Why is my WSL extension stuck at 0.81.8? Can't open Remote WSL with Cursor 0.48.x

Bug Reports
1

I’m on this:

Version: 0.48.9 (user setup)
VSCode Version: 1.96.2
Commit: 61e99179e4080fecf9d8b92c6e2e3e00fbfb53f0
Date: 2025-04-12T18:45:22.042Z
Electron: 34.3.4
Chromium: 132.0.6834.210
Node.js: 20.18.3
V8: 13.2.152.41-electron.0
OS: Windows_NT x64 10.0.22631

Here’s the error log

[2025-04-15 05:15:13.195] Extension version: 0.81.8
[2025-04-15 05:15:13.195] L10N bundle: undefined
[2025-04-15 05:15:13.207] authorityHierarchy: wsl+Ubuntu-22.04
[2025-04-15 05:15:13.207] WSL extension activating for a local WSL instance
[2025-04-15 05:15:13.222] Download in background is enabled
[2025-04-15 05:15:13.223] Resolving wsl+Ubuntu-22.04, resolveAttempt: 1
[2025-04-15 05:15:13.223] NodeExecServer run: C:\Windows\System32\wsl.exe --status
[2025-04-15 05:15:13.266] WSL feature installed: true (wsl --status)
[2025-04-15 05:15:13.266] NodeExecServer run: C:\Windows\System32\wsl.exe --list --verbose
[2025-04-15 05:15:13.306] 3 distros found
[2025-04-15 05:15:13.307] Starting VS Code Server inside WSL (wsl2)
[2025-04-15 05:15:13.307] Windows build: 22631. Multi distro support: available. WSL path support: enabled
[2025-04-15 05:15:13.307] Scriptless setup: false
[2025-04-15 05:15:13.308] No shell environment set or found for current distro.
[2025-04-15 05:15:13.402] For help with startup problems, go to https://code.visualstudio.com/docs/remote/troubleshooting#_wsl-tips

But keep getting this. No problem yesterday, only starting from today.

Can’t install any newer version of WSL extension except the 0.81.8 from wayyyy back when

image
image1506×596 52.9 KB

2

TLDR: Fixed by installing WSL extension ms-vscode-remote.remote-wsl 0.88.5.

Details: Found a workaround:

  1. Noted that Cursor v0.48.x is based on VSCode 1.96.
  2. Noted that VSCode 1.96 is compatible with WSL extension ms-vscode-remote.remote-wsl 0.88.5.
  3. Noted that Cursor doesn’t even allow installing WSL ms-vscode-remote.remote-wsl 0.88.5 – it only shows 0.81.8.
  4. Used https://vsix.2i.gs/ to download the VSIX for 0.88.5 – haven’t even looked at checksum because MS & VSIX downloader makes it difficult.
  5. Installed the extension with cursor --install-extension ms-vscode-remote.remote-wsl-0.88.5.vsix