For over a week, I've been unable to reliably use Windsurf due to a combination of:
- Language server consistently crashing with
too many open files - Cascade never loading despite being authenticated as a paying user
- Attempts to fix the problem (with support or independently) being unsuccessful or temporary
This report documents the issue in full, including logs, environment details, and previously attempted mitigations. I'm sharing it publicly since contacting support has felt like going in circles — responses feel bot-like and nothing has resolved the core issues.
- OS: Ubuntu 25.04
- Windsurf Version: 1.7.3
- Install Method: Tarball and .deb (tried both)
- System File Descriptor Limit: 65536 (confirmed at both shell and process level)
- Launch Method: GUI via KDE (not terminal)
- User Status: Authenticated as paid subscriber (verified on login screen)
When launching Windsurf, the language server fails immediately due to an open file limit error — even though the system is correctly configured:
2025-05-03 17:04:21.356 [info] Starting language server process with pid 13137
2025-05-03 17:04:21.357 [info] Language server failed - too many open files
2025-05-03 17:04:21.357 [info] Error types: (1) *withstack.withStack (2) *withstack.withStack (3) syscall.Errno
2025-05-03 17:04:21.365 [ERROR]: Language server exited with code 1
2025-05-03 17:04:21.368 [ERROR]: Failed to start language server: Error: Language server exited before sending start data
$ ulimit -n
65536
$ cat /proc/<PID>/limits | grep "open files"
Max open files 65536 65536 filesThe Windsurf process inherits the correct ulimit. The project loaded is small, without symlink loops or large dependency trees.
Despite being logged in as a paying user, Cascade does not load at all.
Symptoms:
- No error messages
- No Cascade UI components appear
- Verified user login from the top right avatar icon
Attempts to fix:
- Deleted all user config directories manually
- Reinstalled from scratch using tarball and .deb
- Cleared cached models and reauthenticated
I'd share this with your support team but it really feels like I'm speaking to bots or it keeps going around in circles. Either way you haven't been able to resolve the issue.
I'm using Ubuntu 25.04. When I log into Windsurf I seem to be authenticated as a paying user but then Cascade simply never loads.
It's been more than a week since I've been able to use Windsurf.
Every time it seems like it’s fixed, it then gets broken again. I tried manually deleting the user files, installing from tarball, verifying that my maximum number of system file settings are manually set to be large enough to handle all the context, every other conceivable possibility.
When it works it’s wonderful — but as VS Code and several other alternatives continue to improve, it's increasingly frustrating to have this tool broken half the time without visibility into fixes or real support.
- Please acknowledge whether this issue is known and being worked on.
- Please offer a workaround, beta build, or rollback option.
- Please improve visibility of these errors and status in the UI.
- If Cascade access is gated by a backend issue, provide logs or a method to debug.
- Language server should gracefully fail if system resources are low, not crash on startup.
- Add a fallback logger to show Cascade-related errors.
- Ensure user authentication syncs properly before enabling Cascade UI.