Cannot find libjpeg.so.8 when running under VSCode

wxPython Users
1

After returning to work on some of my existing utilities as well as some sample code from Driscoll’s book “Creating GUI apps”, I run up against the consistent error:

Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/home/arnold/Public/pkg/wp-old/wpEG/wpEg.py", line 9, in <module>
    import wx           # pip install wxPython
    ^^^^^^^^^
  File "/var/data/python/lib/python3.11/site-packages/wx/__init__.py", line 17, in <module>
    from wx.core import *
  File "/var/data/python/lib/python3.11/site-packages/wx/core.py", line 12, in <module>
    from ._core import *
ImportError: libjpeg.so.8: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory
(.venv)

If I run the apps directly from the command line, I have no problems with any app.

When I try to run the apps from within VSCode, they all fail with the same error shown above, whether running within an env or not.
I have checked and the file libjpeg.so.8 exists at /lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/ but I have not found a way to make sure VSCode can find it.
FWIW, all these apps used to run but with the current updates installed, something changed. I have no clue what, where to look or how to fix this issue and it pretty well has me stalled for good :frowning: