GDB error while trying to enter break state due to level field; carry over issue from VS

I'm running into the same issue as others have raised for VS (not VS Code):
https://github.com/Microsoft/MIEngine/issues/144
https://github.com/Microsoft/VSLinux/issues/71

Seems like VS has this bug fixed, but VS Code does NOT. For others, the full msg I get when trying to gdb my multi-threaded application and trying to break at a given point is as follows:

ERROR: Error while trying to enter break state. Debugging will now stop. Unrecognized format of field "level" in result: {level=-1,addr=0x4110faf4,func=??,args=[]}
The program '/home/program_name has exited with code 42 (0x0000002a).

System configs I'm running:

• Ubuntu 16.04
• 1.24.1 VSCode:
• C/C++ Extension Version 0.17.5:

launch.json config:
"name": "program", "type": "cppdbg", "request": "launch", "miDebuggerPath": "~/arm-oe-linux-gnueabi-gdb", "targetArchitecture": "arm", "args": [], "stopAtEntry": true, "cwd": "", // omitted since not relevant "program": "", // omitted since not relevant "environment": [], "customLaunchSetupCommands": [ { "text": "target remote edison-xxxx:4444" }, { "text": "set sysroot xxxx" }, { "text": "file ${workspaceRoot}/result/xxxx" }, ] },