Extensions pane does populate until started without extensions (Linux)

Does this issue occur when all extensions are disabled?: No (See below for explanation.)

Running Linux Mint. Steps to Reproduce:

1. Start VS Code
2. Click the "Extensions" Icon on the left toolbar

The Extensions pane opens, but is empty. A "Cylon" busy indicator just runs forever.

This is obviously a regression, perhaps in the latest VS Code version, perhaps the one before.

I do not use any of the chat-related features: just basic Markdown, Python, Jupyter, Git and the like.

In addition, the Help-->Report Issue menu item does nothing.

Clicking "Show Running Extensions" from the "..." button in the Extensions pane shows a blank "Running Extensions" pane. Clicking the circular refresh button in the Extensions pane does nothing. Typing a search term in the Search control in the Extensions pane removes the (0) icon, but otherwise leaves the pane empty.

While the Extensions pane is empty, it seems that the installed extensions do, in fact, work. For example, I have a spell checker installed and it does work within a Markdown document. It seems that it is the display of extensions, not their operation, which is impaired.

Launching VS Code with `code --disable-extensions` does display the list of extensions, but the "Cylon" busy indicator still spins. Relaunching VS Code as usual then does populate the Extensions pane. The Help --> Report Issue menu item now works. The busy indicator no longer spins. Note that the key step is starting without extensions. Simply restarting VS Code as usual did not fix the issue.

Perhaps the there was a problem with some internal state that restarting without extensions fixed? I would be great if VS Code itself could fix that, rather than having zillions of users figure out how to fix it.

Workarounds:

1. Revert to an earlier version, or
2. Start VS Code with `code --disable-extensions`, exit, and start normally.

Version: 1.137.0
Commit: 645f29cc3176500b4b5762ba887cf2a7f0ffdf2c
Date: 2026-09-08T13:43:59-07:00
Electron: 42.10.0
ElectronBuildId: 15109253
Chromium: 148.0.7778.280
Node.js: 24.18.1
V8: 14.8.178.38-electron.0
@github/copilot: 1.0.84.70.gdb75d0d
@github/copilot-sdk: 1.0.13-preview.4
OS: Linux x64 6.8.0-136-generic