '/opt/conda/envs/default/share/code-server/extensions'","    at /opt/conda/envs/default/share/code-server/lib/vscode/out/vs/server/node/server.main.js:146:78919","    at async Promise.all (index 1)","    at async i.scanExtensions (/opt/conda/envs/default/share/code-server/lib/vscode/out/vs/server/node/server.main.js:146:79033)"]
[2022-06-28 10:07:45.945] [window] [error] ["Internal: Unable to resolve nonexistent file '/opt/conda/envs/default/share/code-server/extensions'","    at /opt/conda/envs/default/share/code-server/lib/vscode/out/vs/server/node/server.main.js:146:78919","    at async Promise.all (index 1)","    at async i.scanExtensions (/opt/conda/envs/default/share/code-server/lib/vscode/out/vs/server/node/server.main.js:146:79033)"]
[2022-06-28 10:07:46.001] [window] [error] ["Internal: Unable to resolve nonexistent file '/opt/conda/envs/default/share/code-server/extensions'","    at /opt/conda/envs/default/share/code-server/lib/vscode/out/vs/server/node/server.main.js:146:78919","    at async Promise.all (index 1)","    at async i.scanExtensions (/opt/conda/envs/default/share/code-server/lib/vscode/out/vs/server/node/server.main.js:146:79033)"]
[2022-06-28 10:07:46.030] [window] [error] Unable to resolve nonexistent file '/opt/conda/envs/default/share/code-server/extensions': Internal: Unable to resolve nonexistent file '/opt/conda/envs/default/share/code-server/extensions'
    at /opt/conda/envs/default/share/code-server/lib/vscode/out/vs/server/node/server.main.js:146:78919
    at async Promise.all (index 0)
    at async i.scanExtensions (/opt/conda/envs/default/share/code-server/lib/vscode/out/vs/server/node/server.main.js:146:79033)
[2022-06-28 10:08:07.310] [window] [error] ["Internal: Unable to resolve nonexistent file '/opt/conda/envs/default/share/code-server/extensions'","    at /opt/conda/envs/default/share/code-server/lib/vscode/out/vs/server/node/server.main.js:146:78919","    at async Promise.all (index 1)","    at async i.scanExtensions (/opt/conda/envs/default/share/code-server/lib/vscode/out/vs/server/node/server.main.js:146:79033)"]
[2022-06-28 10:08:09.031] [window] [error] ["Internal: Unable to resolve nonexistent file '/opt/conda/envs/default/share/code-server/extensions'","    at /opt/conda/envs/default/share/code-server/lib/vscode/out/vs/server/node/server.main.js:146:78919","    at async Promise.all (index 1)","    at async i.scanExtensions (/opt/conda/envs/default/share/code-server/lib/vscode/out/vs/server/node/server.main.js:146:79033)"]
[2022-06-28 10:08:16.412] [window] [error] ["Internal: Unable to resolve nonexistent file '/opt/conda/envs/default/share/code-server/extensions'","    at /opt/conda/envs/default/share/code-server/lib/vscode/out/vs/server/node/server.main.js:146:78919","    at async Promise.all (index 1)","    at async i.scanExtensions (/opt/conda/envs/default/share/code-server/lib/vscode/out/vs/server/node/server.main.js:146:79033)","    at async U.getAllDepsAndPackExtensionsToInstall (/opt/conda/envs/default/share/code-server/lib/vscode/out/vs/server/node/server.main.js:108:9171)","    at async U.installExtension (/opt/conda/envs/default/share/code-server/lib/vscode/out/vs/server/node/server.main.js:108:5108)","    at async U.installFromGallery (/opt/conda/envs/default/share/code-server/lib/vscode/out/vs/server/node/server.main.js:108:3035)"]
[2022-06-28 10:08:16.439] [window] [error] Unable to resolve nonexistent file '/opt/conda/envs/default/share/code-server/extensions': Internal: Unable to resolve nonexistent file '/opt/conda/envs/default/share/code-server/extensions'
    at /opt/conda/envs/default/share/code-server/lib/vscode/out/vs/server/node/server.main.js:146:78919
    at async Promise.all (index 1)
    at async i.scanExtensions (/opt/conda/envs/default/share/code-server/lib/vscode/out/vs/server/node/server.main.js:146:79033)
    at async U.getAllDepsAndPackExtensionsToInstall (/opt/conda/envs/default/share/code-server/lib/vscode/out/vs/server/node/server.main.js:108:9171)
    at async U.installExtension (/opt/conda/envs/default/share/code-server/lib/vscode/out/vs/server/node/server.main.js:108:5108)
    at async U.installFromGallery (/opt/conda/envs/default/share/code-server/lib/vscode/out/vs/server/node/server.main.js:108:3035)
[2022-06-28 10:08:16.526] [window] [error] Unable to resolve nonexistent file '/opt/conda/envs/default/share/code-server/extensions': Internal: Unable to resolve nonexistent file '/opt/conda/envs/default/share/code-server/extensions'
    at /opt/conda/envs/default/share/code-server/lib/vscode/out/vs/server/node/server.main.js:146:78919
    at async Promise.all (index 1)
    at async i.scanExtensions (/opt/conda/envs/default/share/code-server/lib/vscode/out/vs/server/node/server.main.js:146:79033)

