Dependencies lost upon workspace reopening

[bravoalpha79]

Bug description

Upon starting an existing workspace today, three students report (and I confirmed it with pip3 freeze --local) that all installed dependencies are gone. The workspaces were opened from the Gitpod Dashboard.

pip3 install -r requirements.txt reinstalled all dependencies as expected, but they should never have been gone to begin with.

Steps to reproduce

1. Open workspace, try to start the app (e.g. python3 run.py)
2. "no module XXX found" is raised. (on a module/dependency that was previously installed)
3. Run pip3 freeze --local - the result is empty (no dependencies installed).

Expected behavior

Installed dependencies are kept in the existing workspace.

Example repository

https://gray-gerbil-p6ckklb7.ws-eu15.gitpod.io/
https://azure-snail-aw1src7l.ws-eu15.gitpod.io/
https://amethyst-scallop-5kfji6x2.ws-eu16.gitpod.io/

Anything else?

No response

[Jays-T]

Same issue with another student and same steps taken to produce the error, below is affected workspace:
https://bronze-orca-cznmphft.ws-eu15.gitpod.io/

Student is now saying this:
"my workspace just timed out and I had to re-load again with the same issue showing. My time out time is set to an hour and I only just used it"

[bravoalpha79]

One more workspace impacted by the same issue:
https://moccasin-cricket-fkkxz0tu.ws-eu15.gitpod.io/

Upon trying to reinstall dependencies from requirements.txt, the student is getting this:

[Jays-T]

And another workspace affected:
https://salmon-condor-3u077sv0.ws-eu15.gitpod.io/

[Wings30306]

And another one:

from workspace https://tomato-thrush-3619mlgr.ws-eu15.gitpod.io/ - error appearing on attempting to re-install dependencies. Student is attempting to re-install in a new workspace as we speak, so 🤞🏻

UPDATE
New workspace did not help, student has the same issue with psycopg2 not reinstalling on the new workspace (
https://apricot-parrot-2xe6r1ho.ws-eu15.gitpod.io/). Please advise!

[corneliusludmann]

Thanks for reporting. We are investing.

[corneliusludmann]

https://www.gitpodstatus.com/incidents/fk6prflgvvth

[bravoalpha79]

Almost certainly related, installation of dependencies shows some weird warnings, and causes issues subsequently:

https://jade-orangutan-vyo2dp1j.ws-eu15.gitpod.io/

[geropl]

Closing as dupe of #5594. We're currently rolling rolled out a fix: #5594 (comment)

Sorry for the inconvenience, and thank a lot for reporting this @bravoalpha79 and @Jays-T ! 🙏