Visual Studio Code on Android + Remote Development via SSH (No root)

Guide to run Visual Studio Code and/or VSCodium on Android to remotely run code on a remote machine via SSH.

Android > Termux > (proot) Ubuntu > VSCode/VSCodium

Other Methods

While there are alternatives like:

1. Cloud-based, frontend-only: github.dev, vscode.dev, GitHub Codespaces,
2. Full backend, local execution: code-server (on a proot distro), which opens in the browser,
3. An app on the Play Store VScode for Android, which basically is a webapp, putting it in the same category as 2.

What they all have in common is that they run in the browser. That's alright, but you can't do certain things like connect to a remote machine via SSH. Certain extensions are just not supported by web-based VSCode and remote-ssh is one of them.

But there's a catch. This attempt to install desktop VSCode on Android and then SSH-ing into a remote machine started as a proof-of-concept, but during the process, I found that Microsoft had already solved this with the Remote - Tunnel extension, available on both desktop and web versions of VSCode.

With this, a client can connect to a remote machine (with VS Code Server installed on it), via a secure tunnel without using SSH! The client can run code remotely and make changes on the remote machine in any browser that supports web apps like vscode.dev or GitHub codespaces, etc., making the whole process platform-independent. Clearly, Remote - Tunnel takes the 🍰. However, there are certain limitaions.

In contrast, running desktop VSCode on Ubuntu proot-ed in Termux on Android is an inferior option because of a couple of reasons: Remote - Tunnel is much simpler, has far less latency compared to using a VNC desktop viewer for proot Ubuntu, cosumes less power, and most importantly, because it's cool as 🗿.

Here is a quick video by VSCode devs to get you started with Remote - Tunnel if you want to try it. More info here.

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The Guide

Nonetheless, here's the guide to install the desktop version of VSCode/VSCodium and then SSH into a remote desktop.

Just because it can be done, it means it should be done, right?

After following this guide, you will be able to use the full-blown desktop app with all the desktop extensions and functionalities.

Prerequisites

• Termux from F-Droid, or from its official page (not from the Play Store).
• Andronix from Play Store.
• any VNC viewer from Play Store like RealVNC.
• About €2 in your bank account to purchase the modded distro in Andronix.

Case for paid distro: Although Andronix offers several free distros, the modded OS versions include preinstalled VSCode (and other applications). I attempted a manual installation of VSCode on free distros, but it failed due to specific patching requirements. (Spoiler: even the modded OS had issues with VSCode launching, so below I share the patches I tried.)

Good-to-haves:

Either:

• A keyboard, a mouse and an external display
• Or, a laptop + Samsung DeX on both the latptop and the Android device

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Fixing Android 12+ killing forked child processes

On Android >=12, the maximum number of forked child processes an app can spawn is limited to 32. To prevent Android from killing these processes, you must increase this limit.

• The fix is here, thanks to Andronix devs.
• It's pretty verbose and exhaustive, so just follow the steps for your specific case and you should be good. 🎉

Update Repos and Packages in Termux

Open Termux and run:

termux-change-repo

Select "Single Mirror" and choose your region. Update packages:

pkg update && \
pkg upgrade

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Install the Ubuntu distro

• In Andronix:
  • Navigate to "Andronix Modded OS" and select "Ubuntu XFCE".
  • Complete the purchase to receive a download link with keys. The installation command will be automatically copied to the clipboard.
• In Termux:
  • Optionally, create a directory where ou want the distro to be installed (handy to manage multiple distros):

    mkdir ubun22 && \
    cd ubun22

  • Paste the copied installation command (you can recopy it from Andronix) and run it. It will install the distro in the pwd.
  • Follow the on-screen instructions.

    Note: The password you set for your user here during installation will also serve as the VNC password, that you will use to display the Ubuntu GUI.

  • After the installation, you will be logged into your user account in Ubuntu (CLI). You should see <user>@localhost:.

Launching Ubuntu

• Everytime you open Termux, you need to run a bash file to boot into Ubuntu. If you did not close Termux after the installation and see <user>@localhost:, skip the next step and continue.

• In Termux, run the bash file that the above command generates (in the pwd, ubun22):

  ./start-andronix.sh

  Now you should be logged in as your user in Ubuntu and see <user>@localhost:.

• Start the VNC Server for desktop GUI:

  vncserver-start

• Update packages (only for the first run):

  sudo apt update && \
  sudo apt upgrade

Select your desired resolution and it will start VNC server it at localhost:<port>, default is localhost:1.

• Do NOT close Termux

In your preferred VNC Viewer app:

• Set the address to localhost:1, and optionally give it a name.
• Enter your user password to access it (the one you set during Ubuntu installation).
• You should now see a Ubuntu desktop.

