Unable to install: serialport problem

Question

Unable to install: serialport problem

Closed this issue 6 years ago · 14 comments

System:

Rasp Pi 3b+
Running DietPi - running Home Assistant in a virtual environment

I am following the instructions for installing zigbee2mqtt in a virtual environment and everything runs perfectly, up until the npm install script. Seems like there is a problem with the serialport@6.2.2 install script?

Here's a copy of where I get up too (and the breaking point)

(zigbee2mqtt) dietpi@DietPi:/opt/zigbee2mqtt$ npm install

> serialport@6.2.2 install /opt/zigbee2mqtt/node_modules/serialport
> prebuild-install || node-gyp rebuild

prebuild-install WARN install No prebuilt binaries found (target=10.15.1 runtime=node arch=arm platform=linux)
gyp ERR! configure error
gyp ERR! stack Error: Command failed: /opt/zigbee2mqtt/bin/python -c import sys; print "%s.%s.%s" % sys.version_info[:3];
gyp ERR! stack   File "<string>", line 1
gyp ERR! stack     import sys; print "%s.%s.%s" % sys.version_info[:3];
gyp ERR! stack                                ^
gyp ERR! stack SyntaxError: invalid syntax
gyp ERR! stack
gyp ERR! stack     at ChildProcess.exithandler (child_process.js:294:12)
gyp ERR! stack     at ChildProcess.emit (events.js:189:13)
gyp ERR! stack     at maybeClose (internal/child_process.js:970:16)
gyp ERR! stack     at Process.ChildProcess._handle.onexit (internal/child_process.js:259:5)
gyp ERR! System Linux 4.14.98-v7+
gyp ERR! command "/opt/zigbee2mqtt/bin/node" "/opt/zigbee2mqtt/lib/node_modules/npm/node_modules/node-gyp/bin/node-gyp.js" "rebuild"
gyp ERR! cwd /opt/zigbee2mqtt/node_modules/serialport
gyp ERR! node -v v10.15.1
gyp ERR! node-gyp -v v3.8.0
gyp ERR! not ok
npm ERR! code ELIFECYCLE
npm ERR! errno 1
npm ERR! serialport@6.2.2 install: `prebuild-install || node-gyp rebuild`
npm ERR! Exit status 1
npm ERR!
npm ERR! Failed at the serialport@6.2.2 install script.
npm ERR! This is probably not a problem with npm. There is likely additional logging output above.

npm ERR! A complete log of this run can be found in:
npm ERR!     /home/dietpi/.npm/_logs/2019-02-20T15_19_34_105Z-debug.log

Log

Here are the last few lines from the log mentioned above, although it seems like a repeat.

3675 verbose cwd /opt/zigbee2mqtt
3676 verbose Linux 4.14.98-v7+
3677 verbose argv "/opt/zigbee2mqtt/bin/node" "/opt/zigbee2mqtt/bin/npm" "install"
3678 verbose node v10.15.1
3679 verbose npm  v6.4.1
3680 error code ELIFECYCLE
3681 error errno 1
3682 error serialport@6.2.2 install: `prebuild-install || node-gyp rebuild`
3682 error Exit status 1
3683 error Failed at the serialport@6.2.2 install script.
3683 error This is probably not a problem with npm. There is likely additional logging output above.
3684 verbose exit [ 1, true ]

Answer 1 · 2019-02-20T18:03:11.000Z

Just a quick guess as I couldn't thoroughly check your log file right now (using smartphone): is your nodejs/npm package too new maybe? I remember having some issue like yours and could solve that by downgrading npm to I guess 6.x. Check the install documentation here on github for zigbee2mqtt. It says how to check necessary version of nodejs and npm.

Answer 2 · 2019-02-20T18:05:29.000Z

Documentation says...

Setup Node.js repository

sudo curl -sL https://deb.nodesource.com/setup_10.x | sudo -E bash -

Install Node.js

sudo apt-get install -y nodejs git make g++ gcc

Verify that the correct nodejs and npm (automatically installed with nodejs)

version has been installed

node --version # Should output v10.X
npm --version # Should output 6.X

Answer 3 · 2019-02-20T18:16:44.000Z

Thanks @andreasbrett .

