Launching with devcontainer failed to install cursor-server

Where does the bug appear (feature/product)?

Cursor IDE

Describe the Bug

While trying to launch Cursor on devcontainer, cursor fails to install cursor remote server and the errors are not enough. All works fine with VSCode.
Some logs:

2026-02-10 10:58:00.426 [info] Finished installing remote server in container. Parsing output...
2026-02-10 10:58:00.426 [info] Result map: undefined
2026-02-10 10:58:00.426 [error] Failed to install remote server in container: Error: Failed to install the Cursor Server. Please check the logs for more details.
2026-02-10 10:58:00.440 [info] Downloading cursor server locally and copying into container

Later while trying to install from copied server:

2026-02-10 10:58:16.049 [info] Installing server...
2026-02-10 10:58:17.448 [info] [server install]: exit
2026-02-10 10:58:17.448 [info] Finished installing remote server in container. Parsing output...
2026-02-10 10:58:17.448 [info] Result map: undefined
2026-02-10 10:58:17.448 [error] Failed to install remote server in container: Error: Failed to install the Cursor Server. Please check the logs for more details.
2026-02-10 10:58:17.449 [error] Error resolving dev container authority Failed to install the Cursor Server. Please check the logs for more details.

Steps to Reproduce

  1. Open Cursor from a project with .devcontainer setup on WSL.
  2. When prompted, choose “Reopen with devcontainer”.

Expected Behavior

Cursor should launch on devcontainer like in VSCode.

Operating System

Linux

Version Information

Version: 2.4.32 (user setup)
VSCode Version: 1.105.1
Commit: dac77182205e080f83e43f13ee42d822740a6e10
Date: 2026-02-09T05:01:38.814Z
Build Type: Stable
Release Track: Default
Electron: 39.2.7
Chromium: 142.0.7444.235
Node.js: 22.21.1
V8: 14.2.231.21-electron.0
OS: Windows_NT x64 10.0.26100

Does this stop you from using Cursor

Yes - Cursor is unusable

Hey, thanks for the report. This is a known issue with Dev Containers on WSL.

First thing to check is which Dev Containers extension you have installed. Open the Extensions panel and search for remote-containers. You need anysphere.remote-containers, not ms-vscode-remote.remote-containers. If you have the Microsoft one installed, uninstall it and install the Anysphere one instead. This helped in a very similar case: Cursor hangs after container start when using Dev Containers (WSL).

If you already have the Anysphere extension, can you share the full Dev Containers logs?

  • View > Output > select “Dev Containers” in the dropdown

The Result map: undefined error in the logs is a known issue the team is working on. Your report will help with prioritization.

Remote_Dev_Containers.txt (82.4 KB)

Hi, Thanks for the reply and I am using anysphere.remote-containers. Logs are attached to this reply.

In my case this solved the problem:
Dev Containers: Rebuild Without Cache and Reopen in Container

1 Like

Thanks for the suggestion. Tried it and still the same error. It may boil down to how Cursor handles the VPN on WSL.

Hello @deanrie , Is there any new work around for the issue? Thanks.

Hey! The Result map: undefined error is a known issue and it’s already been reported to the team. There isn’t a fix yet.

You mentioned it might be related to VPN in WSL. Please try this:

  1. Temporarily turn off your VPN and try opening the devcontainer again. This will confirm whether the VPN is blocking cursor-server from downloading inside the container.
  2. Update Cursor to the latest version (at the time you reached out you were on 2.4.32). There have been several devcontainer fixes since then.
  3. If you can’t turn off the VPN, try setting up a proxy inside the container. Add this to devcontainer.json:
    "remoteEnv": {
      "HTTP_PROXY": "your-proxy-url",
      "HTTPS_PROXY": "your-proxy-url"
    }
    

One more thing: in Cursor settings CTRL + , search for “HTTP/2” and enable Disable HTTP/2. Some VPN or proxy setups don’t work well with HTTP/2 connections.

Let me know how it goes, especially the VPN test. That’ll help narrow down the cause.

Thanks Dean for the reply. Still stuck with the same error.

  1. Unfortunately I cant turn off the VPN.
  2. Here is my version
    Version: 2.5.20 (user setup)
    VSCode Version: 1.105.1
    Commit: 511523af765daeb1fa69500ab0df5b6524424610
    Date: 2026-02-19T20:41:31.942Z
    Build Type: Stable
    Release Track: Default
    Electron: 39.4.0
    Chromium: 142.0.7444.265
    Node.js: 22.22.0
    V8: 14.2.231.22-electron.0
    OS: Windows_NT x64 10.0.26100
  3. Also tried to update the proxy entries in devcontainer.json.
  4. Both HTTP/2 and HTTP/1.1 gave out the same error. Checked also Network Diagnostics before launching.

I see none of the suggested options worked. Let’s try a couple more things to pinpoint where the block is.

  1. Open a terminal inside WSL and check if the container can reach Cursor’s servers at all. Run this inside the container (if you can get a shell):

    curl -v https://cursor.sh
    curl -v https://api2.cursor.sh
    

    If curl fails, it likely means your VPN or proxy is blocking traffic specifically from inside the container.

