nRF Connect Extension for VS Code Unable to run most commands

[teedoubleyuh]

While following the "nRF Connect SDK Fundamentals" tutorial, my nRF Connect extension fails on the "Install Toolchain" step with error command 'nrf-connect.installToolchain' not found. I'm able to circumvent for now by using nRF Connect for Desktop and installing the toolchain with its Toolchain Manager, but still troubling that none of the commands seem to work directly from the VS Code nRF Connect extension. Nearly all nRF Connect commands similarly fail from VS Code including "Install SDK", "Manage Toolchains", "Check nRF Command Line Tools Update".

Any help to resolve would be greatly appreciated!

My setup:

• Windows 10 64bit PC
• VS Code v1.86.1
• nRF Connect for VS Code Extension pack v2023.11.3
• nRF Command Line tools v10.24.0

[teedoubleyuh]

Hi Priyanka,

This was a first-time install. After initial installation, this was the welcome screen:

When trying to select "Install Toolchain" here or manually running "nRF Connect: Install Toolchain" via the command palette it gave this error:

Trying commands "Install SDK", "Manage Toolchains", and "Check nRF Command Line Tools Update" in the command palette give similar errors.

Thank you!

[Priyanka]

Hi Travis,

Do you have the nRF Command Lines tools installed? https://www.nordicsemi.com/Products/Development-tools/nRF-Command-Line-Tools/Download?lang=en#infotabs 

If not, please try installing this first and then reload your VSCode window. [(Ctrl + Shift + P) and enter "reload window"]. Please try to install the SDK and Toolchain after these steps.

Regards,

Priyanka

[Priyanka]

Thanks for the update.

I have mentioned this to the team.

[Priyanka]

Hi,

Apologies for the confusion, but could you try to reload the window once again and then follow the following steps too?

1. Reload the window as previously mentioned.

2. Select “Manage Toolchains” again, to trigger the error notification.

3.  See whether any additional output appears in the developer console, which might tell us anything about why the extension did not activate correctly.

Also, to verify if the extension really did not activate completely, as we assume, the users should also go to the extension’s page and there open the “Runtime status” tab.

If it activated correctly, then it would look like this:

But yours might look like this:

-Priyanka

[teedoubleyuh]

I followed the steps and the only error messages I see appear as notifications:

I do not see any more output in a powershell, cmd, or nRF Connect terminal.

My "nRF Connect for VS Code Extension" pack is activated, but the "nRF Code for VS Code" extension is not:

Of the seven extensions included in the nRF Connect for VS Code Extension Pack, these also report as "not yet activated":

• nRF Connect for VS Code
• GNU Link Map files
• CMake

[Priyanka]

Thank you. But I am a bit confused as you have included two screenshots. So the nRF Connect for VSCode extension pack seems to be activated, but three extensions, i.e. nrf Connect for VSCode, GNU Link Map files and CMake seem to not be activated yet. Is this right?

[teedoubleyuh]

The extension support team showed the Runtime status of the "nRF Connect for VS Code" extension itself. Mine says it is "Not yet activated". 

The Nordic documentation recommends installation of the "nRF Connect for VS Code Extension Pack" which installs seven extensions: "nRF Connect for VS Code", "nRF Terminal", "nRF DeviceTree", "nRF Kconfig", "C/C++", "GNU Linker Map files", and "CMake". So I included a screenshot of the Runtime status reported by the "nRF Connect for VS Code Extension Pack" also. The extension pack itself claims to be active but if you look at details for all extensions the pack installs, three of the seven extensions report as not yet activated:

• nRF Connect for VS Code
• GNU Link Map files
• CMake

So yes, you are correct that those three are not activated on my system. It seems safest to not look at the runtime status of the extension pack itself but rather the individual extensions it installs.

[Priyanka]

Thank you. We will look into this and get back to you as soon as possible.

-Priyanka

[Priyanka]

Hi Travis,

Could you verify that you do not see anything here too, when you "reload: window" 

-Priyanka

[teedoubleyuh]

Correct, nothing there:

[Priyanka]

What are the problems that appear? It looks like there are 66 problems.

-Priyanka

[teedoubleyuh]

Those are just from an example main.c program I had open at the time and many of them are just flagged as unknown spelling issues. Here is a new screenshot after reloading the window without any files open: