Remote Containers do not work with Alpine Docker images

Ryan_Hughes · January 31, 2026, 3:10am

Repro here: cursor-bug-demo/repro-alpine-bug at master · Fan-Pier-Labs/cursor-bug-demo · GitHub

It fails 100% of the time

system · January 31, 2026, 3:10am

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We detected that this may be a bug report, so we’ve moved your post to the Bug Reports category.

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Where does the bug appear (feature/product)?

Cursor IDE
Cursor CLI
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Operating System

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Version Information

For Cursor IDE: Menu → About Cursor → Copy
For Cursor CLI: Run agent about in your terminal

IDE:
Version: 2.xx.x
VSCode Version: 1.105.1
Commit: ......

CLI:
CLI Version 2026.01.17-d239e66

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Request ID: f9a7046a-279b-47e5-ab48-6e8dc12daba1
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Does this stop you from using Cursor?

Yes - Cursor is unusable
Sometimes - I can sometimes use Cursor
No - Cursor works, but with this issue

The more details you provide, the easier it is for us to reproduce and fix the issue. Thanks!

deanrie · January 31, 2026, 9:33am

Hey, thanks for the report. Alpine Linux does have a few specific requirements when using Remote Containers in Cursor.

I’ll need a bit more info to debug this:

Cursor version: Cursor Settings → About → Copy
Error logs: Open the Output panel CMD/CTRL + Shift + U → pick Dev Containers in the dropdown → copy the errors you see when you try to open the devcontainer
Architecture: x64 or ARM64?
devcontainer.json: can you share your config?

Context: Alpine support was added in May 2025, but there are some requirements:

Inside the Alpine image, you need these installed: bash, libstdc++, wget
On ARM64 Alpine, there have been issues with the Cursor Agent because of musl vs glibc: Cursor Agent: node: fcntl64: symbol not foundA

For now, please send the logs. That’ll help confirm whether this is a server download issue or something else.

Ryan_Hughes · February 1, 2026, 6:11pm

Version: 2.4.23

VSCode Version: 1.105.1

Commit: 379934e04d2b3290cf7aefa14560f942e4212920

Date: 2026-01-29T21:24:23.350Z (2 days ago)

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: Darwin arm64 25.2.0

ARM64 both for the Macbook and for the dev container.

repro dir is here: (github (dot) com / fan-pier-labs / cursor-bug-demo/tree/master/repro-alpine-bug )

sounds good. I don’t actually need Alpine support for anything. I just noticed it didn’t work, so I figured I’d let you know. you can reproduce this error 100% of the time by opening up the repro repo I have on GitHub.

Ryan_Hughes · February 1, 2026, 6:12pm

You should be able to reproduce it on your end so you can get the logs there. If you can’t reproduce it on your end for some reason, let me know.

thomasvargiu · February 17, 2026, 6:02pm

Having the same issue using this simple Dockerfile for the dev container:

FROM node:22-alpine

I see this error:

2026-02-17 18:39:10.887 [info] Spawned process 69602: 'docker' 'exec' '-i' 'fe676f8875b64fcfa4ddb534b7d82ae1d83e4b30bc043a5ced005084e9b7cb4d' 'bash' '-c' 'cat | (base64 -d 2>/dev/null || base64 -D || true) | bash'
2026-02-17 18:39:10.887 [info] Installing server...
2026-02-17 18:39:10.928 [info] [server install] stdout: OCI runtime exec failed: exec failed: unable to start container process: exec: "bash": executable file not found in $PATH

2026-02-17 18:39:10.929 [info] [server install]: exit
2026-02-17 18:39:10.929 [info] Finished installing remote server in container. Parsing output...
2026-02-17 18:39:10.929 [info] Result map: undefined
2026-02-17 18:39:10.929 [error] Failed to install remote server in container: Error: Failed to install the Cursor Server. Please check the logs for more details.
2026-02-17 18:39:10.930 [error] Error resolving dev container authority Failed to install the Cursor Server. Please check the logs for more details.

