Using VSCode SSH Remote with Lima-VM

[fwilhe2]

I was wondering if it is possible to use the ssh remote plugin for vs code with lima.

I think this is a great way to do development inside a vm in cases where this makes sense, IE working in a container does not provide the needed isolation or system access. In my case I was looking for a way to work with mininet without compromising my host system.

Here is what I found:

It works well with the following things to consider:

Make sure to have a ssh key on the machine (was missing in my case when I first tried)

Given this configuration

ssh:
  localPort: 55555
  loadDotSSHPubKeys: true

I can connect in vs code via the ssh remote plugin with the line myusername@localhost:55555

Setting a fixed local port is optional but I think it is more convenient than using randomly generated ports that need to be looked up.

(Previous post below, also works but is worse and more complicated, at this point I had not realized I was missing my own ssh key which required setting the ssh config file in vs code):

It seems to work this way, not sure if there is a more continent way:

• I've ran limactl show-ssh --format=options my-vm and copied the output to a file
• I've configured that file in this option in vs code: Remote.SSH: Config File The absolute file path to a custom SSH config file.
• Now I've been able to connect via the ssh plugin with myuser@localhost:$VMPORT

Without the custom ssh config file I get a public key denied error.

I have not used this yet but it looks promising. It would be nice if this could be made a bit more smooth.

[afbjorklund]

There is now a ssh.config generated for each instance, so can use that file instead of show-ssh.

echo "Include ${LIMA_HOME:-$HOME/.lima}/default/ssh.config" >> ~/.ssh/config

Then you should be able to connect to "lima-default" (or any other instance), without parameters.

ssh lima-default

---

You can also add the ssh.config, from VS Code.

/home/anders/.lima/default/ssh.config

It should be available as a host, to connect to:

[fwilhe2]

Awesome, I was not aware of this. This is better. Thanks for sharing 🚀

Is this something that is or should be documented? I'd be happy to contribute docs if that makes sense.

[afbjorklund]

My idea was that it could go in the extended documentation, even if it's a bit outside the basic docs?

Not sure if it should be a book, or if it should be a part of https://lima-vm.io/

[lattice0]

Another option would be to use VSCode tunnels, which will even work over another network with no dynamic DNS setup, port forwarding, etc.

[fwilhe2]

I guess this is what you are referring to, right? Never noticed that before.

I'm not sure if it has any advantages in my use case, but good to know there are more options. Thanks for sharing.

[lattice0]

The advantages are that you can access anywhere, even through vscode.dev, without having to worry about port forwarding and dynamic IP. My IPS for example blocks outside connections. I see you are complaining about containers as well because they do not offer isolation. You can use a remote devcontainer over the remote SSH inside the VM, which would be perfect. Unfortunately it does not work fos vscode.dev yet (you could help doing a +1 on my request microsoft/vscode-remote-release#9059)

[mshlain]

Wanted to share my cozy dev setup on mac
in my .ssh/config:

Host lima-box
  HostName 127.0.0.1
  User lima-admin
  Port 60022
  IdentityFile ~/.lima/_config/user
  StrictHostKeyChecking=no
  UserKnownHostsFile=/dev/null

now i can jump into with

code --folder-uri vscode-remote://ssh-remote+lima-box/home/lima-admin

[fwilhe2]

Thanks for sharing, I'll try that out

[afbjorklund]

If you use the generated file, it will automatically reflect any changes in dynamic ports and add some optimizations as well.

You can of course duplicate it in your ~/.ssh/config like this, but you shouldn't have to... Maybe for adding another user etc.