Terminal not opening in Windows

[scottbusche-usps]

Describe the bug

Opening a terminal window displays, Connecting... forever.

Reproduction steps

Navigate to a cluster and open a terminal window.

Expected behavior

The terminal window connects to the cluster.

Screenshots

Freelens version

1.6.0, this worked fine on 1.5.3 and is a regression.

Operating system type and version

Windows 11

Installation method

MSI

Kubernetes cluster version used with Freelens

Tried against 1.30 and 1.32

Logs

Logs:

error: [SHELL-SESSION]: failed to open a local shell The specified procedure could not be found.
\\?\C:\Users\moo\AppData\Local\Temp\31222249-f856-4dce-8305-adb7cf9760aa.tmp.node {"code":"ERR_DLOPEN_FAILED","stack":"Error: The specified procedure could not be found.\r\n\\\\?\\C:\\Users\\moo\\AppData\\Local\\Temp\\31222249-f856-4dce-8305-adb7cf9760aa.tmp.node\n    at process.func [as dlopen] (node:electron/js2c/node_init:2:2569)\n    at Module._extensions..node (node:internal/modules/cjs/loader:1930:18)\n    at Object.func [as .node] (node:electron/js2c/node_init:2:2796)\n    at Module.load (node:internal/modules/cjs/loader:1472:32)\n    at Module._load (node:internal/modules/cjs/loader:1289:12)\n    at c._load (node:electron/js2c/node_init:2:17950)\n    at TracingChannel.traceSync (node:diagnostics_channel:322:14)\n    at wrapModuleLoad (node:internal/modules/cjs/loader:242:24)\n    at Module.require (node:internal/modules/cjs/loader:1494:12)\n    at require (node:internal/modules/helpers:135:16)"}

Kubeconfig

N/A

Additional context

No response

[avatin-powens]

Same problem here, maybe full stack trace could be useful:

innerError Error: Cannot find module '../build/Debug/pty.node'
Require stack:
- C:\Users\****\AppData\Local\Programs\freelens\resources\app.asar\node_modules\node-pty\lib\windowsPtyAgent.js
- C:\Users\****\AppData\Local\Programs\freelens\resources\app.asar\node_modules\node-pty\lib\windowsTerminal.js
- C:\Users\****\AppData\Local\Programs\freelens\resources\app.asar\node_modules\node-pty\lib\index.js
- C:\Users\****\AppData\Local\Programs\freelens\resources\app.asar\node_modules\@freelensapp\core\static\build\library\main.js
- C:\Users\****\AppData\Local\Programs\freelens\resources\app.asar\static\build\main.js
-
    at Module._resolveFilename (node:internal/modules/cjs/loader:1408:15)
    at s._resolveFilename (node:electron/js2c/browser_init:2:129227)
    at defaultResolveImpl (node:internal/modules/cjs/loader:1064:19)
    at resolveForCJSWithHooks (node:internal/modules/cjs/loader:1069:22)
    at Module._load (node:internal/modules/cjs/loader:1218:37)
    at c._load (node:electron/js2c/node_init:2:17950)
    at TracingChannel.traceSync (node:diagnostics_channel:322:14)
    at wrapModuleLoad (node:internal/modules/cjs/loader:242:24)
    at Module.require (node:internal/modules/cjs/loader:1494:12)
    at require (node:internal/modules/helpers:135:16) {
  code: 'MODULE_NOT_FOUND',
  requireStack: [
    'C:\\Users\\****\\AppData\\Local\\Programs\\freelens\\resources\\app.asar\\node_modules\\node-pty\\lib\\windowsPtyAgent.js',
    'C:\\Users\\****\\AppData\\Local\\Programs\\freelens\\resources\\app.asar\\node_modules\\node-pty\\lib\\windowsTerminal.js',
    'C:\\Users\\****\\AppData\\Local\\Programs\\freelens\\resources\\app.asar\\node_modules\\node-pty\\lib\\index.js',
    'C:\\Users\\****\\AppData\\Local\\Programs\\freelens\\resources\\app.asar\\node_modules\\@freelensapp\\core\\static\\build\\library\\main.js',
    'C:\\Users\\****\\AppData\\Local\\Programs\\freelens\\resources\\app.asar\\static\\build\\main.js',
    undefined
  ]
}

error:   ┏ [SHELL-SESSION]: failed to open a local shell The specified module could not be found.
\\?\C:\Users\****\AppData\Local\Temp\****.tmp.node +6s
error:   ┃ [ 1] Error: The specified module could not be found.
error:   ┃ [ 2] \\?\C:\Users\****\AppData\Local\Temp\****.tmp.node
error:   ┃ [ 3]     at process.func [as dlopen] (node:electron/js2c/node_init:2:2569)
error:   ┃ [ 4]     at Module._extensions..node (node:internal/modules/cjs/loader:1930:18)
error:   ┃ [ 5]     at Object.func [as .node] (node:electron/js2c/node_init:2:2796)
error:   ┃ [ 6]     at Module.load (node:internal/modules/cjs/loader:1472:32)
error:   ┃ [ 7]     at Module._load (node:internal/modules/cjs/loader:1289:12)
error:   ┃ [ 8]     at c._load (node:electron/js2c/node_init:2:17950)
error:   ┃ [ 9]     at TracingChannel.traceSync (node:diagnostics_channel:322:14)
error:   ┃ [10]     at wrapModuleLoad (node:internal/modules/cjs/loader:242:24)
error:   ┃ [11]     at Module.require (node:internal/modules/cjs/loader:1494:12)
error:   ┃ [12]     at require (node:internal/modules/helpers:135:16)
error:   ┗ [13] { code: 'ERR_DLOPEN_FAILED', timestamp: '24/09/2025 19:15:11' }

