Unable to Start Debugging in WSL CentOS 7.9 Environment

Environment

• OS: Windows11 with WSL (2.4.11.0)
• WSL Distribution: CentOS 7.9
• VS Code Version: 1.98.1
• C/C++ Extension Version (cpptools): 1.22.11
• GDB version: 7.6.1

Bug Summary and Steps to Reproduce

Bug Summary:

I am unable to successfully start debugging by pressing F5 in my current setup. The debugging session does not initiate, and I am unsure how to diagnose the issue.

Steps to reproduce:

Environment Setup

I installed CentOS 7.9 as a WSL2 subsystem by downloading and extracting the archive from the following link:
https://github.com/mishamosher/CentOS-WSL/releases/tag/7.9-2211.

After ensuring that WSL2 (with Hyper-V) was enabled, I right-clicked the installer and ran it as an administrator to complete the CentOS 7 installation.

0. Creating a Non-Administrator User

I created a user named dongbox (me) using the following command:

useradd -m -G wheel -s /bin/bash dongbox && echo "dongbox:dongbox" | chpasswd

1. Switching to Aliyun Mirror for Faster Package Downloads

curl -o /etc/yum.repos.d/CentOS-Base.repo https://mirrors.aliyun.com/repo/Centos-7.repo

yum clean all && yum makecache

2. Installing GCC, G++, and GDB via YUM

sudo yum install -y gcc gcc-c++ gdb

3. Installing CMake 3.28

wget https://github.com/Kitware/CMake/releases/download/v3.28.0/cmake-3.28.0-linux-x86_64.tar.gz
tar -xvzf cmake-3.28.0-linux-x86_64.tar.gz
mv cmake-3.28.0-linux-x86_64 /opt/cmake-3.28.0
ln -s /opt/cmake-3.28.0/bin/cmake /usr/local/bin/cmake

Issue: Debugging Failure in VSCode

After setting up the environment, I connected to CentOS 7.9 via VSCode Remote - WSL and attempted to compile and debug my program. However, debugging failed, its waitting forever.

Debugger Configurations

{
    // Use IntelliSense to learn about possible attributes.
    // Hover to view descriptions of existing attributes.
    // For more information, visit: https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?linkid=830387
    "version": "0.2.0",
    "configurations": [
        
        {
            "name": "(GF_CTJ) Launch",
            "type": "cppdbg",
            "request": "launch",
            "program": "${workspaceFolder}/GF_CTJ/program/model/demo/APS_PROJECT_DEMO",
            "args": [],
            "stopAtEntry": false,
            "cwd": "${workspaceFolder}",
            "environment": [],
            "externalConsole": true,
            "MIMode": "gdb",
            "setupCommands": [
                {
                    "description": "Enable pretty-printing for gdb",
                    "text": "-enable-pretty-printing",
                    "ignoreFailures": true
                },
                {
                    "description": "Set Disassembly Flavor to Intel",
                    "text": "-gdb-set disassembly-flavor intel",
                    "ignoreFailures": true
                }
            ],
            "logging": { "engineLogging": true, "trace": true, "traceResponse": true }
        }
        

