[BUG] Devkit server fails to start with dotnet installed via snap

[dibarbet]

Describe the Issue

This was originally reported on the C# extension side here - https://github.com/dotnet/vscode-csharp/issues/6513 (with a fix in the upcoming release).

When dotnet is installed via snap on ubuntu, the devkit server fails to start

Starting Spawn .NET server...
Starting Open a solution...
Starting Open a solution with environment service...
Starting Clear environment...
Using preinstalled .NET runtime at "/usr/bin/snap"
.NET server STDERR: You must install .NET to run this application.

App: /home/dibarbet/.vscode/extensions/ms-dotnettools.csdevkit-0.5.150-linux-x64/components/vs-green-server/platforms/linux-x64/node_modules/@microsoft/visualstudio-server.linux-x64/Microsoft.VisualStudio.Code.Server
Architecture: x64
App host version: 7.0.5
.NET location: Not found

Learn about runtime installation:
https://aka.ms/dotnet/app-launch-failed

Download the .NET runtime:
https://aka.ms/dotnet-core-applaunch?missing_runtime=true&arch=x64&rid=ubuntu.22.04-x64&apphost_version=7.0.5

.NET server exited with 131

From the investigation in https://github.com/dotnet/vscode-csharp/issues/6513 the basic cause is that the dotnet on the path is symlinked to /usr/bin/snap which is the snap executable. However devkit is expecting it to find the dotnet executable in the dotnet installation directory.

dibarbet@dibarbet-Virtual-Machine:~$ which dotnet
/snap/bin/dotnet
dibarbet@dibarbet-Virtual-Machine:~$ realpath /snap/bin/dotnet
/usr/bin/snap

Alternatively, running ls -l

dibarbet@dibarbet-Virtual-Machine:~$ ls -l /snap/bin/dotnet
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 17 Oct 10 13:43 /snap/bin/dotnet -> dotnet-sdk.dotnet
dibarbet@dibarbet-Virtual-Machine:~$ ls -l /snap/bin/dotnet-sdk.dotnet 
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 13 Oct 10 13:43 /snap/bin/dotnet-sdk.dotnet -> /usr/bin/snap

The real location of the dotnet install is something like /snap/dotnet-sdk/221/dotnet or /snap/dotnet-sdk/current/dotnet

The fix we made on the C# extension side was to instead read the output of the runtime path (from dotnet --list-runtimes and look 2 directories up for the executable. Since they use the assembly path this should always output the 'real' dotnet installation directory. Ran this by the runtime/sdk folks who said it should be fine See https://github.com/dotnet/vscode-csharp/issues/6513#issuecomment-1756249012

C# extension PR: https://github.com/dotnet/vscode-csharp/pull/6515

Steps To Reproduce

Repro steps

1. Install dotnet on ubuntu via snap, e.g. snap install dotnet-sdk --classic --channel=7.0
2. Open a project in vscode
3. Note the failure in the C# devkit output window:

Expected Behavior

Devkit server starts

Environment Information

Dotnet info

.NET SDK:
 Version:   7.0.402
 Commit:    791db8e2d8

Runtime Environment:
 OS Name:     ubuntu
 OS Version:  22.04
 OS Platform: Linux
 RID:         ubuntu.22.04-x64
 Base Path:   /snap/dotnet-sdk/224/sdk/7.0.402/

Host:
  Version:      7.0.12
  Architecture: x64
  Commit:       4a824ef37c

.NET SDKs installed:
  7.0.402 [/snap/dotnet-sdk/224/sdk]

.NET runtimes installed:
  Microsoft.AspNetCore.App 7.0.12 [/snap/dotnet-sdk/224/shared/Microsoft.AspNetCore.App]
  Microsoft.NETCore.App 7.0.12 [/snap/dotnet-sdk/224/shared/Microsoft.NETCore.App]

Other architectures found:
  None

Environment variables:
  Not set

global.json file:
  Not found

Learn more:
  https://aka.ms/dotnet/info

Download .NET:
  https://aka.ms/dotnet/download

[github-actions[bot]]

This issue has been marked as stale after 14 days of inactivity. @[ @AArnott @], could you please take a look?

