Dialogs not opening

[s8foschm]

I have had an issue for the last few days, where vscodium on my system does not open any dialogs. When I want to open a file, trying 3 different options (file menu -> open file, Ctrl + O, and entering "open file" in the command palette), nothing happens. Same goes for the "Save as" menu.
What could cause this? Also, is there a way I could find error logs or something like that, so that I can provide more information?
I am running the latest version of VSCode from the AUR, on a Manjaro system with i3 Window Manager. Everything is up to date.

[aaronthefullstackengineer]

Hi! It sounds like you are running into an issue related to dialog handling in VSCodium/VSCode on i3 WM. This is a known problem sometimes caused by the combination of Wayland/X11 settings, GTK versions, or the window manager not allowing modal dialogs to open correctly.

Here’s how you can debug and potentially fix it:

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1. Check the logs

You can start VSCodium from a terminal to see error messages:

codium --verbose

or check the main log file if it exists:

~/.config/VSCodium/logs/

Look for entries related to dialogs or GTK errors.

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2. Test with a clean profile

Sometimes extensions or settings can interfere. Try running:

codium --user-data-dir /tmp/vscodium-test

Then try opening a file or saving as. If it works, the problem is likely in your config or extensions.

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3. Check window manager / GTK issues

• i3 sometimes blocks modal dialogs depending on how it handles transient windows.
• Try running VSCodium with XWayland explicitly if you’re on Wayland:

env GDK_BACKEND=x11 codium

• Make sure your GTK packages are up to date:

sudo pacman -Syu gtk3 gtk4

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4. Try alternative dialog handling

• Some users workaround this by launching VSCodium with a specific environment variable:

export VSCODE_USE_X11=true
codium

This forces the app to use X11 dialogs instead of any Wayland/GTK ones that may misbehave.

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Summary:

• Open VSCodium from terminal (--verbose) to check errors.
• Test with a clean user-data-dir to rule out extensions/configs.
• Try forcing X11 or updating GTK packages.
• i3 WM sometimes requires extra config for modal dialogs to work correctly.

These steps should help you identify the underlying cause and provide logs for further help.