Powershell integrated terminal in VSCode won't start

[LordHorst]

System Details

• Operating system name and version
  Linux Mint 18.3 Sylvia 64-bit
• VS Code version
  Version 1.30.2
• PowerShell extension version
  v1.11.0
• Output from $PSVersionTable (ran it in pwsh)

System Details Output

### VSCode version: 1.30.2 61122f88f0bf01e2ac16bdb9e1bc4571755f5bd8 x64

### VSCode extensions:
ms-vscode.PowerShell@1.11.0


### PSES version: 

### PowerShell version:

Name                           Value
----                           -----
PSVersion                      6.1.2
PSEdition                      Core
GitCommitId                    6.1.2
OS                             Linux 4.15.0-43-generic #46~16.04.1-Ubuntu SMP Fri Dec 7 13:31:08 UTC 2018
Platform                       Unix
PSCompatibleVersions           {1.0, 2.0, 3.0, 4.0...}
PSRemotingProtocolVersion      2.3
SerializationVersion           1.1.0.1
WSManStackVersion              3.0

Issue Description

I installed VS Code today and tried writing a short powershell script. I saved my work with the file ending *.ps1 and VS Code suggested I install the PowerShell extension. I did that and was presented with the error that the extension couldn't start up.

I tried reverting to older versions, but the same error occurs ( I tried 1.5.1 as the earliest version).

I am aware of other issues that reported the same behaviour, but no fix was found there.

Expected Behaviour

The PowerShell extension should start and let me run PowerShell scripts.

Actual Behaviour

I get an error message:

The terminal process command '/usr/bin/pwsh -NoProfile -NonInteractive -Command '& '/home/user/.vscode/extensions/ms-vscode.powershell-1.10.2/modules/PowerShellEditorServices/Start-EditorServices.ps1' -HostName 'Visual Studio Code Host' -HostProfileId 'Microsoft.VSCode' -HostVersion '1.10.2' -AdditionalModules @('PowerShellEditorServices.VSCode') -BundledModulesPath '/home/user/.vscode/extensions/ms-vscode.powershell-1.10.2/modules' -EnableConsoleRepl -LogLevel 'Normal' -LogPath '/home/user/.vscode/extensions/ms-vscode.powershell-1.10.2/logs/1548700569-c12533bf-ad44-47ac-a058-eae06578bc881548700568887/EditorServices.log' -SessionDetailsPath '/home/user/.vscode/extensions/ms-vscode.powershell-1.10.2/sessions/PSES-VSCode-7679-721522' -FeatureFlags @()'' failed to launch (exit code: 1)

Attached Logs

1/28/2019 7:39:39 PM [NORMAL] - Visual Studio Code v1.30.2 64-bit
1/28/2019 7:39:39 PM [NORMAL] - PowerShell Extension v1.11.0
1/28/2019 7:39:39 PM [NORMAL] - Operating System: Linux 64-bit
1/28/2019 7:39:39 PM [NORMAL] - Path specified by 'powerShellExePath' setting - '' - not found, reverting to default PowerShell path.
1/28/2019 7:39:39 PM [NORMAL] - Language server starting --
1/28/2019 7:39:39 PM [NORMAL] -     exe: /usr/bin/pwsh
1/28/2019 7:39:39 PM [NORMAL] -     args: /home/user/.vscode/extensions/ms-vscode.powershell-1.11.0/modules/PowerShellEditorServices/Start-EditorServices.ps1 -HostName 'Visual Studio Code Host' -HostProfileId 'Microsoft.VSCode' -HostVersion '1.11.0' -AdditionalModules @('PowerShellEditorServices.VSCode') -BundledModulesPath '/home/user/.vscode/extensions/ms-vscode.powershell-1.11.0/modules' -EnableConsoleRepl -LogLevel 'Normal' -LogPath '/home/user/.vscode/extensions/ms-vscode.powershell-1.11.0/logs/1548700779-fc02c6fe-525f-40b0-95c8-d4cb5af220811548700778258/EditorServices.log' -SessionDetailsPath '/home/user/.vscode/extensions/ms-vscode.powershell-1.11.0/sessions/PSES-VSCode-7679-390119' -FeatureFlags @()
1/28/2019 7:39:39 PM [NORMAL] - powershell.exe terminated or terminal UI was closed
1/28/2019 7:39:39 PM [NORMAL] - powershell.exe started, pid: 8294
1/28/2019 7:41:39 PM [NORMAL] - Language server startup failed.
1/28/2019 7:41:39 PM [ERROR] - The language service could not be started: 
1/28/2019 7:41:39 PM [ERROR] - Timed out waiting for session file to appear.

I noticed that it's trying to start /usr/bin/pwsh. Such a file does not exist, however.

[TylerLeonhardt]

Where is your pwsh located? Is it on the path?

[LordHorst]

Where is your pwsh located? Is it on the path?

I couldn't install the .deb package because of an unresolvable dependency. I downloaded the .tar.gz and extracted it in a seperate folder in my user folder. However, there are so many files in there, I don't want to put them all into /usr/bin.

[TylerLeonhardt]

Typically you would make a symbolic link that will only add 1 file to /usr/bin that will be a pointer to where you have your real pwsh.

Here we do this in the raspbian steps:
https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/powershell/scripting/install/installing-powershell-core-on-linux?view=powershell-6#installation---raspbian

I recommend that.

If you don't want to go down that route, you can set the following settings:

"powershell.powerShellAdditionalExePaths": [
  {
    "exePath": "path/to/your/executable/pwsh",
    "versionName": "My PowerShell"
  }
],
"powershell.powerShellDefaultVersion": "My PowerShell"

This will allow you to use an arbitrary location for pwsh

[LordHorst]

Typically you would make a symbolic link that will only add 1 file to /usr/bin that will be a pointer to where you have your real pwsh.

Thanks! I'm still pretty new to Linux and didn't think of just using a symbolic link. This fixed it!

[TylerLeonhardt]

Happy to help 😊

[craibuc]

I was having a similar issue, which I fixed by creating a symlink in the powershell directory:

/usr/local/microsoft/powershell/6$ sudo ln -s /usr/lib/libproc.dylib libproc.dylib