• /opt/conda/envs/default/share/code-server/extensions doesn't exist.
• /opt/conda/envs/default/share/code-server/ exists, but my user doesn't have permission to create a new folder herer

### Versions and dependencies used.

_No response_

### Compute environment

GCP

### Integrations

_No response_

### Anything else?

Something may have changed recently because I think extensions used to be stored in `~/.local/share/code-server/extensions`

[viniciusdc]

I think this can be achived by seting VSCODE_EXTENSIONS env variable in the user space, and point that to /home/<user>/.local/code-server/extensions)

[trallard]

1. @kcpevey to try setting the VSCode extension env variable
2. @viniciusdc will look into a fix as well

[kcpevey]

This directory does not exist: /home/[email protected]/.local/code-server

[viniciusdc]

Hi, @kcpevey I will open a PR to try adding the env and creating the directory... were you able to test the environment in your namespace?

[kcpevey]

As far as I can tell, there is no way for me to access setting an env var in the shell where vscode is launched. I don't have permissions to edit .bashrc or .profile.

I can set an env var in a terminal, but that won't be the context from which vs code is launched.

Is there some other way to get into the context from which its launched? Actually, I don't even know where its launched from...

[viniciusdc]

Ok, so the issue is that the current way we are installing the vscode server into qhub, uses a post-build installation process during build on conda-forge (which is responsible for setting the installation path to be the same path as conda shared dir).

This will need to be moved to a future release as a proper fix will require us to re-think the installation process for the server and drop the conda package for more granularity control

[kcpevey]

Is there a workaround? This is a huge issue if users can't use vscode (the python extension isn't installed so we can't use the IDE to run/debug python)

[dharhas]

You can change the location by launching VS Code with the --extensions-dir

command-line option. Some other ways are discussed here.

[dharhas]

The default location for linux is supposed to be ~/.vscode/extensions

we might want to explicitely set both of the following:

--extensions-dir=
--user-data-dir=

[viniciusdc]

We can't pass the --extensions-dir to it because it's already set during build in here

[viniciusdc]

We can roll back to how it was implemented before as a quick shortcut (at least we know that it worked)

[trallard]

Agreed - to rollback to the previous implementation @viniciusdc and @costrouc please work on this

[viniciusdc]

Just met with @costrouc, I will soon submit a PR to fix this.

[dharhas]

@viniciusdc can we also open an issue on the conda-forge feedstock about this to start a discussion assuming long term we want to use the conda-package.

[viniciusdc]

@viniciusdc can we also open an issue on the conda-forge feedstock about this to start a discussion assuming long term we want to use the conda-package.

Hi, @dharhas I've done that already (see here), but I think that will take a while to get answered, I talked a bit with Chris this afternoon and we found a way to overlook that setting. For now, we will switch back to how we used to install code-server