Remote SSH connection fails with “Failed to install server within the timeout”

Bug Reports
1

Where does the bug appear (feature/product)?

Cursor IDE

Describe the Bug

I’m encountering an issue when connecting to a remote host via SSH in Cursor. The connection process starts but the installation of the remote server never finishes and times out after about 30 seconds.

[info] Resolving ssh remote authority '<hostname>'
[info] Waiting for server to install. Timeout: 30000ms
[info] (ssh_tunnel) stderr: /home/<user>/.bashrc: line 99: bind: warning: line editing not enabled
[error] Error installing server: Failed to install server within the timeout
[error] Error resolving SSH authority Failed to install server within the timeout

Steps to Reproduce

Open Cursor.

Use the Remote SSH feature to connect to a Linux host.

Select or enter the hostname (e.g. via Tailscale or standard SSH).

Wait for the remote environment setup to begin.

Observe that the process hangs during “Installing Cursor server” and eventually fails with Failed to install server within the timeout.

Operating System

MacOS

Current Cursor Version (Menu → About Cursor → Copy)

Version: 2.0.34
VSCode Version: 1.99.3
Commit: 45fd70f3fe72037444ba35c9e51ce86a1977ac10
Date: 2025-10-29T06:51:29.202Z
Electron: 34.5.8
Chromium: 132.0.6834.210
Node.js: 20.19.1
V8: 13.2.152.41-electron.0
OS: Darwin arm64 24.6.0

Does this stop you from using Cursor

Yes - Cursor is unusable

2

He, thanks for the report. The warning .bashrc: line 99: bind: warning: line editing not enabled is likely breaking the server install script.

Please check:

  • What’s on line 99 of ~/.bashrc on the remote host? The bind command can break non‑interactive installs.
  • Does plain SSH work outside Cursor? Try: ssh <hostname>
  • Temporary fix: comment out interactive settings in .bashrc for now.

Also, what Linux version/distribution is on the remote host?

1 Like
3

Turns out the issue wasn’t with Cursor after all. The problem was caused by Tailscale malfunctioning on my system. There was a pending update for it and once I installed the latest version, the SSH connection and remote server installation worked perfectly.