  Tip: If the display quality is poor or some icons do not load properly, set the picture quality to high in VNC app.

Terminating the Ubuntu session

To properly terminate the Ubuntu session, do the following:

• Stop the VNC server

  • Disconnect the VNC display in your VNC viewer app.

  • In the Termux Ubuntu shell (same shell wehre you started the VNC server, <user>@localhost:),

    Run:

  vncserver-stop

  Enter 1 and press enter to terminate the running VNC server at localhost:1.

  Note: If it run on a different port, enter that port instead of 1. To verify, run vncserver -list which lists all the active VNC servers and the ports they are running on.

  • More details here.
• Log out of the Ubuntu CLI.
  • Option 1: Press CTRL+D in the terminal
  • Option 2: Run either exit or logout
  • That should log you out of Ubunutu and now you may close Termux (CTRL+D, exit or logout also work here)

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Also, you might want to set up: python, pip, etc.

If not, skip directly to the problems & fixes section.

• Launch Ubuntu: start the VNC server, connect to the VNC display (recap).
• Open a terminal & run the following commands
• Add a new repository to manage Python installations:

  sudo apt install -y software-properties-common

• Add the Python PPA and install python<X.XX>:

  sudo add-apt-repository ppa:deadsnakes/ppa && \
  sudo apt update && \
  sudo apt install python3.11

• If you want to create asymbolic link so that python points to python3:

  sudo ln -sf /usr/bin/python3 /usr/bin/python

• Install pip and optionally, pythonX.XX-venv:

  sudo apt install python3-pip && \
  sudo apt install python3.11-venv

• Install Jupyter if you want to work with notebooks:

  sudo apt install jupyter ipykernel

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Problems and Fixes

After launching the Ubuntu GUI, you may notice that while many preinstalled applications work, some do not. In particular, Firefox and VSCode may require fixes.

Fixing Firefox

The problem: The tabs crash with Error: Gah! Your tab just crashed!, nothing can be opened.

The fix: Found it here.

• Open Firefox and type about:config in the address bar and press enter.
• Click "Accept the risk and Continue".
• In the search preferences bar, type sandbox and,
  • Change media.cubeb-sandbox from true to false.
  • Change security.sandbox.content.level from <num> to 0.

Restart Firefox. It should now work correctly. 🎉

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Note: From here on, run all the commands in the Ubuntu terminal, not Termux.

Fixing VSCode/VSCodium

If you want to use VSCodium instead of VSCode, download from the official source and install it. The problems they have are identical, and so are the fixes. They are exactly the same. The difference? Anywhere you see code, replace it with codium in all the commands below:

The problem: It doesn't launch. Many issues.

Step 1: Verify if it launches

• Graphical launch: Search for VSCode (VSCodium) in the start menu and click it.

  Note: It doesn't launch in my device (Samsung S24 Ultra) but it looks like the problem is general to proot installations.

  If it opens, skip to the next section.

• Terminal Launch: Run

  code
  # or `codium`; be mindful of this from here on...

  If it opens, skip to the next section.

Step 2: Resolve the /proc/version: Permission denied Error

If you are still reading this, VSCode did not launch (it should only take about 2-3 seconds).

When you run code, you probably saw an error like:

grep: /proc/version: Permission denied

This occurs because /usr/bin/code is trying to access /proc/version for a WSL installation check, which is a protected file in Android.

The fix: Comment it out

• Install your preferred text editor, (e.g., gedit):

  sudo apt install gedit

• Edit the code file (you can confirm the path by running which code):

  gedit /usr/bin/code

• Locate this if block:

  if grep -qi Microsoft /proc/version && [ -z "$DONT_PROMPT_WSL_INSTALL" ]; then

  Comment out the entire block up to the corresponding fi; either by adding # at the start of each line or enclosing the block in a shell comment (start with : ' and end with ' .

  Like:

: '
if grep -qi Microsoft /proc/version && [ -z "$DONT_PROMPT_WSL_INSTALL" ]; then
        echo To use Visual Studio Code with the Windows Subsystem for Linux, please install Visual Studio Code in Windows and uninstall the Linux version in WSL. You can then use the `code` command in a WSL terminal just as you would in a normal command prompt. 1>&2
        printf Do you want to continue anyway? [y/N]  1>&2
        read -r YN
        YN=
        case  in
                y | yes )
                ;;
                * )
                        exit 1
                ;;
        esac
        echo To no longer see this prompt, start Visual Studio Code with the environment variable DONT_PROMPT_WSL_INSTALL defined. 1>&2
fi
'

After saving the changes, run code again, the /proc/version: Permission denied should be gone. 🎉

Step 3 Fixing the SUID Sandbox Error

If VSCode still doesn’t launch, run:

code --verbose

You may see an error like:

- [10548:0218/173116.917214:FATAL:setuid_sandbox_host.cc(163)]
The SUID sandbox helper binary was found, but is not configured correctly.
Rather than run without sandboxing I'm aborting now.
+ You need to make sure that /usr/share/code/chrome-sandbox is owned by root and has mode 4755.