  2. Also try setting DNS explicitly. Add this to your devcontainer.json:

    "runArgs": ["--dns=8.8.8.8", "--dns=1.1.1.1"]
    
  3. Another option is to add proxy env vars directly in the Dockerfile or docker-compose, not only via remoteEnv, because remoteEnv is applied after the server install attempt. The proxy needs to be available during build and install:

    ENV HTTP_PROXY=your-proxy-url
    ENV HTTPS_PROXY=your-proxy-url
    
  4. Please share fresh logs from View > Output > Dev Containers (right after a failed attempt on 2.5.20). It’s important to see the full output, including everything before Result map: undefined.

Let me know if this helps.

Hello @deanrie Thanks. Still at square 1. And sorry for quick updates.

  1. curl works and exits with 0.
  2. Added this to devcontainer.json. Still the same error.
  3. Also modified Dockerfile to have this ENV parameter. No changes.
  4. Sorry. Have no time to encrypt the log file.

Since curl is running inside the container, this most likely isn’t a network issue at all. It points to a parsing error in the server install script itself.

Here’s what I’d try. Instead of Reopen in Container, start the container manually (docker compose up, or whatever your project uses), then open the Command Palette and choose Dev Containers: Attach to Running Container. This skips the automatic server install step that’s currently failing.

About the logs, I get that you don’t have time to share the whole file, but even a quick paste of about 20 lines right before Result map: undefined would help a lot. That part shows what the install script printed or didn’t print, and it usually shouldn’t include anything sensitive. It’s mostly download URLs and file paths.

Also, what base image is your devcontainer using, for example mcr.microsoft.com/devcontainers/base:ubuntu or something custom? That could matter for figuring out why the parsing is failing.

Hi @deanrie
Thanks again. Just to note, now this issue is officially raised to Cursor from my enterprise and some one is looking into it.
Tried attaching to existing container that was created by vscode:

2026-02-23 18:41:59.397 \[info\] Installing server...
2026-02-23 18:42:00.948 \[info\] \[server install\] stdout: unable to find user ${localEnv: no matching entries in passwd file
2026-02-23 18:42:00.958 \[info\] \[server install\]: exit
2026-02-23 18:42:00.959 \[info\] Finished installing remote server in container. Parsing output...
2026-02-23 18:42:00.959 \[info\] Result map: undefined
2026-02-23 18:42:00.959 **\[error\]** Failed to install remote server in container: **Error**: Failed to install the Cursor Server. Please check the logs for more details.
2026-02-23 18:42:00.974 \[info\] Downloading cursor server locally and copying into container
2026-02-23 18:42:00.975 \[info\] \[uname -m\]: Running command: docker
2026-02-23 18:42:02.509 **\[error\]** \[uname -m\]: Running command: docker
2026-02-23 18:42:02.509 **\[error\]** Failed to install remote server in container: **Error**: Failed to determine container architecture: **Error**: \[uname -m\] Command failed with exit code 126: stdout: unable to find user ${localEnv: no matching entries in passwd file
2026-02-23 18:42:02.510 **\[error\]** **Error** resolving dev container authority Failed to determine container architecture: **Error**: \[uname -m\] Command failed with exit code 126: stdout: unable to find user ${localEnv: no matching entries in passwd file

Also please find the logs from previous failure as attachment.
23_02_2026_devcontainer_wsl.txt (237.4 KB)

1 Like

Facing a similar issue here since 1.0.14.

1.0.13 is the last usable version of the DevContainers extension to me here, and only with this one am I able to use a devcontainer, be it through Reopen in DevContainer or Attach to Running Container.

Same issue here. Whether the container is freshly created or I am attaching to an existing one created by vscode, the issue is the same. docker is working because the container is fully created from the .devcontainer settings. I can

ls /tmp/cursor-server-4f2d52b0-4254-465c-8435-c32b845c5284.tar.gz

see the file and untar it by hand.

2026-03-14 21:07:43.042 [info] Downloaded server onto intermediate server at /tmp/cursor-server-58014a65-460c-409b-8064-e96d76257a60.tar.gz 
2026-03-14 21:07:43.042 [info] Copying file from /tmp/cursor-server-58014a65-460c-409b-8064-e96d76257a60.tar.gz to container 3c4f2677b384ef6cd0cd2d4de0da943fea38c07cd6f3f04bdf199883bcf7fffb:/tmp/cursor-server-4f2d52b0-4254-465c-8435-c32b845c5284.tar.gz 
2026-03-14 21:07:44.362 [info] Successfully copied file to container at /tmp/cursor-server-4f2d52b0-4254-465c-8435-c32b845c5284.tar.gz 
2026-03-14 21:07:44.362 [info] Copied server into container at: /tmp/cursor-server-4f2d52b0-4254-465c-8435-c32b845c5284.tar.gz 
2026-03-14 21:07:44.856 [info] Install options: {…}
2026-03-14 21:07:44.856 [info] Installing server… 
2026-03-14 21:07:46.158 [info] [server install]: exit 
2026-03-14 21:07:46.159 [info] Finished installing remote server in container. Parsing output… 
2026-03-14 21:07:46.159 [info] Result map: undefined 
2026-03-14 21:07:46.159 [error] Failed to install remote server in container: Error: Failed to install the Cursor Server. Please check the logs for more details. 
2026-03-14 21:07:46.160 [error] Error resolving dev container authority Failed to install the Cursor Server. Please check the logs for more details.