Settings UI is completely blank

[arvid-norlander]

Type: Bug

1. Open VS Code (with or without extensions disabled, makes no difference)
2. Open File -> Preferences -> Settings
3. Observe blank UI with no actual settings in it.

If you leave the settings tab open and restart vs code (such that it reopens the settings tab automatically on restart) the settings GUI will be there, but all the extension settings will be missing (observe that it is missing from the menu here):

If I then close and reopen settings they will again be empty.

VS Code version: Code 1.84.2 (1a5daa3, 2023-11-09T10:50:47.800Z)
OS version: Linux x64 6.2.0-36-generic (Ubuntu 22.04 LTS)
Modes:

System Info

Item	Value
CPUs	12th Gen Intel(R) Core(TM) i9-12950HX (24 x 4156)
GPU Status	2d_canvas: enabled canvas_oop_rasterization: disabled_off direct_rendering_display_compositor: disabled_off_ok gpu_compositing: enabled multiple_raster_threads: enabled_on opengl: enabled_on rasterization: enabled raw_draw: disabled_off_ok video_decode: enabled video_encode: disabled_software vulkan: disabled_off webgl: enabled webgl2: enabled webgpu: disabled_off
Load (avg)	1, 1, 1
Memory (System)	62.29GB (54.92GB free)
Process Argv	--disable-extensions --crash-reporter-id f5e0695e-011b-4a71-ba0b-b0beb8be9ddf
Screen Reader	no
VM	0%
DESKTOP_SESSION	plasma
XDG_CURRENT_DESKTOP	KDE
XDG_SESSION_DESKTOP	plasma
XDG_SESSION_TYPE	x11

Extensions disabled

[arvid-norlander]

I also tried with prime-run to run this on the nVidia GPU instead of the built in Intel GPU. Makes no difference.

[rzhao271]

After running the command "Developer: Toggle Developer Tools", do any errors show up under the Console tab?

[arvid-norlander]

After running the command "Developer: Toggle Developer Tools", do any errors show up under the Console tab?

Yes I got 3 errors, they all seem related to that I'm behind a corporate proxy though. Note that I ran this with --disable-extensions, but I still get errors related to extensions. I find this very strange

[arvid-norlander]

@rzhao271

When I'm not behind the proxy, settings work as expected. I find it very odd that VSCode would need to call out to the internet just to open settings. Opening the marketplace for extensions I understand, but not settings.

Especially since I can also open settings just fine if I'm completely disconnected. It is just if I'm connected via the corporate network that it falls flat on it's face.

For some further debug information: We use Zscaler at my workplace, which acts as a transparent HTTPS MITM proxy (no need/not possible to set any environment variables, but you do need to install the CA certificate). The proper certificate is installed in the system certificate store (/etc/ca-certificates) and that works as expected with other programs.

Also, other internet features in VSCode work fine, such as github copilot.

EDIT:

I also tried some of the settings in the proxy section of the settings to see if it made any difference. They were all set to the default values before.

• http.proxyStrictSSL made no difference
• http.experimental.systemCertificatesV2 made no difference
• http.systemCertificates is set, but I doubt I want to uncheck it if I understand it correctly.
• http.proxySupport is set to override (default), and it sounds like it only affects extensions, so I didn't touch it.

I don't see any option to manually add a certificate anywhere in the settings.

[arvid-norlander]

Based on https://code.visualstudio.com/docs/setup/network I found that --ignore-certificate-errors does work. That is a bit of a sledgehammer though, and not really an ideal (or even slightly secure) solution.

[rzhao271]

The Settings editor currently recommends the Copilot extension when it's not installed, which lines up with the error messages you're seeing.

I'll put up a PR that skips over showing that feature in case of networking errors.