Can't install any plugin : "No valid version available"

[ljoets]

Hi,
I have a working etherpad-lite instance on a Debian server.
When I want to install any plugin (npm install ep_adminpads as root), I obtain the message

npm ERR! code ENOVERSIONS
npm ERR! No valid versions available for ep_etherpad-lite

I have the same problem with all plugins !
I use node v9.10.1 npm 6.0.1 and git up-to-date etherpad-lite 1.6.6 (6dd172d)
The server is behind a proxy, but the proxy it is defined in environnement variables.

[muxator]

@ljoets, when using a direct network connection plugin installation seems to work as expected (etherpad 1.6.6-devel c4918ef, node 10.6.0).

Did you check your npm configuration? npm does not support standard http_proxy environment variables, but has its own configuration mechanism via:

npm config set proxy http://[user:password@]yourproxy.org:8080
npm config set https-proxy http://[user:password@]yourproxy.org:8080

You can have a look at http://wil.boayue.com/blog/2013/06/14/using-npm-behind-a-proxy/

Finally, please note that the given syntax only works for unauthenticated, or with basic http authentication. If your corporate proxy requires NTLM authentication, you might need to use cntlm.

[muxator]

I am inclined to close this as installation-specific. @ljoets, did you solve your issue?

[ljoets]

Hi,
Thanks for that idea.
You should be right, but I can't test it before september :-(

[gllmhyt]

I have the same issue, and no proxy configured. Problem appeared when I updated to 1.7.0 this morning.

[muxator]

Hi @gllmhyt,

plugin installation is working on my system, but we cannot exclude some bug.
Let me show you how it works here, and maybe you can spot some differences.

1. BASEDIR is the directory containing the Etherpad clone (the one with .git, bin, doc, src inside it)

2. I am running on Ubuntu 18.04 (should not matter).
   Just to be sure, I manually installed the minimum supported Node versions (node: 6.9.0, npm: 3.10.8).
   Newer node versions are ok (and better).
   Side node: manually installing any Node version it's just a matter of downloading the official tar.xz and putting three symlinks to node, npm and npx into a location that is in your path. Or just use packages.

3. I am starting from a clean installation (rm -rf BASEDIR/node_modules and other things that we'll eventually discuss. This is harmless, but do not use it yet)

4. First start, no plugins:

   muxator@host:BASEDIR$ bin/run.sh 
   Ensure that all dependencies are up to date...  If this is the first time you have run Etherpad please be patient.
   Ensure jQuery is downloaded and up to date...
   Clearing minified cache...
   Ensure custom css/js files are created...
   Started Etherpad...
   [2018-08-17 17:54:00.963] [WARN] stats - Enabling a polyfill to run on this Node version (v6.9.0). Next Etherpad version will remove support for Node version < 8.9.0. Please update your runtime.
   [2018-08-17 17:54:01.200] [DEBUG] console - Running on Node v6.9.0 (minimum required Node version: 6.9.0)
   [2018-08-17 17:54:01.202] [WARN] console - Support for Node v6.9.0 will be removed in Etherpad 1.8.0. Please consider updating at least to Node 8.9.0
   [2018-08-17 17:54:03.340] [INFO] console - Installed plugins: <-- EMPTY PLUGIN LIST
   [...]
   [2018-08-17 17:54:03.348] [INFO] console - Your Etherpad version is 1.7.0 (96ac381afb9e)
   

5. Let's install ep_adminpads via npm, from BASEDIR:

   muxator@host:BASEDIR$ npm install ep_adminpads
   BASEDIR
   └── ep_adminpads@0.0.12 
   
   npm WARN enoent ENOENT: no such file or directory, open 'BASEDIR/package.json'
   npm WARN etherpad-lite No description
   npm WARN etherpad-lite No repository field.
   npm WARN etherpad-lite No README data
   npm WARN etherpad-lite No license field.
   

   It's a bit weird, but it works. It nees to be made more robust, however.

6. First verification: ls -l BASEDIR/node_modules/ (that in a clean installation should contain only a symlink to ../src), shows the newly installed plugin:

   muxator@host:BASEDIR$ ls -l node_modules/
   total 4
   drwxrwxr-x 1 muxator muxator 174 ago 17 17:54 ep_adminpads   <-- NEW PLUGIN
   lrwxrwxrwx 1 muxator muxator   6 ago 17 17:52 ep_etherpad-lite -> ../src
   

7. Second verification: when I start Etherpad, the log shows ep_adminpads:

   muxator@host:BASEDIR$ bin/run.sh 
   Ensure that all dependencies are up to date...  If this is the first time you have run Etherpad please be patient.
   Ensure jQuery is downloaded and up to date...
   Clearing minified cache...
   Ensure custom css/js files are created...
   Started Etherpad...
   [2018-08-17 17:54:41.538] [WARN] stats - Enabling a polyfill to run on this Node version (v6.9.0). Next Etherpad version will remove support for Node version < 8.9.0. Please update your runtime.
   [2018-08-17 17:54:41.777] [DEBUG] console - Running on Node v6.9.0 (minimum required Node version: 6.9.0)
   [2018-08-17 17:54:41.779] [WARN] console - Support for Node v6.9.0 will be removed in Etherpad 1.8.0. Please consider updating at least to Node 8.9.0
   [2018-08-17 17:54:43.893] [INFO] console - Installed plugins: ep_adminpads@0.0.12 <-- PLUGIN APPEARED
   [...]
   [2018-08-17 17:54:43.901] [INFO] console - Your Etherpad version is 1.7.0 (96ac381afb9e)
   

Tell me if you find something balatantly different so we can work out a solution.

[gllmhyt]

Note: I also tried to install the plugins from the web admin interface, I'll try your steps asap, thank you.

[jprenaudet]

Same issue for me.
For testing I rollback from 1.7.0 to 1.6.6, here is the procedure I use :

git checkout .
git checkout tags/1.6.6
rm -rf ./src/node_modules
rm -rf ./node_modules
./bin/installDeps.sh
npm install ep_adminpads

Error appear with the last command.
I resolve it using this :

npm cache clean --force #Not sure if this help
rm -rf ./src/node_modules
rm -rf ./node_modules
rm package-lock.json
rm src/package-lock.json
./bin/installDeps.sh
npm install ep_adminpads

[gllmhyt]

Thank you @GenJin, I did quite the same (with git clean after having saved settings) and it worked right after it!

[muxator]

Solved with a clean install.
Closing.