VSCode - Nordic KConfig extension misbehaviour/excessive CPU/memory usage.

RE: VSCode - Nordic KConfig extension misbehaviour/excessive CPU/memory usage.

Øyvind — Fri, 23 May 2025 07:31:16 GMT

pzaremba please open a new DevZone ticket with your issue as this case is 2 years old.

Kind regards,
Øyvind

RE: VSCode - Nordic KConfig extension misbehaviour/excessive CPU/memory usage.

pzaremba — Thu, 22 May 2025 23:55:23 GMT

I'm having the exact same problem. This thread saved me from pulling the rest of my hair out.

The "node" process on the dev container eats more and more memory and CPU until it runs out of memory, causing the whole extension host to reset and causing all kinds of chaos.

Something is seriously wrong with the KConfig extension when used in a Docker dev container.

Ubuntu 22.04 / VSCode dev container running on same version

VSCode version 1.100.0

nordic-semiconductor.nrf-kconfig

Version

2025.4.26

Last Updated

2025-05-22, 16:07:27

Size

4.66MB

Until there's some news on this, it remains disabled. Extremely frustrating amount of time I took to figure out this extension was causing my grief!

RE: VSCode - Nordic KConfig extension misbehaviour/excessive CPU/memory usage.

Øyvind — Mon, 13 Feb 2023 14:30:23 GMT

[quote user="Zsilet"]Please let me know if the VSCode extension team has any other questions if/when they do get around to debug this, I am happy to help. [/quote]

Thanks for letting us know! WIll have the team reach out if needed!

RE: VSCode - Nordic KConfig extension misbehaviour/excessive CPU/memory usage.

Zsilet — Fri, 10 Feb 2023 15:14:43 GMT

Yes, disabling the extension does resolve the issue and as such, this issue is not blocking me at this point. The only reason I have left the extension running for the last month is to provide more information on this ticket.

I am glad to hear that the issue may be known, and I'm not particularly looking for a timeline to a fix. I do want to note, as I mentioned earlier, that this seems to be broken in Kconfig v2022.11.50, and has worked fine in earlier versions.

Please let me know if the VSCode extension team has any other questions if/when they do get around to debug this, I am happy to help.

RE: VSCode - Nordic KConfig extension misbehaviour/excessive CPU/memory usage.

Øyvind — Fri, 10 Feb 2023 13:10:08 GMT

Are you able to disable the extension in VS code? Will this stop it using large amount of system resources? You should be able to disable the extension only in that workspace or disable the extension altogether and enable it only in the workspace where you wants to use it.

There is an ongoing internal fix for a similar issue, however, there is not timeline at the moment I'm afraid.

RE: VSCode - Nordic KConfig extension misbehaviour/excessive CPU/memory usage.

Zsilet — Wed, 08 Feb 2023 20:39:53 GMT

Does he expect the extension to provide anything in this workspace?

I expect/prefer the kconfig extension to be dormant in this deployment. I understand why it cannot perform it's job (as it cannot see the SDK).

My issue is that the extension interferes with my use of VSCode, specifically by:

Using a large amount of system resources
Constantly pulling focus from the Terminal window to the Output window (every time it throws another error), making it hard to use the terminal.
Causing VSCode to slow to the point that it takes 15-20 seconds just to save a file.

If the extension were to perform one initial check and then stay dormant till the next time I open the project etc, that would be perfectly acceptable.

RE: VSCode - Nordic KConfig extension misbehaviour/excessive CPU/memory usage.

Øyvind — Wed, 08 Feb 2023 09:56:40 GMT

Hello,

[quote user="Zsilet"] have included the VSCode output logs and a screenshot of the python script's process profile. [/quote]

Our VS Code extension team answers:

The user is not using the current VS Code workspace for NCS app development and his configuration does not point to an SDK. Does he expect the extension to provide anything in this workspace?

Have you verified that your workspace is pointing to the SDK?

RE: VSCode - Nordic KConfig extension misbehaviour/excessive CPU/memory usage.

Zsilet — Tue, 07 Feb 2023 14:39:04 GMT

Furthermore, it seems that the memory usage is steadily growing... there may be a memory leak at play here.

Here is the situation about 24 hours later. At this point my machine is starting to bog down, will need to restart.

RE: VSCode - Nordic KConfig extension misbehaviour/excessive CPU/memory usage.

Zsilet — Mon, 06 Feb 2023 21:01:47 GMT

Hello Øyvind,

The issue started happening again today (since 9:22AM when I booted my machine and started VScode, it has now been erroring for more than 6.5 hrs).

The memory consumption is not as bad as it was when I first saw it, but it's still significant.

