Can't use older images in VS Code (missing glibc >= 2.28)

[Tinathnath]

Describe the bug
In newer versions of VS Code (since 03/2025), older images of SPFx won't start in VSC remote container since VSC server requires a newer version of Linux with glibc >= 2.28.
Source : https://code.visualstudio.com/docs/remote/faq#_can-i-run-vs-code-server-on-older-linux-distributions.

I see 1.12.1 image inherits from node:14.17.0 that itself inherits from Debian 9. Is there a way to have Node 14 on a recent Linux image ?

To Reproduce
Steps to reproduce the behavior:

1. Create a devcontainer definitions targeting an older image (e.g. 1.12.1)
2. Click "Reopen in container"
3. See the error

Warning: Missing GLIBCXX >= 3.4.25! from /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libstdc++.so.6.0.22
Warning: Missing GLIBC >= 2.28! from /lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libc-2.24.so
Error: Missing required dependencies. Please refer to our FAQ https://aka.ms/vscode-remote/faq/old-linux for additional information.

Desktop (please complete the following information):

• OS: Mac OS
• Image version 1.12.1

Screenshots

[waldekmastykarz]

Thanks for bringing this up. If we can find a more recent base image with Node 14 then we could absolutely do it. Do you have any suggestions what we could use?

[Tinathnath]

I'm not very familiar with Linux versions and compatibility matters, I asked an IA 🫣 : apparently there are node variants based on Debian 11 bullseye & 12 bookworm. It says bullseye might be a good catch since it is way more recent than Debian 9 and has an excellent compatibility with VSC Server.
There is no variant targeting exactly node 14.17.0 but I found node 14.17.6-bullseye, there is also the latest v14 : 14.21.3-bullseye. These might be an alternative 🤷‍♂️

[waldekmastykarz]

Thanks for looking into it. 14.17.6 seems just as old as 14.17.0 (4 years) so I'm skeptical if it would be of much help. 14.21.3 on the other hand is "only" two years old so it's more promising. Before we apply the changes in our images, could you please try to build a local image and see if using 14.21.3 as base helps?

[Tinathnath]

Hi ! Indeed 14.21.3 seems a good candidate. I’m off until August 25th, I won’t be able to try before but I’ll let you know 😁

[waldekmastykarz]

Enjoy your time off!

[Tinathnath]

Hi @waldekmastykarz ! Sorry for being sooo late, past weeks have been really busy, you know what it is 😅
I tried building the image from node:14.21.3-bullseye and it's a massive fail. The image does not build because Yeoman v5 seems to be incompatible (architecture issue ?).

However I tried with the "standard" image node:14.21.3 (identical to node:14:21.3-buster ?) which is based on Debian 10 and is stated as compatible in the VSC Server docs : https://code.visualstudio.com/docs/remote/linux, and... it works ! 🎉
I did not run advanced tests because the only codebase targeting SPFx 1.12.1 I have is a small project, but the image does build, devcontainer runs, and gulp build inside the decvontainer runs too. We may have a good candidate 😊

[waldekmastykarz]

No problem! I appreciate your persistence and testing it out. So the next step is for us to update the older images to base off of 14.21.3. I'll need to check which images need updating and what's the best way to go about it. I'll share an update here when I get to it.