I followed the instructions initially and assumed the Install Node.js part sudo apt-get install -y nodejs git make g++ gcc is installing the version best suited the the setup?

I can go back and try and make it lower. What version would you recommend and what command would I use to download the lower version?

Could I also check that to install in a virtual environment... I first follow the instructions from the docs:

# Setup Node.js repository
sudo curl -sL https://deb.nodesource.com/setup_10.x | sudo -E bash -

# Install Node.js
sudo apt-get install -y nodejs git make g++ gcc

# Verify that the correct nodejs and npm (automatically installed with nodejs)
# version has been installed
node --version  # Should output v10.X
npm --version  # Should output 6.X

Then... go ahead and follow the virtual environment instructions: https://www.zigbee2mqtt.io/information/virtual_environment.html

Answer 4 · 2019-02-20T18:20:08.000Z

Oh okay, not sure how things work for virtual environments. Better wait for someone with better knowledge before messing something up with my advice that might not be supposed for your setup.

What you can do however is checking the versions of nodejs and npm. Just to be sure that those are fine (10.x and 6.x).

Answer 5 · 2019-02-20T18:25:10.000Z

Appreciate your reply anyways @andreasbrett.

I have just went ahead (for the 3rd time today 😩) wiped my SD card and started again with a fresh install. Just got Home Assistant up and running perfectly again...

I'll hang fire before installing nodejs and npm for now until someone can confirm but I can say for sure that both versions were about 10.x and 6.x.

Answer 6 · 2019-02-20T18:53:58.000Z

What is the output when running python --version?. This should be Python 2, otherwise you will get the syntax error like above.

Answer 7 · 2019-02-20T19:26:34.000Z

Ah, this is embarrassing. I don’t remember installing Python - I assumed it would have been covered / installed automatically when I installed home Assistant. HA is up and running fine.

These are the instructions I followed for installing in a virtual environment: https://www.home-assistant.io/docs/installation/raspberry-pi/

Do I have to install it separately?

Answer 8 · 2019-02-20T19:28:43.000Z

The problem is that it is probably running python 3 instead of 2, this can be confirmed by running python --version.

Answer 9 · 2019-02-20T19:44:18.000Z

Intresting - I get this:

root@SmartHome:~# python --version
-bash: python: command not found

Answer 10 · 2019-02-20T20:03:19.000Z

@SimplyGardner you are following this: http://www.zigbee2mqtt.io/information/virtual_environment.html right?

Answer 11 · 2019-02-20T22:30:51.000Z

ah, @Koenkk - looks like I am running Python 3.5.3 - does it not work with this version?

root@SmartHome:~# python3 --version
Python 3.5.3

I now installed python 2.7.13. Should I go ahead and retry or is there anything else I need to do prior?

Answer 12 · 2019-02-21T11:52:06.000Z

Okay, I think I managed to get it installed. I think it was because I did not have Python 2 installed as @Koenkk suggested. I have followed the documentation (for installing in a virtual environment) from end-to-end and here is the paste from the SSH terminal.

Please could you kindly check and let me know if this is good? I am not sure if it installed correctly?

I just need to go ahead and configure now but want to make sure that this is good to go. The only thing I managed to pick up from the SSH session is that some packages provided warnings and that it recommended I run npm audit fix - should I do that?

Answer 13 · 2019-02-21T17:57:56.000Z

Fixed.

Ultimately - it was down it was down to not having Python 2 installed.

Thanks for your help guys @Koenkk and @andreasbrett

Answer 14 · 2020-07-18T10:27:42.000Z

I've been running into the same issue, though I feel like I brought it onto myself:

I am using a vanilla Ubuntu 20 Server install
it is arm64
I am running from a zigbee2mqtt user that has no shell and no home directory
I am running doing a virtualenv install

As mentioned above, the solution is to run sudo apt install python2 build-essential, might be worth adding to the docs. Running npm ci --cache .npm-cache then npm start --cache .npm-cache now works after complaining that it can't check the npm config (because my user has no home directory).