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claude-code - 💡(How to fix) Fix [BUG] VM workspace download loop — rootfs.vhdx download always times out (China, enterprise gateway)

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Error Message

[error] [VM:start] Startup failed: Error: Request error: net::ERR_CONNECTION_TIMED_OUT

Root Cause

Description

The VM workspace never starts —"Workspace still starting" hangs indefinitely. The root cause is that rootfs.vhdx cannot be downloaded. The app enters an infinite loop: download →timeout →auto-reinstall →delete bundle →download again →timeout...

Fix Action

Fix / Workaround

Workaround attempted

  • Clearing cache, rebooting, reinstalling —no effect
  • The download server appears unreachable from this network environment
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Body:

Environment

  • OS: Windows 11 Home China 10.0.26200
  • Claude Desktop: 1.9659.2 (also reproduced on 1.9255.0)
  • Claude Code: 2.1.156
  • Platform: win32 x64
  • Network: enterprise gateway (custom-3p provider: gateway)

Description

The VM workspace never starts —"Workspace still starting" hangs indefinitely. The root cause is that rootfs.vhdx cannot be downloaded. The app enters an infinite loop: download →timeout →auto-reinstall →delete bundle →download again →timeout...

Steps to reproduce

  1. Install Claude Desktop on Windows 11 Home China
  2. Open the app
  3. Observe "Workspace still starting" never completes

Expected behavior

VM workspace starts within ~1 minute after rootfs.vhdx download completes.

Actual behavior

The download of rootfs.vhdx consistently fails with network errors. The bundle directory (%LOCALAPPDATA%\Claude-3p\vm_bundles\claudevm.bundle) remains empty (0 bytes).

Errors from cowork_vm_node.log

All download attempts fail within 20-30 seconds:

  • ERR_CONNECTION_TIMED_OUT (most frequent)
  • ERR_CONNECTION_RESET
  • ERR_CONNECTION_CLOSED
  • ERR_TIMED_OUT
  • ERR_NETWORK_CHANGED

Sample log entries: rootfs.vhdx not found, downloading... Downloading rootfs.vhdx... [error] [VM:start] Startup failed: Error: Request error: net::ERR_CONNECTION_TIMED_OUT [VM:start] Auto-reinstalling workspace after startup failure [deleteVMBundle] Reinstall files deleted

This cycle repeated 30+ times over 2 days without success.

Additional context

  • Bundle version: 5680b11bcdab215cccf07e0c0bd1bd9213b0c25d
  • vm_bundles folder: 0 bytes, only .auto_reinstall_attempted present
  • claude-code-vm folder: 230MB (incomplete)
  • No proxy/VPN was active during most attempts
  • This CLI version of Claude Code works fine —only the desktop app's VM sandbox is affected

Workaround attempted

  • Clearing cache, rebooting, reinstalling —no effect
  • The download server appears unreachable from this network environment

Suggestion

Provide an offline/alternate download source for rootfs.vhdx, or add a longer timeout with retry with backoff. The current 20-30s timeout is insufficient for multi-GB downloads on high-latency or throttled connections.

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claude-code - 💡(How to fix) Fix [BUG] VM workspace download loop — rootfs.vhdx download always times out (China, enterprise gateway)