Dev Containers don't work anymore: stuck on "Connecting to Dev Container: Installing server"

Discussion
1

Everything was working fine till a day or so ago with my projects + Cursor, and now opening any project with relies on dev containers is failing. The same project works perfectly fine with VS Code, so this looks like some regression…

It stays stuck on this step -

image
image948×202 16.6 KB

Looking at the logs…

Version: 0.45.4
VSCode Version: 1.96.2
Commit: d9f8a232158c173cb84b31a70a49a9689bf0f770
Date: 2025-01-26T07:23:35.719Z
Electron: 32.2.6
Chromium: 128.0.6613.186
Node.js: 20.18.1
V8: 12.8.374.38-electron.0
OS: Darwin arm64 24.2.0

[1225 ms] Start: Inspecting container
[1225 ms] Start: Run: docker inspect --type container be18af20327da44035b62ad69600c4ff0d235cce32266696a35aa0704be231c7
[1242 ms] Start: Run in container: /bin/sh
[1244 ms] Start: Run in container: uname -m
[1296 ms] aarch64
[1296 ms] 
[1296 ms] Start: Run in container: (cat /etc/os-release || cat /usr/lib/os-release) 2>/dev/null
[1298 ms] PRETTY_NAME="Debian GNU/Linux 11 (bullseye)"
NAME="Debian GNU/Linux"
VERSION_ID="11"
VERSION="11 (bullseye)"
VERSION_CODENAME=bullseye
ID=debian
HOME_URL="https://www.debian.org/"
SUPPORT_URL="https://www.debian.org/support"
BUG_REPORT_URL="https://bugs.debian.org/"
[1298 ms] 
[1298 ms] Start: Run in container:  (command -v getent >/dev/null 2>&1 && getent passwd 'root' || grep -E '^root|^[^:]*:[^:]*:root:' /etc/passwd || true)
[1299 ms] Start: Run in container: test -f '/var/devcontainer/.patchEtcEnvironmentMarker'
[1299 ms] 
[1299 ms] 
[1299 ms] Start: Run in container: test -f '/var/devcontainer/.patchEtcProfileMarker'
[1300 ms] 
[1300 ms] 
[1303 ms] Start: Run: docker inspect --type container be18af20327da44035b62ad69600c4ff0d235cce32266696a35aa0704be231c7
[1317 ms] Start: Run: docker exec -i -u root be18af20327da44035b62ad69600c4ff0d235cce32266696a35aa0704be231c7 /bin/sh -c echo "New container started. Keep-alive process started." ; export VSCODE_REMOTE_CONTAINERS_SESSION=af4d4867-e78d-4c43-954c-60f50ae5486f1738122124632 ; /bin/sh
[1319 ms] Start: Inspecting container
[1319 ms] Start: Run: docker inspect --type container be18af20327da44035b62ad69600c4ff0d235cce32266696a35aa0704be231c7
[1335 ms] Start: Run in container: /bin/sh
[1336 ms] Start: Run in container: uname -m
[1398 ms] New container started. Keep-alive process started.
[1398 ms] aarch64
[1398 ms] 
[1399 ms] Start: Run in container: (cat /etc/os-release || cat /usr/lib/os-release) 2>/dev/null
[1400 ms] PRETTY_NAME="Debian GNU/Linux 11 (bullseye)"
NAME="Debian GNU/Linux"
VERSION_ID="11"
VERSION="11 (bullseye)"
VERSION_CODENAME=bullseye
ID=debian
HOME_URL="https://www.debian.org/"
SUPPORT_URL="https://www.debian.org/support"
BUG_REPORT_URL="https://bugs.debian.org/"
[1400 ms] 
[1400 ms] Start: Run in container:  (command -v getent >/dev/null 2>&1 && getent passwd 'root' || grep -E '^root|^[^:]*:[^:]*:root:' /etc/passwd || true)
[1401 ms] Start: Run: docker compose version --short
[1449 ms] Docker Compose version: 2.29.5
[1449 ms] Start: Setup shutdown monitor
[1449 ms] Forking shutdown monitor: /Users/foo/.cursor/extensions/ms-vscode-remote.remote-containers-0.394.0/dist/shutdown/shutdownMonitorProcess /var/folders/jj/670rn_217vs_9q5y9yfxtlnw00k_x2/T/vscode-remote-containers-71929209-a1c3-4923-a14a-fe9357551bf4.sock dockerCompose Debug /Users/foo/Library/Application Support/Cursor/logs/20250128T112631/window7/exthost/ms-vscode-remote.remote-containers 1738122125230
[1451 ms] Start: Run in container: test -d '/root/.cursor-server'
[1453 ms] 
[1453 ms] 
[1453 ms] Exit code 1
[1453 ms] Start: Run in container: test -d '/root/.vscode-remote'
[1454 ms] 
[1454 ms] 
[1454 ms] Exit code 1
[1454 ms] Start: Run in container: test ! -f '/root/.cursor-server/data/Machine/.writeMachineSettingsMarker' && set -o noclobber && mkdir -p '/root/.cursor-server/data/Machine' && { > '/root/.cursor-server/data/Machine/.writeMachineSettingsMarker' ; } 2> /dev/null
[1457 ms] 
[1457 ms] 
[1457 ms] Start: Run in container: mkdir -p '/root/.cursor-server/data/Machine' && cat >'/root/.cursor-server/data/Machine/settings.json' <<'settingsJSON'
[1459 ms] 
[1459 ms] 
[1459 ms] 
Support for ARM64 is in preview.

