Linux: Codex tasks stuck at “Starting your task” (temporary workaround found) #48624

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

26.924.22138

What subscription do you have?

Pro

What platform is your computer?

Linux 6.8.0-49-generic x86_64 x86_64

What issue are you seeing?

In the ChatGPT desktop app, Codex tasks remain indefinitely at “Starting your task” after I submit a prompt. Normal ChatGPT conversations work in the same app.

Changing the model or reasoning level does not resolve it. Restarting the app, signing out/back in, and reinstalling version 26.924.22138 also did not resolve it.

The terminal output includes:

RequestError: Something went wrong. If this issue persists please contact us through our help center at help.openai.com.

Additional diagnostics showed:

• Shell-environment loading timed out after 5000 ms.
• The app reported “Git is unavailable,” although Git works normally in the terminal.
• Exited helper processes, including bash, git, ps, and codex, remained as zombie children of the desktop app.
• The local Codex app-server initialized successfully, but no thread/start or turn/start appeared in the captured logs during the hang.

What steps can reproduce the bug?

On my affected installation:

1. Open the ChatGPT desktop app.
2. Switch to the Codex tab.
3. Start a new task.
4. Submit a simple prompt, such as “Reply with hello.”
5. The interface stays at “Starting your task” without producing a response or an actionable error.

This occurs across the models and reasoning settings I tried. Normal ChatGPT conversations continue to work.

The failed attempts did not produce a thread/start response in the captured logs, so I do not have a backend session ID for them.

What is the expected behavior?

Codex should start the task and respond to the prompt. If task initialization fails, the app should display an actionable error instead of remaining indefinitely at “Starting your task.”

Additional information

Environment: Ubuntu 24.04.5 LTS, official ChatGPT desktop .deb package.

Two potentially related problems were identified during local troubleshooting:

1. Native process completion handling

In an instrumented copy of the packaged app, a native Node child_process.spawn Git probe did not emit an exit event within five seconds and remained a zombie. An equivalent Git probe through the existing Codex app-server process API completed successfully in 266 ms.

A temporary JavaScript patch redirected the local execution host’s spawn method to the existing local app-server connection. Conceptually:

localExecutionHost.spawn = options => localAppServerConnection.spawn(options);

This removed the observed Git failure, but applying the patch to the installed app with my original Codex data did NOT resolve the task-start hang.

2. Original Codex settings/local data

The installed, patched app worked when launched with a separate CODEX_HOME, while retaining the same normal ChatGPT browser profile and account.

Repeated prompts then started successfully and produced replies. The original ~/.codex directory was preserved. Its settings/plugins were not carried into the separate data directory.

Important limitations:

• The exact problematic setting, plugin, or state entry has not been identified.
• The unpatched app with a separate CODEX_HOME has NOT been tested. Therefore, we cannot establish whether the process patch is necessary.
• The shell-environment timeout remained after the process patch.
• The earlier reinstall reset the desktop browser profile/cache but preserved ~/.codex, so it was not a complete reset of Codex data.

The working setup is a temporary local workaround, not a confirmed root-cause fix.