I have included the VSCode output logs and a screenshot of the python script's process profile.

devzone.nordicsemi.com/.../Kconfig_5F00_throwing_5F00_errors_5F00_02062023.txt

RE: VSCode - Nordic KConfig extension misbehaviour/excessive CPU/memory usage.

Øyvind — Thu, 12 Jan 2023 08:32:07 GMT

Hi, thanks for providing this information.

[quote user="Zsilet"] I appreciate your support, so I want to be clear that, for some reason, I am unable to reproduce the issue at this point (ever since I disabled and re-enabled the extension). I will report back as soon as I reproduce it again. [/quote]

Thank you, and nothing to worry about. This is something we often see. Let's not close this ticket yet, and when you are able to reproduce just respond to this ticket.

[quote user="Zsilet"]This project is being built via a docker instance[/quote]

I will have a chat with the R&D people who are using Docker as well to see if they have any input.

Kind regards,
Øyvind

RE: VSCode - Nordic KConfig extension misbehaviour/excessive CPU/memory usage.

Zsilet — Wed, 11 Jan 2023 13:58:18 GMT

Hello Øyvind,

First off, I understand that your time is valuable, I appreciate your support, so I want to be clear that, for some reason, I am unable to reproduce the issue at this point (ever since I disabled and re-enabled the extension). I will report back as soon as I reproduce it again.

To answer your questions:

Yes, this is a freestanding project.
1. This project does not rely on ANY local nrfconnect SDK files.
2. This project is not opened through the nRFconnect extension.
3. This project is being built via a docker instance.
  1. The project folder gets mounted to the docker instance,
  2. The necessary SDK files and tools are all part of the docker image.
  3. The build directory structure is created by docker, but is located on the local file system (project_folder/build).
I have the nRFConnect extension installed for other (local) work, mainly to be able to compile/run samples. I also have the nRFConnect SDK installed locally for the same purpose.

My project has its own KConfig file, and includes a custom board definition and custom drivers I wrote which have their own KConfig files. The build output on the other hand has paths that reflect the folder hierarchy that docker sees (see 1.c.C above). This in turn explains why the locak KConfig extension reports " No such file or directory: '/home/docker/sdk/zephyr/Kconfig' not found. This in itself is NOT a problem. The problem is simply that the extension seems to be getting stuck in a loop reporting the error and bogging down my system.

RE: VSCode - Nordic KConfig extension misbehaviour/excessive CPU/memory usage.

Øyvind — Tue, 10 Jan 2023 07:12:53 GMT

Are you able to provide some more information on this topic? We are not able to reproduce at the moment.

Are you using workspaces actively, i.e. configuring workspace for NCS ? What did you configure the nRF Connect for VS Code extension too (under "open welcome page")

[quote user=""]Problem - while working in a project where VSCode does not have visibility to the nRFConnect SDK folders, but where the project includes project-specific KConfig files, the KConfig extension seems to be misbehaving as follows:[/quote]

Is this a freestanding project, which is in a different folder? For example in my setup I have:

/home/oysa/NCS/v2.2.0

And my projects are found in e.g.

/home/oysa/Projects/

Also, from the the support information you have provided I can see that there is no SDK configured.

RE: VSCode - Nordic KConfig extension misbehaviour/excessive CPU/memory usage.

Zsilet — Fri, 06 Jan 2023 15:16:06 GMT

Hello Øyvind,

Thank you for your quick response.

I have re-enabled the Kconfig extension to reproduce the issue, but so far I have only partially reproduced it. At the moment, I see issue 1) (continuously throwing errors), but I do not see issue 2 (cpu/memory usage).

Regardless, I am attaching the info you requested, as follows:

A log of >2400 errors thrown over the course of a day
The Generate Support Information output
Screenshot of the python process that was using too much memory (and is currently working fine).

As soon as I reproduce the resource usage issue, I will add evidence of it.

devzone.nordicsemi.com/.../Kconfig_5F00_throwing_5F00_errors.txt devzone.nordicsemi.com/.../nRFConnect_2D00_GenerateSupportInformation.txt

RE: VSCode - Nordic KConfig extension misbehaviour/excessive CPU/memory usage.

Øyvind — Wed, 04 Jan 2023 08:01:44 GMT

Hello,

Can you please provide the output of the extension command - nRF Connect: Generate Support Information as well?

[quote user=""]It throws an error into the VSCode output window every 1-2 minutes. This is annoying since it pulls focus from the terminal window even while one is actively interacting with the terminal). [/quote]

What error does it throw?

[quote user=""]It is using a massive amount of CPU and memory resources (causing computer to freeze pretty often). System monitor shows the underlying python process consuming anywhere from 1-2 GB of RAM at steady state, with spikes up to 5 GB.[/quote]

What python process is this, are you able to provide more information?

Thanks.

Kind regards,
Øyvind