github / github/copilot-cli

v1.0.46 fails to start MCP server on Ubuntu 20.04

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#3,296 2 comments 0 reactions 0 assignees View on GitHub
area:installation area:mcp area:platform-linux
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Description

### Describe the bug

When upgrading to v1.0.46 on my ubuntu 20.04 machine, I noticed that the MCP servers don't start anymore. After investigating, this seems to be because the runtime (native/runtime/runtime.linux-x64-gnu.node) is compiled for glibc 2.33 or later, but Ubuntu 20.04 only ships with 2.31.

I used a different copilot on a different machine to solve the problem, which did the following:

_1. ELF-patched 4 .node files to remove the VERNEED version requirements for GLIBC_2.33/GLIBC_2.34 (using a Python script + patchelf --clear-symbol-version), and added libpthread.so.0/libdl.so.2 to their NEEDED entries where required
2. Built /home/user/.local/lib/glibc_compat.so — a small C shim that exposes stat64/fstat64 as public symbols (wrapping glibc
2.31's internal __xstat64/__fxstat64)
3. Replaced /home/user/.local/bin/copilot with a wrapper script that sets LD_PRELOAD=glibc_compat.so before launching copilot.bin_

### Affected version

Github Copilot CLI 1.0.46

### Steps to reproduce the behavior

1. Fire up a Ubuntu 20.04
2. Install copilot 1.0.46 (maybe latest as well?)
3. Start copilot and observe error messages about MCP server failing to start due to some npm issue (a bit misleading).

### Expected behavior

_No response_

### Additional context

_No response_

Contributor guide

Open the contributing guide

Research direction

Start by reproducing the MCP startup failure on Ubuntu 20.04 from the listed installation and launch steps. Inspect native/runtime/runtime.linux-x64-gnu.node and the installed copilot launcher, then compare the binary's GLIBC requirements with the host's glibc 2.31. Done means v1.0.46 starts MCP servers without the misleading npm-related failure.

Written by the indexing model from the issue text.

Assessment

Tech stack
c, node.js, python, shell, ubuntu
Domain
cli, operating-systems
Issue type
Bug
Difficulty
4/5
Estimated time
3-5 days
Activity status
Quiet
Clarity
Mostly clear
Newbie friendliness
42/100

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