VSCode on iPad Pro - Full Setup Guide with Raspberry Pi

Get a mobile VSCode setup on your iPad Pro/Raspberry Pi using the wonderful Code Server project.

NOTE: This is a re-upload of an earlier video that only had audio in the left channel. This one has audio in both channels!

CHAPTERS
=========

00:00 VSCode on iPad Pro
00:44 Installing NodeJS
01:30 Install code-server
02:32 Default configuration
04:08 Connecting from Blink
05:53 Full screen Safari
07:10 Re-enable password authentication
07:34 Auto start code-server
09:38 Installing extensions
12:10 Secure mode

LINKS
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GEAR
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AFFILIATE LINKS
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[tech_craft]

Code Server now requires NodeJS 16. In the instructions replace:


With:


to get the correct version

[tech_craft]

This fixes the audio in the earlier release of this video. Sorry for the delay in getting this out - I was away from home for a few days.

[nosharing-sfmk]

I like that he shows everything and actually gets a fully functioning visual studio code running on the IPad

[eliasdetrois]

I’ve finally had the time to configure everything including the blink setup and it is an absolute joy to use. Great video, thank you

[zedzed]

Truly great video! One small suggestion - when you do things in the terminal or editing files, please allow a second or two more of that visual content before changing to something else. For example, after you edited the config file to enable certs, the scene changed so quickly that I had to rewind a few times and try to pause the video at just the right moment.

[audnu]

This is awesome! I’m outrageous about the fact that I’m forced to go through this process to make my $1, 000+ iPad Pro useful.

[fernandosalaroli]

Do a video on xmonad and VNC!!! Thanks for the videos, they are great!

[usercentered]

My Pi Zero2 just froze trying to compile code-server. The reason was that the Pi was stuck swapping memory.
I did the following to change the swap file size:

sudo service dphys-swapfile stop
sudo nano /etc/dphys-swapfile
CONF_SWAPSIZE=1024
sudo service dphys-swapfile start

This fixed it nicely.
I re-set the swapfile size to 100 afterwards.
Maybe this helps someone with a similar setup.

[rlindbuechl]

Is there any option to change the Zoom level for the whole VSCode screen? It‘s a little small on the iPad 11“

[arthurcrosby]

Thank you for another great video. I followed the link from your reply to my question on your video about connecting the iPad Pro to the Raspberry Pi. I can begin to see now how powerful this combination can be. 👍🏼

[ThyagoOliveiraPereira]

that's awesome!
I wonder if we'll have a vscode version for iPadOS one day.

[BobDenny]

100% BRILLIANT. FYI I installed Node v18 from NodeSource then got schwacked because code-server needs V16. After removing V18 and installing v16 all went well. The crazy Blink guy showing BlinkFS etc... I never got past the annoying Apple Files app BS. code-server is the bomb. I learned new tings about the iPad too. This was great, and very well presented.

[Hookmodo]

Hello! Love this tutorial and have set up VSCode on my RPI4 4gb. Could you please upload a followup video showing how to integrate PlatformIO into VSCode running this way? I believe there are some networking issues as I have tried just about everything in the forums and for whatever reason PlatformIO runs in the browser but not in the tab within VSCode as it should. Thanks mate! Love your videos :)

[Pawwzzzu]

Hi! Recently came across your video and great tutorial btw. With the new iPad pros m4 are you still using this method? Or is this an easier method now to use vscode?

[maddoggLP]

Thank you very nice tutorial! Thinking of buying an iPad setup now.

[nebilkisa]

You are a star - thank you very much for this tutorial!

[tonyspur]

very nice video. But I can’t install pylance on vscode server, have you have any idea on how to install pylance?

[sergysh]

Fabulous!! It really works. I ran java ee development on iPad. Magic!! Thank you!

[mannkeithc]

Excellent video. Running code-server via Safari worked fine, but every time I tried to run it via the blink ios app as per your video it kept advising I had to install blink-fs code extension. I installed this on the raspberry pi code-server, but it wouldn't install into the browser! I then read Blink's Code document page, and you have to first set-up by running "code ." in blink which loads a local instance of code, allowing you to download and install the blink-fs extension. After that, everything worked as per your video.

[OlleMattsson]

What a brilliant setup. One thing comes to mind though, we not leave the PI connected to a router instead of carrying it along? Is there some obvious caveat I'm missing here?