electron cant start - NSURLErrorDomain about electron-prebuilt

[max-mapper]

@zougi hmm I am unable to reproduce on my mac, sorry. Maybe someone else can reproduce?

[fredericrous]

If there are logs stored somewhere, im ready to share them

[rgbkrk]

$ npm install electron-prebuilt
\
> [email protected] postinstall /Users/rgbkrk/code/jupyter-sidecar/node_modules/electron-prebuilt
> node install.js

/Users/rgbkrk/code/jupyter-sidecar/node_modules/electron-prebuilt/install.js:15
  throw err
        ^
Error: end of central directory record signature not found
    at /Users/rgbkrk/code/jupyter-sidecar/node_modules/electron-prebuilt/node_modules/extract-zip/node_modules/yauzl/index.js:98:14
    at /Users/rgbkrk/code/jupyter-sidecar/node_modules/electron-prebuilt/node_modules/extract-zip/node_modules/yauzl/index.js:342:5
    at /Users/rgbkrk/code/jupyter-sidecar/node_modules/electron-prebuilt/node_modules/extract-zip/node_modules/yauzl/node_modules/fd-slicer/index.js:32:7
    at FSReqWrap.wrapper [as oncomplete] (fs.js:505:17)
npm ERR! Darwin 13.4.0
npm ERR! argv "node" "/Users/rgbkrk/npm/bin/npm" "install" "electron-prebuilt"
npm ERR! node v1.1.0
npm ERR! npm  v2.11.2
npm ERR! code ELIFECYCLE

npm ERR! [email protected] postinstall: `node install.js`
npm ERR! Exit status 1
npm ERR!
npm ERR! Failed at the [email protected] postinstall script 'node install.js'.
npm ERR! This is most likely a problem with the electron-prebuilt package,
npm ERR! not with npm itself.
npm ERR! Tell the author that this fails on your system:
npm ERR!     node install.js
npm ERR! You can get their info via:
npm ERR!     npm owner ls electron-prebuilt
npm ERR! There is likely additional logging output above.

npm ERR! Please include the following file with any support request:
npm ERR!     /Users/rgbkrk/code/jupyter-sidecar/npm-debug.log

[rgbkrk]

At least in my case, I had some leftover electron zips that I think were not finished downloading during a poor connection (airline).

$ ls ~/.electron
electron-v0.28.1-darwin-x64.zip  electron-v0.28.1-win32-x64.zip   electron-v0.28.3-darwin-x64.zip

Electron prebuilt doesn't write over the top of these, so it tried to use them as is. Ended up having to nuke ~/.electron. Perhaps we need some integrity checks.

[lc3t35]

I have the same problem OSX 10.8.5 after npm install electron-prebuilt -g (install ok) .
If I download manually electron-v0.29.2-darwin-x64.zip and move it to /Applications.
/Applications/Electron.app/Contents/MacOS/Electron electron-test/ works fine.

[tomprogers]

I also experience this problem, using [email protected] on OSX 10.8.5.

See this ticket for detailed logs. High-level details:

[Mon 21:15:58] skynet-yo $ npm start

> [email protected] start /Users/mdyson/projects/skynet-yo
> electron .

[0803/211600:ERROR:http_transport_mac.mm(186)] Could not connect to the server. (NSURLErrorDomain -1004)
[Mon 21:16:01] skynet-yo $ npm --version
1.4.28
[Mon 21:17:30] skynet-yo $ node --version
v0.10.36
[Mon 21:17:33] skynet-yo $ electron --version
v0.30.2
[Mon 21:17:36] skynet-yo $ npm list --depth=0
[email protected] /Users/mdyson/projects/skynet-yo
├── [email protected]
├── [email protected]
└── [email protected]

Note that the first and second runs threw slightly different errors. The first time I saw this:

[Mon 21:04:07] skynet-yo $ npm start

> [email protected] start /Users/mdyson/projects/skynet-yo
> electron .