[1459 ms] Start: Run in container: test -d '/root/.cursor-server/bin/d9f8a232158c173cb84b31a70a49a9689bf0f770'
[1460 ms] 
[1460 ms] 
[1460 ms] Exit code 1
[1460 ms] Start: Run in container: test -d '/vscode/cursor-server/bin/linux-arm64/d9f8a232158c173cb84b31a70a49a9689bf0f770'
[1461 ms] 
[1461 ms] 
[1461 ms] Exit code 1
[1462 ms] Installing VS Code Server for commit d9f8a232158c173cb84b31a70a49a9689bf0f770
[1462 ms] Start: Downloading VS Code Server
[1462 ms] d9f8a232158c173cb84b31a70a49a9689bf0f770 linux-arm64 stable
2 Likes
2

Even trying a full rebuild of the containers gets stuck on the same step:

[4243 ms] Installing VS Code Server for commit d9f8a232158c173cb84b31a70a49a9689bf0f770
[4243 ms] Start: Downloading VS Code Server
[4243 ms] d9f8a232158c173cb84b31a70a49a9689bf0f770 linux-arm64 stable
1 Like
3

Thanks for the report, and sorry you are having some issues here!
I’ll throw this to the team shortly to get back to you with more information.

4

thanks, eagerly waiting! :pray::crossed_fingers: it’s completely disrupted my week and ive had to switch back to VS Code until this is fixed.

6

any update on this?

7

fwiw it works now. That step just takes a long time and seems stuck and then after a minute or more it just continues and properly opens cursor in the container.

ms-vscode-remote.remote-containers: v0.394.0
Cursor: 0.45.10

8

Can you try to remove and reinstall the DevContainers extension, just to ensure we’ve got the right version on your machine?

9

I uninstalled Dev Containers extension and reinstalled again. Same issue. Here’s the version info of extension:

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Gets stuck on…

[1337 ms] Start: Run in container: test -d '/root/.cursor-server/bin/15746f716efa868ebac16b1675bad2714d6c27d0'
[1337 ms] 
[1337 ms] 
[1337 ms] Exit code 1
[1337 ms] Start: Run in container: test -d '/vscode/cursor-server/bin/linux-arm64/15746f716efa868ebac16b1675bad2714d6c27d0'
[1338 ms] 
[1338 ms] 
[1338 ms] Exit code 1
[1338 ms] Installing VS Code Server for commit 15746f716efa868ebac16b1675bad2714d6c27d0
[1339 ms] Start: Downloading VS Code Server
[1339 ms] 15746f716efa868ebac16b1675bad2714d6c27d0 linux-arm64 stable
10

I have also encountered the same issue, hope there will be a solution available soon :cold_sweat:

11

Hey, have you ever had DevContainers working?

If so, you might need to delete the cursor-server folder from within your container, as other users have reported that to be helpful.

12

yes, I used vscode and the DevContainers in vscode works well, so Im using vscode instead now. But I really want to use back to cursor lol. Ill give a try to the delete way, thx !