Cannot run VSCode source code because its unable to find electron app in directory - visual-studio-code

Question

Overview:
When I attempt to run VSCode with the instructions given in the contributions page to download all the packages, build the source code, and then run it all on the terminal, an error message pops up saying that I don't have the electron app in the vscode directory. Shouldn't have the electron app been installed when I ran the yarn command to install and build all the dependencies?
Steps to reproduce the bug:
$ yarn //building and installing all dependencies
$ yarn watchd //building vscode
$ ./scripts/code.sh //running vscode
Error Message:
Error launching app
Unable to find Electron app at /home/juan/Desktop/Projects/vscode
Cannot find module '/home/juan/Desktop/Projects/vscode/out/main'. Please verify that the package.json has a valid "main" entry
System Details:
CPUs | Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-6600U CPU # 2.60GHz (4 x 3200)
-- | --
GPU Status | 2d_canvas: unavailable_softwareflash_3d: disabled_softwareflash_stage3d: disabled_softwareflash_stage3d_baseline: disabled_softwaregpu_compositing: disabled_softwaremultiple_raster_threads: enabled_onoop_rasterization: disabled_offprotected_video_decode: disabled_offrasterization: disabled_softwareskia_renderer: disabled_off_okvideo_decode: disabled_softwareviz_display_compositor: enabled_onviz_hit_test_surface_layer: disabled_off_okwebgl: unavailable_softwarewebgl2: unavailable_software
Load (avg) | 1, 1, 1
Memory (System) | 7.63GB (0.12GB free)
Process Argv | . --no-sandbox
Screen Reader | no
VM | 0%
OS|Ubuntu 18.04 LTS
Extensions:
Extension | Author (truncated) | Version
-- | -- | --
Bookmarks | ale | 11.2.0
vscode-sqlite | ale | 0.8.2
code-gnu-global | aus | 0.2.2
npm-intellisense | chr | 1.3.0
vscode-svgviewer | css | 2.0.0
vscode-markdownlint | Dav | 0.36.0
jshint | dba | 0.10.21
vscode-eslint | dba | 2.1.5
vscode-html-css | ecm | 0.2.3
EditorConfig | Edi | 0.15.1
vscode-npm-script | eg2 | 0.3.12
vscode-firefox-debug | fir | 2.8.0
beautify | Hoo | 1.5.0
vscode-emacs-friendly | lfs | 0.9.0
rainbow-csv | mec | 1.7.0
python | ms- | 2020.5.80290
cpptools | ms- | 0.28.2
debugger-for-chrome | msj | 4.12.8
sqltools | mtx | 0.22.5
material-icon-theme | PKi | 4.1.0
rust | rus | 0.7.8
lc2k | vio | 1.1.1
Here is the bug report I filled in the vscode github page: https://github.com/microsoft/vscode/issues/99537

Answer 1

I got this same error myself when the code did not build correctly.
In your second step you do:
yarn watchd
I tried this command myself, but ran into the same issue that you have stated here. Although the official wiki suggests this as a tip, I would just ignore it.
Instead, do either of these instead (this is what the official wiki originally suggest to do):
Type: Ctrl + Shift + B
Or alternatively use the Command Palette:
Type: Ctrl + Shift + P
Search for the option called: Tasks: Run Build Task and select it.
Once you start the build task you'll see a couple of things:
Firstly, at the bottom of VS Code (on your status line), VS Code will let you know the code is building.
Secondly, The build command will open two terminals:
Task - Build VS Code
Task - Build VS Code Extensions
Watch the output for both of terminals, make sure:
Task - Build VS Code terminal outputs: [some time] Finished compilation ...
and
Task - Build VS Code Extensions terminal outputs: [some time] Finished compilation extensions ...
If not and the build fails, you'll probably get a notification from VS code saying so (You'll probably get the error twice, one for each task):
yarn ... exited with code [some non-zero integer]
A common error that may occur is the ENOSPC error from inotify (also documented well in a medium blog). You'll want to issue this command:
echo fs.inotify.max_user_watches=524288 | sudo tee -a /etc/sysctl.conf && sudo sysctl -p
Arch users would issue:
echo fs.inotify.max_user_watches=524288 | sudo tee /etc/sysctl.d/40-max-user-watches.conf && sudo sysctl --system
After fixing this, trying to build again should work. Start the build task again and make sure both tasks succeed. (You'll notice that the tasks do not end after they succeed. This is because they will watch for changes you make in the code while developing and automatically recompile for you).
If successful you may finally issue:
./scripts/code.sh
A new instance of VS Code should open called: Code - OSS dev. This is the version of VS Code you just built.