It appears that Terraform is encountering an issue related to the provider section. Interestingly, the link provided in the error (http://registry.terraform.io/linode/linode) is resulting in a 404 error.

Out of curiosity, may I inquire about the version of Terraform you're using? You can grab this info by running terraform -version.

terraform -version
Terraform v1.6.2
on linux_amd64
+ provider registry.terraform.io/linode/linode v2.9.3

I made an effort to reproduce this error, but I didn't encounter it while using Terraform v1.6.2 and Linode Provider v2.9.3. Here's my .tf deployment file:

terraform {
  required_providers {
    linode = {
      source = "linode/linode"
      version = "2.9.3"
    }
  }
}

provider "linode" {
  token = "API_TOKEN"
}

resource "linode_instance" "terraform-comm" {
        image = "linode/debian11"
        label = "Terraform-Comm-Example"
        group = "Terraform"
        region = "eu-west"
        type = "g6-standard-1"
        root_pass = "ROOT_PASSWORD"
}

I used this Linode guide to quickly install and configure Terraform:

• Use Terraform to Provision Infrastructure on Linode

Terraform's docs are another great resource for additional troubleshooting and learning:

• Linode Provider Docs - Terraform

Terraform v1.6.2
on windows_amd64

I'm using Visual Code Studio on Windows 10

Thank you for the information. When I review my previous attempt at replication, it becomes evident that the only missing component was the api_version = "v4beta" environment variable. Curiously, I incorporated the api_version = "v4beta" into the terraform block within my .tf file, as shared above. To my surprise, immediately upon executing terraform init, I encountered an error:

Error: Invalid required_providers object

on linode-terraform-web.tf line 6, in terraform:
6:       api_version = "v4beta"

required_providers objects can only contain "version," "source," and "configuration_aliases" attributes. To configure a provider, use a "provider" block.

This issue was resolved by relocating the api_version environment variable to the provider block.

terraform {
  required_providers {
    linode = {
      source = "linode/linode"
      version = "2.9.3"
    }
  }
}

provider "linode" {
  token = "API_TOKEN"
  api_version = "v4beta"
}

resource "linode_instance" "terraform-comm" {
        image = "linode/debian11"
        label = "Terraform-Comm-Example"
        group = "Terraform"
        region = "eu-west"
        type = "g6-standard-1"
        root_pass = "ROOT_PASSWORD"
}

It's worth noting that this error differs from the provider schema problem we're currently addressing. Therefore, I decided to conduct some research (which I probably should have done initially). In the process, I stumbled upon your Reddit post! This particular resource seems promising:

Terraform Gives errors Failed to load plugin schemas | Stack Overflow

I'd like to emphasize that all my testing was conducted on a freshly installed Linode instance with the latest version of Terraform (which I spun up and installed specifically for this testing). As a result, I did not encounter any caching issues on my end. It might be worthwhile to try the same approach. If it works for you, it could indicate that the root cause is related to VSCode, the plugin (if applicable), or a local caching issue.

Thanks eruzanski for your efforts! The issue has now been resolved