Debug with F5 fails on VSCode saying "Unable to establish a connection to GDB"

Question

When I press F5 key to run a C++ program on Visual Studio Code, I get the message

"Unable to start debugging. Unable to establish a connection to GDB. Debug output may contain more information."

I use g++.exe and MinGW for compiling. Until an hour ago, the debugging with F5 key was done properly, and I've never touched launch.json. Could you tell me what is wrong?

Below is the launch.json

{
    // Use IntelliSense to learn about possible attributes.
    // Hover to view descriptions of existing attributes.
    // For more information, visit: https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?linkid=830387
    "version": "0.2.0",
    "configurations": [
        {
            "name": "g++.exe - アクティブ ファイルのビルドとデバッグ",
            "type": "cppdbg",
            "request": "launch",
            "program": "${fileDirname}\\${fileBasenameNoExtension}.exe",
            "args": [],
            "stopAtEntry": false,
            "cwd": "${workspaceFolder}",
            "environment": [],
            "console": "externalTerminal",
            "MIMode": "gdb",
            "miDebuggerPath": "C:\\mingw-w64\\x86_64-8.1.0-win32-seh-rt_v6-rev0\\mingw64\\bin\\gdb.exe",
            "setupCommands": [
                {
                    "description": "gdb の再フォーマットを有効にする",
                    "text": "-enable-pretty-printing",
                    "ignoreFailures": true
                }
            ],
            "preLaunchTask": "C/C++: g++.exe アクティブなファイルのビルド"
        }
    ]
}

Below is the tasks.json

{
    "version": "2.0.0",
    "tasks": [
        {
            "type": "cppbuild",
            "label": "C/C++: g++.exe アクティブなファイルのビルド",
            "command": "C:\\mingw-w64\\x86_64-8.1.0-win32-seh-rt_v6-rev0\\mingw64\\bin\\g++.exe",
            "args": [
                "-g",
                "${file}",
                "-o",
                "${fileDirname}\\${fileBasenameNoExtension}.exe"
            ],
            "options": {
                "cwd": "${workspaceFolder}"
            },
            "problemMatcher": [
                "$gcc"
            ],
            "group": "build",
            "detail": "コンパイラ: C:\\mingw-w64\\x86_64-8.1.0-win32-seh-rt_v6-rev0\\mingw64\\bin\\g++.exe"
        },
        {
            "type": "cppbuild",
            "label": "C/C++: g++.exe アクティブなファイルのビルド ver(1)",
            "command": "C:\\mingw-w64\\x86_64-8.1.0-win32-seh-rt_v6-rev0\\mingw64\\bin\\g++.exe",
            "args": [
                "-g",
                "${file}",
                "-o",
                "${fileDirname}\\${fileBasenameNoExtension}.exe"
            ],
            "options": {
                "cwd": "${workspaceFolder}"
            },
            "problemMatcher": [
                "$gcc"
            ],
            "group": {
                "kind": "build",
                "isDefault": true
            },
            "detail": "デバッガーによって生成されたタスク。"
        }
    ]
}

Below is the c_cpp_properties.json

{
    "configurations": [
        {
            "name": "Win32",
            "includePath": [
                "${workspaceFolder}/**",
                "${vcpkgRoot}/x86-windows-static/include",
                "C:\\Users\\SonicTheHedgehog\\Desktop\\include"
            ],
            "defines": [
                "_DEBUG",
                "UNICODE",
                "_UNICODE"
            ],
            "windowsSdkVersion": "10.0.18362.0",
            "compilerPath": "C:\\mingw-w64\\x86_64-8.1.0-win32-seh-rt_v6-rev0\\mingw64\\bin\\g++.exe",
            "cStandard": "c17",
            "cppStandard": "c++17",
            "intelliSenseMode": "gcc-x64"
        }
    ],
    "version": 4
}

Addition: I found an error message on launch.json

Property console is not allowed

and console is marked with wavy line.

Answer 1

Check out this link: https://github.com/microsoft/vscode-cpptools/issues/2889

There is some problem with PowerShell being run as in internal console (running within VSCode).

I made the following change in launch.json:

before:

        "environment": [],
        "externalConsole": **false**,
        "MIMode": "gdb",

after:

        "environment": [],
        "externalConsole": **true**,
        "MIMode": "gdb",

Now, I see the output of the program in cmd.exe outside VSCode. But, the debugger runs fine inside VSCode.