How do I install the linux version of VSCode on an ARM64 Chromebook?

Question

Did I get the following error because my Chromebook has an ARM64 chip instead of Intel?

Reading package lists... Done Building dependency tree
Reading state information... Done Note, selecting 'code:amd64' instead of './code_1.38.1-1568209190_amd64 (1).deb' Some packages could not be installed. This may mean that you have requested an impossible situation or if you are using the unstable distribution that some required packages have not yet been created or been moved out of Incoming. The following information may help to resolve the situation:

The following packages have unmet dependencies: code:amd64 : Depends: libnotify4:amd64 but it is not installable Depends: libnss3:amd64 (>= 2:3.26) but it is not installable Depends: apt:amd64 but it is not installable Depends: libxkbfile1:amd64 but it is not installable Depends: libsecret-1-0:amd64 but it is not installable Depends: libgtk-3-0:amd64 (>= 3.10.0) but it is not installable Depends: libxss1:amd64 but it is not installable E: Unable to correct problems, you have held broken packages.

I got the above message after downloading the .deb file from https://code.visualstudio.com for my Chromebook with linux (Debian) enabled and entering this command in Terminal:

sudo apt install ./code_1.38.1-1568209190_amd64\ (1).deb

Microsoft provides instructions for "Debian and Ubuntu based distributions" here: https://code.visualstudio.com/docs/setup/linux.

Solution 1

Did I get the following error because my Chromebook has an ARM64 chip instead of Intel?

At this time Visual Studio Code compiled by Microsoft only supports x86 processors. The error message you received surrounding unmet dependencies with AMD64 indicates this fact.

Due to the fact Visual Studio Code is open source the open source community has ARM support covered.

Source: Community builds of Visual Studio Code for Chromebooks and Raspberry Pi

Solution 2

The ARM64 version of Visual Studio Code is now available on the VS website:

https://code.visualstudio.com/Download

(Available for both Debian/Ubuntu and Redhat/Fedora)

Comments

[LiveWireBT]

Good to know that there is a short link, but Microsoft now offer ARM 64 builds officially on their website: code.visualstudio.com/download#