Good Morning everyone.
After many years of owning a Pico or four, I've finally decided to get some programming done. Until now I've used the "pico_setup.sh" script to download and install the Pico development environment and happily compiled, modified and compiled again, the obligatory Blinky program. Now I'm attempting to use the VSCode extension as documented in the "Getting Started" guide.
It happily downloads and installs the extension. It downloads and installs the SDK version 2.1.1 without any problems. The toolchain appears to be the problem area.
Under ~/.pico-sdk, I see a toolchain directory created and inside that is a subdirectory named 14_2_Rel1, which exists for as long as the extension hasn't timed out, then vanishes. VSCode displays "Failed to download and install toolchain".
I followed the VSCode extension's troubleshooting advice and reset defaults, deleted everything and started again with the same result, everything but the toolchain downloaded and installed fine. I even changed the SDK version to 2.1.0 on an example, and that SDK version downloaded fine too.
Oh, and I deleted all the existing Pico development which the pico_setup script had installed and removed the ENV variables too, just in case. Still no joy.
I notice that the SDK/2.1.1 and examples directories appear to be git clones, so I went looking for a git repository to get hold of the toolchain, no luck.
Does such a thing exist?
If so, what is the URL please?
And if there's a well known git command to download and install it manually, that would be nice too, thanks.
I'm on Linux Mint 22 (Wilma). Fully patched as of this morning (30 July 2025)
VSCode version: 1.102.2
Raspberry Pi Pico extension: 0.17.7
I have checked all the issues on GitHub for the VSCode extension, open, closed etc, but no joy. I have also been through these forums searching for "vscode toolchain install failed" and various other combinations. Again, no luck.
Appreciate any pointers, commands, URLs etc.
Cheers,
Norm.
After many years of owning a Pico or four, I've finally decided to get some programming done. Until now I've used the "pico_setup.sh" script to download and install the Pico development environment and happily compiled, modified and compiled again, the obligatory Blinky program. Now I'm attempting to use the VSCode extension as documented in the "Getting Started" guide.
It happily downloads and installs the extension. It downloads and installs the SDK version 2.1.1 without any problems. The toolchain appears to be the problem area.
Under ~/.pico-sdk, I see a toolchain directory created and inside that is a subdirectory named 14_2_Rel1, which exists for as long as the extension hasn't timed out, then vanishes. VSCode displays "Failed to download and install toolchain".
I followed the VSCode extension's troubleshooting advice and reset defaults, deleted everything and started again with the same result, everything but the toolchain downloaded and installed fine. I even changed the SDK version to 2.1.0 on an example, and that SDK version downloaded fine too.
Oh, and I deleted all the existing Pico development which the pico_setup script had installed and removed the ENV variables too, just in case. Still no joy.
I notice that the SDK/2.1.1 and examples directories appear to be git clones, so I went looking for a git repository to get hold of the toolchain, no luck.
Does such a thing exist?
If so, what is the URL please?
And if there's a well known git command to download and install it manually, that would be nice too, thanks.
I'm on Linux Mint 22 (Wilma). Fully patched as of this morning (30 July 2025)
VSCode version: 1.102.2
Raspberry Pi Pico extension: 0.17.7
I have checked all the issues on GitHub for the VSCode extension, open, closed etc, but no joy. I have also been through these forums searching for "vscode toolchain install failed" and various other combinations. Again, no luck.
Appreciate any pointers, commands, URLs etc.
Cheers,
Norm.
Statistics: Posted by NormanDunbar — Wed Jul 30, 2025 9:46 am