Copilot fails with error @github/copilot-linux-x64/copilot: 1: Syntax error: ")" unexpected

[ioweb-gr]

Describe the bug

After upgrading copilot it stopped working entirely with the error

/root/.local/share/mise/installs/node/22.21.1/lib/node_modules/@github/copilot/node_modules/@github/copilot-linux-x64/copilot: 1: Syntax error: ")" unexpected

Affected version

No response

Steps to reproduce the behavior

Setup information

1. In WSL 1 install mise https://mise.jdx.dev/ (Ubuntu 20.04)
2. Install node 20 or 22 via mise e.g. mise use node@22
3. Install github copilot via npm i -g @github/copilot either latest version or pre-release

Try to run

copilot

An error appears

/root/.local/share/mise/installs/node/22.21.1/lib/node_modules/@github/copilot/node_modules/@github/copilot-linux-x64/copilot: 1: Syntax error: ")" unexpected

Previously it worked fine for me

Expected behavior

copilot runs properly

Additional context

No response

[upacra]

#997

[RyanHecht]

Hey! By chance, does installing the precompiled binary via the install script work? curl -fsSL https://gh.io/copilot-install | bash

[ioweb-gr]

Nice idea. I tried it out and it seems it installed it in /usr/local/bin/copilot which mise was overriding.

However after manually running it via it's path directly it still gave an error

Exec format error

root@LUCIANO-PC:~#  curl -fsSL https://gh.io/copilot-install | bash
Installing GitHub Copilot CLI...
Downloading from: https://github.com/github/copilot-cli/releases/latest/download/copilot-linux-x64.tar.gz
✓ Checksum validated
✓ GitHub Copilot CLI installed to /usr/local/bin/copilot

Installation complete! Run 'copilot help' to get started.
root@LUCIANO-PC:~# copilot
/root/.local/share/mise/installs/node/22.21.1/lib/node_modules/@github/copilot/node_modules/@github/copilot-linux-x64/copilot: 1: Syntax error: ")" unexpected
root@LUCIANO-PC:~# /usr/local/bin/copilot
-bash: /usr/local/bin/copilot: cannot execute binary file: Exec format error
root@LUCIANO-PC:~#

[yelper]

I get the same behavior as ioweb-gr for both situations. I'm on WSL1 22.04.5 LTS, with my nvm default set to node 22.15.1.

When I initially connected Code to a folder on WSL and typed in copilot into the terminal without having installed it, I got prompted to install it.

Cannot find GitHub Copilot CLI (https://docs.github.com/en/copilot/how-tos/set-up/install-copilot-cli)
Install GitHub Copilot CLI? ['y/N'] N

When I hit yes, it thought for a couple seconds (presumably installing somewhere), then showed the same message again and didn't execute the program.

I then tried installing it directly with npm install -g @github/copilot, but it didn't help. I removed using npm uninstall and reinstalled, but then I got the original error that @ioweb-gr got. Installing to ~/.local/bin/ also yields the same error above, I tried chmod +x to the executable with no luck.

[yelper]

I think this is just a problem in general with running some (node) programs in WSL1, e.g., microsoft/WSL#8151

I updated to WSL2 (official docs, guide here) that took about 20 minutes, and the copilot executable now works with no changes.

[ioweb-gr]

Converting your instance the wsl2 is not appropriate for everyone. If you're using it on drvfs the speed of achieving anything is 100 times slower than wsl1.

Therefore having a proper solution for wsl1 would be the best outcome here