[0803/210409:ERROR:file_io.cc(30)] read: expected 40, observed 0
[0803/210409:ERROR:http_transport_mac.mm(186)] Could not connect to the server. (NSURLErrorDomain -1004)

Every time since, I've seen this:

[Mon 21:15:58] skynet-yo $ npm start

> [email protected] start /Users/mdyson/projects/skynet-yo
> electron .

[0803/211600:ERROR:http_transport_mac.mm(186)] Could not connect to the server. (NSURLErrorDomain -1004)

I'm happy to provide additional info if it's wanted.

[fredericrous]

Looks like this problem is easily reproducible on Mac OSX 10.8.5.
I guess electron-prebuilt is built on a later version of osx !?
So, I ran command

$ npm install electron-prebuilt --build-from-source -g

Now when I do

 $ electron .

I get an error window 'Error opening app [...] Can't find module 'PATH' '
where PATH is the path to my folder

And when I do

 $ electron 

In mac's Console, I can see the following report:

Process: Electron [2693]
Path: /Users/USER/*/Electron.app/Contents/MacOS/Electron
Identifier: Electron
Version: 0.30.2
Code Type: X86-64 (Native)
Parent Process: node [2692]
User ID: 501

Date/Time: 2015-08-04 08:12:08.419 +0200
OS Version: Mac OS X 10.8.5 (12F45)
Report Version: 10

Crashed Thread: 0 Dispatch queue: com.apple.main-thread

Exception Type: EXC_BAD_ACCESS (SIGSEGV)
Exception Codes: KERN_INVALID_ADDRESS at 0x0000000000000000

VM Regions Near 0:
-->
__TEXT 00000001059da000-00000001059db000 [ 4K] r-x/rwx SM=COW /Users/USER/*/Electron.app/Contents/MacOS/Electron

Thread 0 Crashed:: Dispatch queue: com.apple.main-thread
0 libsystem_c.dylib 0x00007fff8cf4a670 strlen + 16
1 Electron Framework 0x00000001072e67a2 0x1059dd000 + 26253218
2 Electron Framework 0x0000000105a446ef atom::AtomBrowserMainParts::PreMainMessageLoopStart() + 15
3 Electron Framework 0x0000000105fbf8c0 0x1059dd000 + 6170816
4 Electron Framework 0x0000000105fc4f67 0x1059dd000 + 6192999
5 Electron Framework 0x0000000105fbf197 0x1059dd000 + 6168983
6 Electron Framework 0x0000000105f5e6d2 0x1059dd000 + 5773010
7 Electron Framework 0x0000000105f5dd76 0x1059dd000 + 5770614
8 Electron Framework 0x00000001059df20d AtomMain + 77
9 com.github.electron 0x00000001059daeea main + 58
10 libdyld.dylib 0x00007fff8b4687e1 start + 1

Thread 1:: Dispatch queue: com.apple.libdispatch-manager
0 libsystem_kernel.dylib 0x00007fff91d25d16 kevent + 10
1 libdispatch.dylib 0x00007fff904b5dea _dispatch_mgr_invoke + 883
2 libdispatch.dylib 0x00007fff904b59ee _dispatch_mgr_thread + 54

Thread 2:
0 libsystem_kernel.dylib 0x00007fff91d256d6 __workq_kernreturn + 10
1 libsystem_c.dylib 0x00007fff8cf5ef1c _pthread_workq_return + 25
2 libsystem_c.dylib 0x00007fff8cf5ece3 _pthread_wqthread + 412
3 libsystem_c.dylib 0x00007fff8cf49191 start_wqthread + 13

Thread 3:
0 libsystem_kernel.dylib 0x00007fff91d256d6 __workq_kernreturn + 10
1 libsystem_c.dylib 0x00007fff8cf5ef1c _pthread_workq_return + 25
2 libsystem_c.dylib 0x00007fff8cf5ece3 _pthread_wqthread + 412
3 libsystem_c.dylib 0x00007fff8cf49191 start_wqthread + 13

Thread 4:

Thread 5:: WorkerPool/18691
0 libsystem_kernel.dylib 0x00007fff91d250fa __psynch_cvwait + 10
1 libsystem_c.dylib 0x00007fff8cf60ff3 _pthread_cond_wait + 927
2 Electron Framework 0x0000000105b62e4b 0x1059dd000 + 1597003
3 Electron Framework 0x0000000105b7566c 0x1059dd000 + 1672812
4 Electron Framework 0x0000000105b75b10 0x1059dd000 + 1674000
5 Electron Framework 0x0000000105b701fb 0x1059dd000 + 1651195
6 libsystem_c.dylib 0x00007fff8cf5c772 _pthread_start + 327
7 libsystem_c.dylib 0x00007fff8cf491a1 thread_start + 13

[mrbabbs]

I had the same problem on MacOSX 1.8.2 (on virtualbox) with electron 0.3.2 and 0.3.1.

[0806/150255:ERROR:http_transport_mac.mm(186)] Could not connect to the server.(NSURLErrorDomain -1004)

I received for the first time this error, when I started to use node module 'electron-packager', before I just downloaded manually the pre-build version of electron and copied inside the folder app and everthing worked well.
One of differents I saw between the package created with the node module and the other way was inside the folder Resources.
In the first case the folder contained only:

• app.asar
• default_app
• app
• atom.icns

In the second case there were:

• app.asar
• default_app
• app
• atom.icns
• *.lproj

I tried to copy/create one of the folders *.lprj (en.lprj) inside Resources folder and it worked again.
Content of Resources folder:

• app.asar
• default_app
• app
• atom.icns
• en.lproj

I think you should try it.

[jeanmichelcote]

@mrbabbs Ok thanks, so now i've downloaded electron prebuild binary. Now it does not crash on start; it works.

But as soon as i want to start any electron app, lets say "tryout.app", with drag an drop or with the terminal, this message pops up:

*Error opening app
The app provided is not a valid electron app, please read the docs on how to write one:
https://github.com/atom/electron/tree/master/docs

Error: Cannot fin module 'me/path/to/the/tryout.app'

So where exactly did you create the "en.lprj" file?

[fredericrous]

So I looked at electron-prebuild sources. What it does, in summary, is download a zip from electron repository on github to folder ~/.electron and then unzip it and make symbolic links.

The unzip phase does not unzip all the package. @mrbabbs is right!
The problem comes either from extract-zip package or from the use electron-prebuild make of it

Here's a listing of the files extracted by electron-prebuild

➜  .electron  ls ~/.node/lib/node_modules/electron-prebuilt/dist/Electron.app/Contents/Resources 
atom.asar   atom.icns   default_app

Here's a listing of the files contained in the zip downloaded by electron-prebuild

➜  .electron  ls Electron.app/Contents/Resources/
am.lproj     bn.lproj     default_app  es_419.lproj fr.lproj     hu.lproj     ko.lproj     ms.lproj     pt_PT.lproj  sr.lproj     th.lproj     zh_TW.lproj
ar.lproj     ca.lproj     el.lproj     et.lproj     gu.lproj     id.lproj     lt.lproj     nb.lproj     ro.lproj     sv.lproj     tr.lproj
atom.asar    cs.lproj     en.lproj     fa.lproj     he.lproj     it.lproj     lv.lproj     nl.lproj     ru.lproj     sw.lproj     uk.lproj
atom.icns    da.lproj     en_GB.lproj  fi.lproj     hi.lproj     ja.lproj     ml.lproj     pl.lproj     sk.lproj     ta.lproj     vi.lproj
bg.lproj     de.lproj     es.lproj     fil.lproj    hr.lproj     kn.lproj     mr.lproj     pt_BR.lproj  sl.lproj     te.lproj     zh_CN.lproj

EDIT: It looks like it comes from extract-zip (or yauzl, the library this package uses to extract zip files).
the en.lproj &co are not extracted by the following

var extract = require('extract-zip')
    extract("electron-v0.30.2-darwin-x64.zip", {dir: "."}, function(err) {
        console.log(err)
    })

issue created max-mapper/extract-zip#6

[kevinsawicki]

0615/102324:ERROR:http_transport_mac.mm(186)] Could not connect to the server. (NSURLErrorDomain -1004)

I believe this error was fixed in Electron 0.35+ and can now be closed here, electron/electron#2609