IDE fails to launch and C / C++ intellisense stops working frequently in WSL

Bug Reports
1

Describe the Bug

Hello,
I am using a cursor pro account with my primary operating system as windows.
I have a WSL2 Ubuntu 20.04 VM running on my windows where I usually do my linux related development work. I notice that after some continuous usage of around 1-2 months cursor’s IDE fails to launch from the WSL terminal. I am able to launch the IDE in windows and that seems to be working correctly.
After this I have to re-install the IDE after removing it manually.
Once re-installed, intellisense stops working. Autocomplete, chat and other features work fine but basic IDE features like file indexing and navigating to variable and function definitions do not work at all. I see that the IDE keeps on updating itself automatically after approximately 2-3 weeks of usage so it seems that the latest update is creating issues for me.

I have tried uninstalling and re-installing the IDE and all its extensions from my Windows and WSL machines but still the intellisense doesn’t work.

Steps to Reproduce

I did not do anything specific for this bug to occur. I am just launching the IDE from my WSL terminal and after some time it simply doesn’t launch. After re-installing the intellisense is not working.

Operating System

Windows 10/11
Linux

Current Cursor Version (Menu → About Cursor → Copy)

Version: 1.1.3 (user setup)
VSCode Version: 1.96.2
Commit: 979ba33804ac150108481c14e0b5cb970bda3260
Date: 2025-06-15T06:55:04.603Z
Electron: 34.5.1
Chromium: 132.0.6834.210
Node.js: 20.19.0
V8: 13.2.152.41-electron.0
OS: Windows_NT x64 10.0.26100

Does this stop you from using Cursor

Yes - Cursor is unusable

2

Hi @mmurty, if you’re using the Anysphere C++ extension, that uses clangd under the hood for the language server. You’ll need to configure the build tool (e.g. CMake) to output a compile_commands.json. Unfortunately, we are unable to support the VSCode Cpp intellisense (which uses the c_cpp_properites.json for configuration), as that is only compatible for VSCode.

Please see this thread: Intellisense disabled in new C++ extension

3

It seems installing clangd is the solution.
I installed it using the pop-up the IDE gives when started for the first time.
Thanks for your help.
This should be made mandatory by the IDE somehow by showing some warnings or other methods as no one can figure it out on their own.
Again Thanks.

5

Glad its working now, and thank you for the feedback. We are looking at how to make this transition from intellisense to clangd easier.

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