vscodium/docs/troubleshooting.md

Troubleshooting

Table of Contents

• Linux
  • Fonts showing up as rectangles
  • Text and/or the entire interface not appearing
  • Global menu workaround for KDE
  • Flatpak most common issues
  • Remote SSH doesn't work
  • The window doesn't show up
• Windows
  • Group Policy Objects (GPOs) are ignored
  • "Open with VSCodium" missing from context menu
  • Windows Defender flags the installer as malware

Linux

Fonts showing up as rectangles

The following command should help:

rm -rf ~/.cache/fontconfig
rm -rf ~/snap/codium/common/.cache
fc-cache -r

Text and/or the entire interface not appearing

You have likely encountered a bug in Chromium and Electron when compiling Mesa shaders, which has affected all Visual Studio Code and VSCodium versions for Linux distributions since 1.82. The current workaround (see microsoft/vscode#190437) is to delete the GPU cache as follows:

rm -rf ~/.config/VSCodium/GPUCache

Global menu workaround for KDE

Install these packages on Fedora:

• libdbusmenu-devel
• dbus-glib-devel
• libdbusmenu

On Ubuntu this package is called libdbusmenu-glib4.

Credits: Gerson

Flatpak most common issues

• blurry screen with HiDPI on wayland run:

  flatpak override --user --nosocket=wayland com.vscodium.codium
  

• To execute commands on the host system, run inside the sandbox

  flatpak-spawn --host <COMMAND>
  # or
  host-spawn <COMMAND>
  

• Where is my X extension? AKA modify product.json TL;DR: use https://open-vsx.org/extension/zokugun/vsix-manager

• SDKs see this

• If you have any other problems with the flatpak package try to look on the FAQ maybe the solution is already there or open an issue.

Remote SSH doesn't work

Use the VSCodium's compatible extension Open Remote - SSH.

On the server, in the sshd config, AllowTcpForwarding need to be set to yes.

It might requires additional dependencies due to the OS/distro (alpine).

The window doesn't show up

If you are under Wayland:

• try the command codium --verbose
• if you see an error like :ERROR:ui/gl/egl_util.cc:92] EGL Driver message (Error) eglCreateContext: Requested version is not supported
• try codium --ozone-platform=x11

Windows

Group Policy Objects (GPOs) are ignored

VSCodium uses its own policy-watcher library (@vscodium/policy-watcher) which reads GPO values from a different registry path than VS Code.

VSCodium reads policies from:

HKLM\SOFTWARE\Policies\VSCodium\VSCodium

VS Code reads policies from:

HKLM\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\VSCode

If you are deploying VSCodium in an enterprise environment via Group Policy:

1. Copy the .admx template file to C:\Windows\PolicyDefinitions\
2. Copy the .adml language file to C:\Windows\PolicyDefinitions\en-US\
3. Open gpedit.msc and configure policies under the VSCodium group
4. Verify the resulting registry key exists at HKLM\SOFTWARE\Policies\VSCodium\VSCodium (not Microsoft\VSCodium)

If you set policies manually via Registry Editor, make sure you create the key at the correct path:

HKLM\SOFTWARE\Policies\VSCodium\VSCodium\<PolicyName>  (REG_SZ or REG_DWORD)

For example, to set Update: Mode to none:

Registry key: HKLM\SOFTWARE\Policies\VSCodium\VSCodium
Value name:   update.mode
Value type:   REG_SZ
Value data:   none

Per-user policies are also supported under HKCU\SOFTWARE\Policies\VSCodium\VSCodium (machine policies take precedence).

"Open with VSCodium" missing from context menu

If the "Open with VSCodium" option does not appear after installation (even with the checkbox checked during setup):

1. Run the installer again and ensure "Add 'Open with VSCodium' action to Windows Explorer file context menu" is checked.

2. Windows 11 note: Windows 11 hides most context menu entries behind Shift + Right-click ("Show more options"). VSCodium's entry may be present but hidden in the new condensed menu. Try Shift + Right-click to see the classic context menu.

3. If the entry still does not appear, you can add it manually via Registry Editor:

   Key:   HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\*\shell\Open with VSCodium
   Value: (Default) = "Open with VSCodium"
   
   Key:   HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\*\shell\Open with VSCodium\command
   Value: (Default) = "C:\Program Files\VSCodium\VSCodium.exe" "%1"
   

   Adjust the install path to match your actual installation directory.

Windows Defender flags the installer as malware

Some users report Windows Defender detecting the VSCodium installer as Cinjo or another threat. This is a false positive caused by the unsigned nature of certain build artifacts.

• Download VSCodium only from the official GitHub Releases page.
• Verify the SHA256/SHA512 checksum of the downloaded file against the .sha256 or .sha512 file published alongside each release.
• If Defender blocks the installer, add an exclusion for the downloaded file, run the install, then remove the exclusion.
• You can also report the false positive directly to Microsoft via the Windows Defender Security Intelligence submission portal.