Electron works, a bit...?

Question

I installed the latest version of node and electron and tried out the samples. They work when I enter "npm start". However: when I try to make an app in another folder and launch it, I get this npm-debug.log:

0 info it worked if it ends with ok
1 verbose cli [ '/usr/bin/node', '/usr/bin/npm', 'start' ]
2 info using npm@3.10.10
3 info using node@v6.11.2
4 verbose run-script [ 'prestart', 'start', 'poststart' ]
5 info lifecycle proton-template-app@1.0.0~prestart: proton-template-app@1.0.0
6 silly lifecycle proton-template-app@1.0.0~prestart: no script for prestart, continuing
7 info lifecycle proton-template-app@1.0.0~start: proton-template-app@1.0.0
8 verbose lifecycle proton-template-app@1.0.0~start: unsafe-perm in lifecycle true
9 verbose lifecycle proton-template-app@1.0.0~start: PATH: /usr/lib/node_modules/npm/bin/node-gyp-bin:/home/erik/Projects/Electron/tmp2/node_modules/.bin:/home/erik/bin:/home/erik/.local/bin:/usr/local/sbin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/bin:/sbin:/bin:/usr/games:/usr/local/games:/snap/bin
10 verbose lifecycle proton-template-app@1.0.0~start: CWD: /home/erik/Projects/Electron/tmp2
11 silly lifecycle proton-template-app@1.0.0~start: Args: [ '-c', 'electron .' ]
12 info lifecycle proton-template-app@1.0.0~start: Failed to exec start script
13 verbose stack Error: proton-template-app@1.0.0 start: `electron .`
13 verbose stack spawn ENOENT
13 verbose stack     at ChildProcess.<anonymous> (/usr/lib/node_modules/npm/lib/utils/spawn.js:33:16)
13 verbose stack     at emitTwo (events.js:106:13)
13 verbose stack     at ChildProcess.emit (events.js:191:7)
13 verbose stack     at maybeClose (internal/child_process.js:891:16)
13 verbose stack     at Process.ChildProcess._handle.onexit (internal/child_process.js:226:5)
14 verbose pkgid proton-template-app@1.0.0
15 verbose cwd /home/erik/Projects/Electron/tmp2
16 error Linux 4.4.0-79-generic
17 error argv "/usr/bin/node" "/usr/bin/npm" "start"
18 error node v6.11.2
19 error npm  v3.10.10
20 error file sh
21 error code ELIFECYCLE
22 error errno ENOENT
23 error syscall spawn
24 error proton-template-app@1.0.0 start: `electron .`
24 error spawn ENOENT
25 error Failed at the proton-template-app@1.0.0 start script 'electron .'.
25 error Make sure you have the latest version of node.js and npm installed.
25 error If you do, this is most likely a problem with the proton-template-app package,
25 error not with npm itself.
25 error Tell the author that this fails on your system:
25 error     electron .
25 error You can get information on how to open an issue for this project with:
25 error     npm bugs proton-template-app
25 error Or if that isn't available, you can get their info via:
25 error     npm owner ls proton-template-app
25 error There is likely additional logging output above.
26 verbose exit [ 1, true ]

I'm afraid my install wasn't 100% ok, what should I do? Install again? How do I uninstall correctly? - I'm stuck, please help ;-)

Answer 1

The technicality is in your package.json, and your installation of Electron, but this is regardless of having it saved under dependencies.

If your start script in package.json calls electron ., you will need to install Electron globally with npm install electron -g. This goes for all commands where you use the name, much like mocha and cordova create. Just some examples.

To use it locally (non-globally) and only inside the project, you can just call npm install electron (which you may have done), but your startscript will have to point to the electron file inside the local node_modules folder. Usually the path is node_modules/.bin/electron.cmd, and your start script can look like node_modules/.bin/electron .

If you ever come across this problem inside an IDE, you should set electron.cmd in .bin as your executable, then . as your arguments.

Answer 2

Make sure you have installed electron globally, to do so run the following command:

npm install -g electron

Once you have installed it try running electron in your command prompt it should open a demo app.

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To uninstall electron from the global scope: npm uninstall -g electron