Installing bash it works:

FROM node:22-alpine
RUN apk add --no-cache bash

But again, installing libc6-compat it doesn’t work anymore:

FROM node:22-alpine
RUN apk add --no-cache bash libc6-compat

2026-02-17 18:43:39.802 [info] [devcontainer run-user-commands]: {"type":"start","level":2,"timestamp":1771350219732,"text":"Run in container: /bin/sh -lic echo -n ea955681-98c8-4acb-9afb-e470f7793281; cat /proc/self/environ; echo -n ea955681-98c8-4acb-9afb-e470f7793281"}
2026-02-17 18:43:39.802 [info] [devcontainer run-user-commands]: {"type":"start","level":2,"timestamp":1771350219733,"text":"Run in container: mkdir -p '/root/.devcontainer' && CONTENT=\"$(cat '/root/.devcontainer/.onCreateCommandMarker' 2>/dev/null || echo ENOENT)\" && [ \"${CONTENT:-2026-02-17T17:43:29.167507793Z}\" != '2026-02-17T17:43:29.167507793Z' ] && echo '2026-02-17T17:43:29.167507793Z' > '/root/.devcontainer/.onCreateCommandMarker'"}
2026-02-17 18:43:39.802 [info] [devcontainer run-user-commands]: {"type":"text","level":2,"timestamp":1771350219735,"text":""}
2026-02-17 18:43:39.802 [info] [devcontainer run-user-commands]: {"type":"text","level":2,"timestamp":1771350219735,"text":""}
2026-02-17 18:43:39.802 [info] [devcontainer run-user-commands]: {"type":"text","level":2,"timestamp":1771350219735,"text":"Exit code 1"}
2026-02-17 18:43:39.802 [info] [devcontainer run-user-commands]: {"type":"stop","level":2,"timestamp":1771350219735,"text":"Run in container: mkdir -p '/root/.devcontainer' && CONTENT=\"$(cat '/root/.devcontainer/.onCreateCommandMarker' 2>/dev/null || echo ENOENT)\" && [ \"${CONTENT:-2026-02-17T17:43:29.167507793Z}\" != '2026-02-17T17:43:29.167507793Z' ] && echo '2026-02-17T17:43:29.167507793Z' > '/root/.devcontainer/.onCreateCommandMarker'","startTimestamp":1771350219733}
2026-02-17 18:43:39.802 [info] [devcontainer run-user-commands]: {"type":"start","level":2,"timestamp":1771350219735,"text":"Run in container: mkdir -p '/root/.devcontainer' && CONTENT=\"$(cat '/root/.devcontainer/.updateContentCommandMarker' 2>/dev/null || echo ENOENT)\" && [ \"${CONTENT:-2026-02-17T17:43:29.167507793Z}\" != '2026-02-17T17:43:29.167507793Z' ] && echo '2026-02-17T17:43:29.167507793Z' > '/root/.devcontainer/.updateContentCommandMarker'"}
2026-02-17 18:43:39.802 [info] [devcontainer run-user-commands]: {"type":"text","level":2,"timestamp":1771350219736,"text":""}
2026-02-17 18:43:39.802 [info] [devcontainer run-user-commands]: {"type":"text","level":2,"timestamp":1771350219736,"text":""}
2026-02-17 18:43:39.802 [info] [devcontainer run-user-commands]: {"type":"text","level":2,"timestamp":1771350219736,"text":"Exit code 1"}
2026-02-17 18:43:39.802 [info] [devcontainer run-user-commands]: {"type":"stop","level":2,"timestamp":1771350219736,"text":"Run in container: mkdir -p '/root/.devcontainer' && CONTENT=\"$(cat '/root/.devcontainer/.updateContentCommandMarker' 2>/dev/null || echo ENOENT)\" && [ \"${CONTENT:-2026-02-17T17:43:29.167507793Z}\" != '2026-02-17T17:43:29.167507793Z' ] && echo '2026-02-17T17:43:29.167507793Z' > '/root/.devcontainer/.updateContentCommandMarker'","startTimestamp":1771350219735}
