Solutions for Using VS Code Remote-SSH on Legacy Linux Systems

Starting with VS Code 1.99 (March 2025), the pre-built server for VS Code only supports Linux distributions with glibc 2.28 or later, such as Debian 10, RHEL 8, or Ubuntu 20.04. On older Linux systems, you may encounter the error: “The remote host may not meet the glibc and libstdc++ prerequisites for the VS Code server.”

This guide explains how to make VS Code Remote-SSH work on unsupported systems (those without glibc ≥ 2.28 and libstdc++ ≥ 3.4.25) by building a sysroot.

System Requirements

VS Code 1.99.x requires:

Kernel ≥ 4.18
glibc ≥ 2.28
libstdc++ ≥ 3.4.25
binutils ≥ 2.29

Note: This is a workaround and not officially supported by Microsoft.

Two Methods to Obtain a Sysroot

Method 1: Using glibc-all-in-one (Recommended)

This method is simpler, using precompiled glibc libraries:

# Clone the repository
git clone https://github.com/matrix1001/glibc-all-in-one
cd glibc-all-in-one
 
# Update the list of available glibc versions
./update_list
 
# For CentOS, download glibc 2.28
# Check if 2.28 is available in old_list
cat old_list | grep 2.28
 
# Download the appropriate version (adjust based on your system)
./download_old 2.28-0ubuntu1_amd64
 
# Create a sysroot directory
mkdir -p ~/vscode-deps/sysroot/lib
 
# Copy required libraries
cp libs/2.28-0ubuntu1_amd64/libc-2.28.so ~/vscode-deps/sysroot/lib/
cp libs/2.28-0ubuntu1_amd64/ld-2.28.so ~/vscode-deps/sysroot/lib/
cp libs/2.28-0ubuntu1_amd64/lib*.so* ~/vscode-deps/sysroot/lib/

Method 2: Building Sysroot with Crosstool-ng (Official Method)

If glibc-all-in-one doesn’t have your system version, use Crosstool-ng:

# Prepare a Docker environment
docker run -it --name vscode-sysroot ubuntu:latest bash
 
# Inside Docker, install dependencies
apt-get update
apt-get install -y sudo gcc g++ gperf bison flex texinfo help2man make libncurses5-dev \
python3-dev autoconf automake libtool libtool-bin gawk wget bzip2 xz-utils unzip \
patch rsync meson ninja-build
 
# Create a non-root user
useradd -m builder
echo "builder ALL=(ALL) NOPASSWD:ALL" > /etc/sudoers.d/builder
chown -R builder:builder /home/builder
 
# Switch to non-root user
su - builder
 
# Install crosstool-ng
wget http://crosstool-ng.org/download/crosstool-ng/crosstool-ng-1.26.0.tar.bz2
tar -xjf crosstool-ng-1.26.0.tar.bz2
cd crosstool-ng-1.26.0
./configure --prefix=/home/builder/crosstool-ng && make && make install
export PATH=$PATH:/home/builder/crosstool-ng/bin
 
# Download the config template
wget -O x86_64-gcc-8.5.0-glibc-2.28.config https://github.com/microsoft/vscode-linux-build-agent/raw/main/x86_64-gcc-8.5.0-glibc-2.28.config
 
# Modify the config (adjust kernel version)
# Example for CentOS 3.10.0:
# CT_GLIBC_MIN_KERNEL=3.10
# CT_LINUX_VERSION=3.10
# CT_LINUX_V_3_10=y
 
# Build the sysroot
mkdir -p ~/toolchain-dir
cd ~/toolchain-dir
cp ~/x86_64-gcc-8.5.0-glibc-2.28.config .config
ct-ng build
 
# Exit Docker and package the sysroot
exit
 
# Package the sysroot
cd /home/builder/x-tools/x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu/x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu/sysroot/
tar -czvf /tmp/sysroot.tar.gz lib/
 
# Copy from Docker to host
docker cp vscode-sysroot:/tmp/sysroot.tar.gz .
 
# Extract on the host
mkdir -p ~/vscode-deps/sysroot
tar -xzvf sysroot.tar.gz -C ~/vscode-deps/sysroot

Installing patchelf

VS Code uses patchelf to apply the sysroot libraries.

Note: The latest version (0.18.0) may cause Segmentation Fault. Instead, use 0.16.1:

# Download patchelf 0.16.1
wget https://github.com/NixOS/patchelf/releases/download/0.16.1/patchelf-0.16.1-x86_64-linux.tar.gz
tar -xzf patchelf-0.16.1-x86_64-linux.tar.gz
 
# Move patchelf to an accessible path
mkdir -p ~/vscode-deps/bin
cp patchelf-0.16.1-x86_64-linux/bin/patchelf ~/vscode-deps/bin/

Manually Configuring the VS Code Server

Since the official patching method has bugs, we manually patch the server:

# 1. Find the latest stable commit ID (e.g., March 2025: 4437686ffebaf200fa4a6e6e67f735f3edf24ada)
git_cid="4437686ffebaf200fa4a6e6e67f735f3edf24ada"
 
# 2. Download the VS Code server
wget -O vscode-server.tar.gz "https://update.code.visualstudio.com/commit:${git_cid}/server-linux-x64/stable"
 
# 3. Extract to the target folder
mkdir -p ~/.vscode-server/cli/servers/Stable-${git_cid}/server
tar -xzf vscode-server.tar.gz -C ~/.vscode-server/cli/servers/Stable-${git_cid}/server
 
# 4. Patch the binary
~/vscode-deps/bin/patchelf --set-interpreter /home/$(whoami)/vscode-deps/sysroot/lib/ld-2.28.so \
                         --set-rpath /home/$(whoami)/vscode-deps/sysroot/lib \
                         --force-rpath \
                         ~/.vscode-server/cli/servers/Stable-${git_cid}/server/node
 
# 5. Skip VS Code's server check
touch /tmp/vscode-skip-server-requirements-check

Connecting to the Remote Host

After completing these steps, use VS Code Remote-SSH to connect. You may see an “unsupported” warning, but the server should work.

Notes:

Adjust paths according to your environment.
Ensure all required libraries are in the sysroot.
If issues persist, check VS Code logs.

References:

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