Technology1 min read

Lying to Zed to get its remote server running on FreeBSD

By · Published by Everything Blog

In short

Developers attempting to use the code editor on unsupported systems can bridge the gap by deploying an SSH wrapper script that spoofed system information. This workaround enables the software's Linux binaries to run smoothly through the host platform's native emulation layer. A recent patch to the translation layer resolves critical system call mismatches, preventing file-handling crashes during remote sessions. Specifically, an issue where the host attempted to read directories in larger increments than Zed's allocated 768-byte buffer triggered an "Invalid argument" error and blanked the project tree.

Key points

  • FreeBSD users can run the Linux remote server binary for Zed by leveraging the built-in L…: FreeBSD users can run the Linux remote server binary for Zed by leveraging the built-in Linux compatibility framework.
  • The platform compatibility layer required a dedicated kernel fix to safely accommodate Ze…: The platform compatibility layer required a dedicated kernel fix to safely accommodate Zed's small directory buffer allocations.
  • The resolved binary compatibility patch is scheduled to debut officially in the upcoming…: The resolved binary compatibility patch is scheduled to debut officially in the upcoming FreeBSD 15.2-RELEASE.

Sources checked by our analysis pipeline: 1

I’ve used VS Code since I was about 16, so for almost ten years and honestly it was mostly fine. But as of late it has become unbearable: slow, and increasingly weighed down by AI slop. grahamperrin@ pointed out to me that VS Code now has chat.disableAIFeatures

, and they’re right. I totally missed it! It really does turn the built-in AI features off atleast from what I can see in limited testing, and it works. But even with it off, VS Code still feels clunky as hell. Zed, on the other hand, is fast, and it had a native switch that turns all of its AI stuff off slightly earlier than VS Code did, which I absolutely adore. (It’s a toggle in Settings, or "disable_ai": true

in your settings file.)

That’s not because I avoid LLMs. I just don’t want them trying to edit every line I write, or sitting in the corner judging me ominously. I still write most of my FOSS code myself: it keeps me sane, and I feel FOSS developers have a responsibility to keep…

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