How do I setup debugging environment for xv6 kernel on a remote server?

Question

I am working on the xv6 OS on a remote server (Ubuntu 20) through ssh-session supported by VScode. While I'm able to debug from the gdb command line, I would like to setup an interactive debug session. I installed the Native Debug extension available on VScode, after reading about how to do the above in the following blog https://shawnzhong.com/2019/03/25/co-debug-xv6-on-windows-using-vscode/

The following is what I see while running gdb from the terminal

baadalvm@baadalvm:~/personal_xv6/col331$ gdb kernel
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Reading symbols from kernel...
+ target remote localhost:26000
The target architecture is assumed to be i8086
[f000:fff0]    0xffff0: ljmp   $0x3630,$0xf000e05b
0x0000fff0 in ?? ()
+ symbol-file kernel
(gdb) 

And the following is what I see when I start the run debug in VScode

Reading symbols from /home/baadalvm/personal_xv6/col331/kernel...
+ target remote localhost:26000
The target architecture is assumed to be i8086
[f000:fff0] 
   0xffff0: ljmp   $0x3630,$0xf000e05b
0x0000fff0 in ?? ()
+ symbol-file kernel
WARNING: Error executing command 'gdb-set target-async on'
warning: A handler for the OS ABI "GNU/Linux" is not built into this configuration
of GDB.  Attempting to continue with the default 
i8086 settings.

The above appears in the debug console and I get the following error message when I try to start the debug session, before which I start the qemu-gdb target :- Failed to attach: Remote communication error. Target disconnected.:: Connection reset by peer.(from target-select remote:26000)

I think that the this problem couldn't have been caused by an unconfigured .gdbinit, as I did add my path to it and when I try to attach to the gdbserver via the command line it works.

Here is my launch.json

{
    "version": "0.2.0",
    "configurations": [
            {
                    "type": "gdb",
                    "request": "attach",
                    "name": "debug xv6",
                    "executable": "kernel",
                    "target": ":26000",
                    "remote": true,
                    "cwd": "${workspaceRoot}",
            }
    ]
}

Here is my tasks.json, to build the project for debugging

{
    "version": "2.0.0",
    "tasks": [
            {
                    "label": "compile xv6 and run in debug mode",
                    "command": "bash",
                    "args": [
                            "-c",
                            "make && make qemu-gdb"
                    ],
                    "presentation": {
                            "echo": true,
                            "reveal": "always",
                            "focus": true,
                            "panel": "new",
                            "showReuseMessage": true,
                            "clear": true
                    },
                    "group": {
                            "kind": "build",
                            "isDefault": true
                    }
            }
    ]
}