The fix:

• In terminal, run these 2 commands:

  sudo chown root:root /usr/share/code/chrome-sandbox && \
  sudo chmod 4755 /usr/share/code/chrome-sandbox

  Replace the /usr/share/code/chrome-sandbox with the path in the error message of code --verbose, if it is different.

This should essentially fix it. Try running code again after reloading Ubuntu (which I didn't do, so I ran the following commands regardless).

If it launches after this, skip to the next section.

• If it still doesn't launch, run:

  echo 'export DONT_PROMT_WSL_INSTALL=true' >> ~/.bashrc && \
  echo 'export ELECTRON_DISABLE_SANDBOX=1' >> ~/.bashrc && \
  source ~/.bashrc

Now when you run code (codium), it should successfully launch VSCode (VSCodium) on your Android device. 🦾🎉

Tip: Sometimes, launching VSCode by clicking its icon in the start menu or desktop icon does not work. In that case, right click on the icon and select "Edit launcher". Set command to /usr/bin/code (or wherever the path of code is). Now, it's good to go 🎉

In VSCode/VSCodium, install any necessary packages as per your need like languages, Jupyter, remote-ssh, etc.

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Fixing Jupyter Kernel Load error

(Assuming you installed the necessary python packages: see this section)

When working with Python notebooks in VSCode, you might encounter an error like:

- Failed to start the Kernel. 
/home/<user>/<workspace>/<py_venv_dir>/lib/python3.11/site-packages/jupyter_client/localinterfaces.py:56: 
- UserWarning: Unexpected error discovering local network interfaces: 
- [Errno 13] Permission denied ret = f(**kwargs) Permission denied (src/ip_resolver.cpp:542). 
+ View Jupyter log for further details.

This is a known issue with proot.

The fix: Found it here.

Summarizing,

• Run in terminal:

  mkdir -p ~/jupyter_fix && \
  gedit ~/jupyter_fix/skip_getifaddrs.c

• Paste the following in ~/jupyter_fix/skip_getifaddrs.c:

  #include <errno.h>
  #include <ifaddrs.h>
  
  int getifaddrs(struct ifaddrs **ifap) {
      errno = EOPNOTSUPP;
      return -1;
  }

• Compile it as a shared library

  gcc -shared -fPIC -o ~/jupyter_fix/skip_getifaddrs.so ~/jupyter_fix/skip_getifaddrs.c

• Navigate to VSCode
  • Press Ctrl+Shift+P, look for Preferences: Open Settings (UI).
  • Search for "env file", look for Python: Env File.
  • Ensure the path is ${workspaceFolder}/.env. If not, make it so.
• In the workspace folder of VSCode, create (or edit) a file named .env, and add the line:

  LD_PRELOAD=~/jupyter_fix/skip_getifaddrs.so

• Restart VSCode and now the kernel should start without any errors. 🎉

  Note: If you are using a virtual environment, make sure jupyter and ipywidgets are installed or else, the output won't be shown.

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SSH-ing into a Remote Machine via VSCode/VSCodium for Remote development

Out of the box, there are no major issues with this. But there was something that needed to be fixed. Read on...

Context: I had SSH keys setup in Ubuntu (not Termux Android). I had a connection to a private VPN (using OpenVPN app (on Android)).

I had also installed the necessry SSH extensions in VSCode.

The problem:

• It successfully connected SSH-ically to the remote machine, but it fails to recognize existing kernels and virtual envs in the remote machine.

The fix:

• After SSH-ing into the remote machine in VSCode, in the workspace directory, make a new directory .vscode and create a file in it settings.json.

• In settings.json, add these lines:

  Note: Replace the path and version with the actual path of venv and its python version in the remote machine)

  {
      "python.defaultInterpreterPath":"<path>/<to>/your>/<venv>/bin/python<X>"
      "python.analysis.extraPaths": ["<path>/<to>/your>/<venv>/lib/python<X.XX>/site-packages"]
  }

• Save it and restart VSCode. Now, everything should work well. 🎉

Happy coding! 🦾

ఇంక సెలవు 🚀

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Other apps

Andronix patched some useful softwares: browsers, GIMP, IDEs and Libre Office.

Note: Before fixing this, I reinstalled VSCode from IDEs' page. It had thrown a new error: Illegal instruction which I believe has something to do with the CPU architecture of my device: Samsung S24 ultra. So, back up the installed VSCode before reinstalling it.