codex - 💡(How to fix) Fix SSH remote connection: "Codex archive did not contain the expected files" on TrueNAS SCALE 25.04 (Debian 12 Bookworm) [1 participants]

What version of the Codex App are you using (From “About Codex” dialog)?

Version 26.513.31313 (2867)

What subscription do you have?

Plus plan

What platform is your computer?

macOS (Mac running Codex connecting to TrueNAS SCALE 25.04 remote via SSH)

What issue are you seeing?

When adding an SSH connection to a TrueNAS SCALE 25.04 machine, SSH authentication succeeds (publickey) but the Codex agent installation fails with:

"Codex archive did not contain the expected files"

Error output shown in Codex:

Authenticated to 192.168.12.238 ([192.168.12.238]:22) using "publickey".
Codex archive did not contain the expected files
Transferred: sent 7072, received 3420 bytes, in 15.1 seconds
Bytes per second: sent 468.7, received 226.7

Remote machine details (verified via TrueNAS web shell):

• OS: TrueNAS SCALE 25.04.2.6 — Debian GNU/Linux 12 (Bookworm)
• Architecture: x86_64
• Kernel: Linux 6.12.15-production+truenas
• glibc: 2.36-9+deb12u9

What was investigated:

• SSH key auth works perfectly — Codex successfully adds its codex-automation key to ~/.ssh/authorized_keys
• Codex transfers ~7KB archive via SCP
• No agent files are extracted or left behind in /tmp, ~, or /var/tmp
• The archive extraction/validation step fails entirely

What steps can reproduce the bug?

Feedback ID: no-active-thread-019e3e47-8f63-7842-9a6f-e6a05e3f50ed

1. Open Codex app on macOS
2. Go to Settings → Connections → SSH tab
3. Click "+ Add SSH connection"
4. Enter TrueNAS SCALE 25.04 host details (IP: 192.168.12.238, port 22, user: truenas_admin)
5. Select private key for authentication
6. Codex connects via SSH, authenticates successfully with publickey
7. Codex attempts to install its remote agent by transferring an archive
8. Installation fails with "Codex archive did not contain the expected files"
9. Connection shows as "Codex is not installed on this remote machine"

What is the expected behavior?

SSH authentication succeeds and the codex-automation(created in my TrueNAS) key is added to ~/.ssh/authorized_keys on the remote machine. The agent archive is transferred (~7KB via SCP) but then fails to extract/validate. No agent binary or files are left behind on the remote machine after the failure.

Additional information

The remote machine is TrueNAS SCALE 25.04 which runs Debian 12 Bookworm — a newer base than previous TrueNAS versions. The bundled Codex agent binary may not be compatible with:

• Debian 12 Bookworm (previously TrueNAS SCALE used older Debian versions)
• glibc 2.36-9+deb12u9

The Codex agent archive appears to be transferred successfully (received 3420 bytes) but the archive contents don't match what the installer expects. This is likely a glibc version compatibility issue or a mismatch in the expected archive structure for this platform.