[AArnott]

@lifengl should probably look at this as he owns the SDK/runtime acquisition now.

[ivanjx]

im also having the same issue. this is the dotnet --info result from the vscode's integrated terminal:

.NET SDK:
 Version:           8.0.300
 Commit:            326f6e68b2
 Workload version:  8.0.300-manifests.c1c70047
 MSBuild version:   17.10.4+10fbfbf2e

Runtime Environment:
 OS Name:     ubuntu
 OS Version:  24.04
 OS Platform: Linux
 RID:         linux-x64
 Base Path:   /snap/dotnet-sdk/245/sdk/8.0.300/

.NET workloads installed:
There are no installed workloads to display.

Host:
  Version:      8.0.5
  Architecture: x64
  Commit:       087e15321b

.NET SDKs installed:
  8.0.300 [/snap/dotnet-sdk/245/sdk]

.NET runtimes installed:
  Microsoft.AspNetCore.App 8.0.5 [/snap/dotnet-sdk/245/shared/Microsoft.AspNetCore.App]
  Microsoft.NETCore.App 8.0.5 [/snap/dotnet-sdk/245/shared/Microsoft.NETCore.App]

Other architectures found:
  None

Environment variables:
  DOTNET_ROOT       [/snap/dotnet-sdk/current]

global.json file:
  Not found

Learn more:
  https://aka.ms/dotnet/info

Download .NET:
  https://aka.ms/dotnet/download

but vscode does not seem to be able to run the same command correctly:

Failed to find dotnet info from path, falling back to acquire runtime via ms-dotnettools.vscode-dotnet-runtime
Error running dotnet --info: Error: Command failed: dotnet --info
Aborted (core dumped)

Aborted (core dumped)

Dotnet path: /home/x/.config/Code/User/globalStorage/ms-dotnettools.vscode-dotnet-runtime/.dotnet/8.0.6~x64/dotnet
Activating C# + C# Dev Kit + C# IntelliCode...
waiting for named pipe information from server...
[stdout] {"pipeName":"/tmp/6442fe69.sock"}
received named pipe information from server
attempting to connect client to server...
client has connected to server
[Info  - 9:57:04 AM] [Program] Language server initialized

also i dont know if it matters but the vscode is also installed via snap (with --classic confinement too same as the dotnet):

name:      code
summary:   Code editing. Redefined.
publisher: Visual Studio Code (vscode✓)
store-url: https://snapcraft.io/code
contact:   https://twitter.com/code
license:   unset
description: |
  Visual Studio Code is a new choice of tool that combines the
  simplicity of a code editor with what developers need for the core
  edit-build-debug cycle.
commands:
  - code
  - code.url-handler
snap-id:      Ht0aUHi7ofh9Fbwh6m7jUN2pAy6kzBiu
tracking:     latest/stable
refresh-date: 5 days ago, at 00:46 WIB
channels:
  latest/stable:    5437499f 2024-06-19 (162) 327MB classic
  latest/candidate: ↑                               
  latest/beta:      ↑                               
  latest/edge:      ↑                               
installed:          611f9bfc            (161) 327MB classic

[Michael-Eng]

@dibarbet I think the .NET acquisition team has made improvements to address this issue.

@ivanjx In general, C# Dev kit needs to be able to find donet.exe and dotnet.exe --list-sdks running it from the path needs to be able to find the SDKs (both .NET8 for the extension and also the version of .NET you're building your sources). If we can't find it, the issue is with finding the SDK.

I do think the .NET acquisition team has made some improvements in this area. If you still can't get the SDK to be found I would log a separate bug so that team can investigate.

[lifengl]

I will take a look and talk to the .NET acquisition team to know work on their side. we didn't aware of this snap installation, and had never tested it. The MSBuildLocator component we use might have similar limitations as well (it tries to find dotnet executable as well.), so we may have more components to be updated.

[lifengl]

This issue would be fixed in a future pre-release (might be one/two versions away due to verification processes.)

[trondhindenes]

Any updates to this? It's still failing