2026-02-17 18:43:39.802 [info] [devcontainer run-user-commands]: {"type":"start","level":2,"timestamp":1771350219736,"text":"Run in container: mkdir -p '/root/.devcontainer' && CONTENT=\"$(cat '/root/.devcontainer/.postCreateCommandMarker' 2>/dev/null || echo ENOENT)\" && [ \"${CONTENT:-2026-02-17T17:43:29.167507793Z}\" != '2026-02-17T17:43:29.167507793Z' ] && echo '2026-02-17T17:43:29.167507793Z' > '/root/.devcontainer/.postCreateCommandMarker'"}
2026-02-17 18:43:39.802 [info] [devcontainer run-user-commands]: {"type":"text","level":2,"timestamp":1771350219738,"text":""}
2026-02-17 18:43:39.802 [info] [devcontainer run-user-commands]: {"type":"text","level":2,"timestamp":1771350219738,"text":""}
2026-02-17 18:43:39.802 [info] [devcontainer run-user-commands]: {"type":"text","level":2,"timestamp":1771350219738,"text":"Exit code 1"}
2026-02-17 18:43:39.802 [info] [devcontainer run-user-commands]: {"type":"stop","level":2,"timestamp":1771350219738,"text":"Run in container: mkdir -p '/root/.devcontainer' && CONTENT=\"$(cat '/root/.devcontainer/.postCreateCommandMarker' 2>/dev/null || echo ENOENT)\" && [ \"${CONTENT:-2026-02-17T17:43:29.167507793Z}\" != '2026-02-17T17:43:29.167507793Z' ] && echo '2026-02-17T17:43:29.167507793Z' > '/root/.devcontainer/.postCreateCommandMarker'","startTimestamp":1771350219736}
2026-02-17 18:43:39.802 [info] [devcontainer run-user-commands]: {"type":"start","level":2,"timestamp":1771350219738,"text":"Run in container: mkdir -p '/root/.devcontainer' && CONTENT=\"$(cat '/root/.devcontainer/.postStartCommandMarker' 2>/dev/null || echo ENOENT)\" && [ \"${CONTENT:-2026-02-17T17:43:29.251862717Z}\" != '2026-02-17T17:43:29.251862717Z' ] && echo '2026-02-17T17:43:29.251862717Z' > '/root/.devcontainer/.postStartCommandMarker'"}
2026-02-17 18:43:39.802 [info] [devcontainer run-user-commands]: {"type":"text","level":2,"timestamp":1771350219740,"text":""}
2026-02-17 18:43:39.802 [info] [devcontainer run-user-commands]: {"type":"text","level":2,"timestamp":1771350219740,"text":""}
2026-02-17 18:43:39.802 [info] [devcontainer run-user-commands]: {"type":"text","level":2,"timestamp":1771350219740,"text":"Exit code 1"}
2026-02-17 18:43:39.802 [info] [devcontainer run-user-commands]: {"type":"stop","level":2,"timestamp":1771350219740,"text":"Run in container: mkdir -p '/root/.devcontainer' && CONTENT=\"$(cat '/root/.devcontainer/.postStartCommandMarker' 2>/dev/null || echo ENOENT)\" && [ \"${CONTENT:-2026-02-17T17:43:29.251862717Z}\" != '2026-02-17T17:43:29.251862717Z' ] && echo '2026-02-17T17:43:29.251862717Z' > '/root/.devcontainer/.postStartCommandMarker'","startTimestamp":1771350219738}
2026-02-17 18:43:39.802 [info] [devcontainer run-user-commands][stdout]: {"outcome":"success","result":"done"}

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Remote Containers do not work with Alpine Docker images

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