    ]
}

Debugger Logs

--> E (output): {"type":"event","event":"output","body":{"category":"console","output":"1: (1754) LaunchOptions{\"name\":\"(GF_CTJ) Launch\",\"type\":\"cppdbg\",\"request\":\"launch\",\"program\":\"/home/dongbox/work/aps-projects/GF_CTJ/program/model/demo/APS_PROJECT_DEMO\",\"args\":[],\"stopAtEntry\":false,\"cwd\":\"/home/dongbox/work/aps-projects\",\"environment\":[],\"externalConsole\":true,\"MIMode\":\"gdb\",\"setupCommands\":[{\"description\":\"Enable pretty-printing for gdb\",\"text\":\"-enable-pretty-printing\",\"ignoreFailures\":true},{\"description\":\"Set Disassembly Flavor to Intel\",\"text\":\"-gdb-set disassembly-flavor intel\",\"ignoreFailures\":true}],\"logging\":{\"engineLogging\":true,\"trace\":true,\"traceResponse\":true},\"__configurationTarget\":6,\"__sessionId\":\"47b4f490-406a-4b3c-bf3b-237cb4e1371e\"}\n"},"seq":2}
1: (1754) LaunchOptions{"name":"(GF_CTJ) Launch","type":"cppdbg","request":"launch","program":"/home/dongbox/work/aps-projects/GF_CTJ/program/model/demo/APS_PROJECT_DEMO","args":[],"stopAtEntry":false,"cwd":"/home/dongbox/work/aps-projects","environment":[],"externalConsole":true,"MIMode":"gdb","setupCommands":[{"description":"Enable pretty-printing for gdb","text":"-enable-pretty-printing","ignoreFailures":true},{"description":"Set Disassembly Flavor to Intel","text":"-gdb-set disassembly-flavor intel","ignoreFailures":true}],"logging":{"engineLogging":true,"trace":true,"traceResponse":true},"__configurationTarget":6,"__sessionId":"47b4f490-406a-4b3c-bf3b-237cb4e1371e"}
--> E (output): {"type":"event","event":"output","body":{"category":"console","output":"1: (1800) DbgCmd:echo $$ > /tmp/Microsoft-MIEngine-Pid-ywajxroh.xrf ; cd \"/home/dongbox/work/aps-projects/GF_CTJ/program/model/demo\" ; DbgTerm=`tty` ; set -o monitor ; trap 'rm \"/tmp/Microsoft-MIEngine-In-ujrknyku.gp4\" \"/tmp/Microsoft-MIEngine-Out-4khefns3.q5x\" \"/tmp/Microsoft-MIEngine-Pid-ywajxroh.xrf\" \"/tmp/Microsoft-MIEngine-Cmd-uyhouolm.c52\"' EXIT ; \"/usr/bin/gdb\" --interpreter=mi --tty=$DbgTerm < \"/tmp/Microsoft-MIEngine-In-ujrknyku.gp4\" > \"/tmp/Microsoft-MIEngine-Out-4khefns3.q5x\" & clear; pid=$! ; echo $pid > \"/tmp/Microsoft-MIEngine-Pid-ywajxroh.xrf\" ; wait $pid; \n"},"seq":4}
1: (1800) DbgCmd:echo $$ > /tmp/Microsoft-MIEngine-Pid-ywajxroh.xrf ; cd "/home/dongbox/work/aps-projects/GF_CTJ/program/model/demo" ; DbgTerm=`tty` ; set -o monitor ; trap 'rm "/tmp/Microsoft-MIEngine-In-ujrknyku.gp4" "/tmp/Microsoft-MIEngine-Out-4khefns3.q5x" "/tmp/Microsoft-MIEngine-Pid-ywajxroh.xrf" "/tmp/Microsoft-MIEngine-Cmd-uyhouolm.c52"' EXIT ; "/usr/bin/gdb" --interpreter=mi --tty=$DbgTerm < "/tmp/Microsoft-MIEngine-In-ujrknyku.gp4" > "/tmp/Microsoft-MIEngine-Out-4khefns3.q5x" & clear; pid=$! ; echo $pid > "/tmp/Microsoft-MIEngine-Pid-ywajxroh.xrf" ; wait $pid; 
--> C (runInTerminal-6): {"type":"request","command":"runInTerminal","arguments":{"kind":"external","title":"cppdbg: APS_PROJECT_DEMO","cwd":"","args":["/bin/sh","/tmp/Microsoft-MIEngine-Cmd-uyhouolm.c52"],"env":{}},"seq":6}
--> E (output): {"type":"event","event":"output","body":{"category":"console","output":"1: (1811) Wait for connection completion.\n"},"seq":8}
1: (1811) Wait for connection completion.

Other Extensions

Extensions installed on WSL: CentOS7:

donjayamanne.githistory
esbenp.prettier-vscode
github.copilot
github.copilot-chat
mhutchie.git-graph
ms-python.black-formatter
ms-python.debugpy
ms-python.isort
ms-python.python
ms-python.vscode-pylance
ms-toolsai.datawrangler
ms-toolsai.jupyter
ms-toolsai.jupyter-keymap
ms-toolsai.jupyter-renderers
ms-toolsai.vscode-jupyter-cell-tags
ms-toolsai.vscode-jupyter-slideshow
ms-vscode.cmake-tools
ms-vscode.cpptools
twxs.cmake
yy0931.vscode-sqlite3-editor

Additional Information

When I run OpenDebugAD7 manually, I get the following output:

$ ~/.vscode-server/extensions/ms-vscode.cpptools-1.22.11/debugAdapters/bin/OpenDebugAD7 
waiting for v8 protocol on stdin/stdout

Start with the provided debugger configuration and the cpptools engine log, especially the runInTerminal request and the “Wait for connection completion” message. Compare that behavior with the manual OpenDebugAD7 output and the reported CentOS 7.9, GDB 7.6.1, and WSL setup; done means identifying why the F5 session does not start or documenting the required configuration change.