[dex4er]

I don't see any obvious error besides maybe sideffect of #1117

I don't have a Windows machine to build (x86) as I'm using only arm64, so my possibilities to troubleshoot it are limited. Can anybody help with this regression?

This command should help with checking if pty.node (or any other file) is in asar:

pnpm asar l C:\Users\dex4er\AppData\Local\Programs\freelens\resources\app.asar | Select-String "pty"

v1.6.0 output:

\node_modules\node-pty\build\Release\obj\conpty\conpty.node.recipe
\node_modules\node-pty\build\Release\obj\pty\pty.node.recipe
\node_modules\node-pty\build\Release\conpty.node
\node_modules\node-pty\build\Release\pty.node
\node_modules\node-pty\bin\win32-arm64-133\node-pty.node

v1.5.3 output:

\node_modules\node-pty\build\Release\obj\conpty\conpty.node.recipe
\node_modules\node-pty\build\Release\obj\pty\pty.node.recipe
\node_modules\node-pty\build\Release\conpty.node
\node_modules\node-pty\build\Release\pty.node
\node_modules\node-pty\bin\win32-arm64-133\node-pty.node

so I guess it is not about missing binary.

Also ls C:\Users\dex4er\AppData\Local\Programs\freelens\resources\app.asar.unpacked\node_modules\node-pty\bin\win32-arm64-133\node-pty.node does not show any differences.

[scottbusche-usps]

I am on x86, what directory do you want the pnpm command ran from? It needs to have a package.json to work and I don't see one anywhere along that path.

innerError Error: Cannot find module '../build/Debug/pty.node'

I can confirm that my Debug folder is empty, only Release is populated.

C:\Users\moo\AppData\Local\Programs\Freelens\resources\app.asar.unpacked\node_modules\node-pty (node-pty@1.1.0-beta34)
λ tree
├───bin
│   └───win32-x64-132
├───build
│   ├───Debug
│   ├───deps
│   │   └───winpty
│   │       └───src
│   │           └───Release
│   │               └───obj
│   │                   ├───winpty
│   │                   │   └───winpty.tlog
│   │                   └───winpty-agent
│   │                       └───winpty-agent.tlog
│   └───Release
│       ├───conpty
│       └───obj
│           ├───conpty
│           │   ├───conpty.tlog
│           │   └───src
│           │       └───win
│           ├───conpty_console_list
│           │   ├───conpty_c.E6C06878.tlog
│           │   └───src
│           │       └───win
│           └───pty
│               ├───pty.tlog
│               └───src
│                   └───win
├───deps
│   └───winpty
│       ├───misc
│       │   └───Font-Report-June2016
│       ├───ship
│       └───src
│           ├───agent
│           ├───gen
│           ├───include
│           ├───libwinpty
│           ├───shared
│           └───unix-adapter
├───lib
│   ├───shared
│   └───worker
├───scripts
├───src
│   ├───shared
│   ├───win
│   └───worker
└───third_party
    └───conpty
        └───1.22.250204002
            ├───win10-arm64
            └───win10-x64

[dex4er]

@scottbusche-usps I would need to recompile the current version with node-gyp set back to 11.3.0 and see if terminal starts. More or less this is in https://github.com/freelensapp/freelens/wiki/Development instruction. Windows needs Visual Studio installed for C++ compiler. winget or choco should handle it.

[scottbusche-usps]

It seems like the error is that it's looking in the Debug folder instead of Release, no?

[dex4er]

No idea why library now tries anything in Debug folder. I don't see this stacktrace on my Windows (arm64) so I can't confirm it, except that terminal doesn't start.

[scottbusche-usps]

@dex4er I don't see that stacktrace in the logs either. @avatin-powens where did you find it at?

[dex4er]

Ok, I have it too by running Freelens.exe as .\AppData\Local\Programs\Freelens\Freelens.exe

[avatin-powens]

I started FreeLens with PowerShell to have the logging in the console.

To be honest, I tried to fix the issue with changing settings. Hope I didn't add this error doing that.

[dex4er]

Debug is used as fallback, so it is rather false-positive error:

https://github.com/microsoft/node-pty/blob/main/src/windowsPtyAgent.ts#L80

I'm going to downgrade node-gyp and rebuild Windows in nightly builds as the most probable reason of the problem.

[robertobandini]

Thank you for reporting and helping. @scottbusche-usps @avatin-powens