WSL2 terminal does not recognize Visual Studio Code

Question

When I try to execute code from WSL, like this:

cmd.exe
wsl code .

I get the following error:

/bin/bash: code: command not found

However, if I execute the same command but first run cmd.exe as an Administrator, vscode opens as expected.

The question is why "code" is not recognizable when I run as non-admin, and how can I solve it?

Additional info: WSL2 version 41959 vscode version 1.38 vscode Remote WSL extension version 0.39.5

Answer 1

As @Biswapriyo mentioned, this is an open bug where WSL cannot access Windows C drive. Workaround that helped me is to restart WSL like this:

wsl --shutdown
wsl

Answer 2

1. Open the PowerShell administrator window

wsl --list --version

Show as wsl 2

2. Enter the Linux console

wsl

3. Change related files' rights

chmod u+x vscode_dir/code.exe
chmod u+x vscode_dir/bin/code

4. Create symbolic link

ln -s vscode_dir/bin/code code
mv code ~/.local/bin

5. Modify .bashrc, add a line as follows:

export PATH="$HOME/.local/bin:$PATH"

6. source .bashrc or restart terminal.

Then you can happily play code in wsl2-ubuntu environment or terminal of VSCode.

Answer 3

My problem was that I was using the root user after running sudo -i. Exiting and using my normal user on WSL solved the error.