npm start doesn’t start Node server on new project

[drwpow]

--- Delete everything above this line before submitting your issue ---

Description

Bug

Expected behavior

Running npm start starts a server at localhost:8081.

Actual behavior

No server has started on localhost:8081.

Reproduction

Running through all the steps from Getting Started, I get the following warnings during the yarn install:

warning react-native > connect@2.30.2: connect 2.x series is deprecated
warning react-native > xcode > node-uuid@1.4.7: Use uuid module instead
warning react-devtools > electron > electron-download > nugget > progress-stream > through2 > xtend > object-keys@0.4.0:

From there, running npm start logs the open browser at http://localhost:8081/vr/ to the console, but it never starts the server (lsof -n -i4TCP:8081 comes up nil—the port isn’t in use).

The console just hangs after printing that to the console. I tried manually calling node node_modules/react-native/local-cli/cli.js start, but that does the same thing—it just hangs with no error output.

Solution

There’s probably some missing install instructions (I’ve never used React Native before, so assume I haven’t done any set up for that), or there is an error deep within an NPM package (React Native?) that’s not bubbling up to my console. I’d love to troubleshoot, but I can’t go down the node_modules rabbit hole if the point of react-vr-cli was to abstract all of this out of my control.

Additional Information

• 'react-vr' package version: 1.4.0
• 'react-vr-web' package version: 1.4.0
• Node version: 8.4.0
• Yarn version: 0.27.5
• Operating System: MacOS Sierra
• Graphics Card: ✨ Intel HD Graphics 4000 1536 MB✨
• Browser: N/A
• VR Device: N/A

[andrewimm]

Can you copy everything that gets printed out when you run npm start?

Also, just try completely deleting the node_modules directory in your project and re-running npm install or yarn. There are no known issues at this time with any of the versions you printed above, so I can't provide much help without more info.

[drwpow]

> WelcomeToVR@0.0.1 start /Users/drew/sites/WelcomeToVR
> node -e "console.log('open browser at http://localhost:8081/vr/\n\n');" && node node_modules/react-native/local-cli/cli.js start

open browser at http://localhost:8081/vr/

…that’s it. Nothing else. Still doesn’t start the server. That’s on a clean install just now.

[andrewimm]

Do you have watchman installed? It shouldn't be necessary for everyone, but I do find that in odd cases where the server acts up, installing it tends to help.

You can learn more here: http://facebook.github.io/react-native/docs/getting-started.html#node-watchman

[drwpow]

Ooh! Good suggestion. I got something:

 ┌────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
 │  Running packager on port 8081.                                            │
 │                                                                            │
 │  Keep this packager running while developing on any JS projects. Feel      │
 │  free to close this tab and run your own packager instance if you          │
 │  prefer.                                                                   │
 │                                                                            │
 │  https://github.com/facebook/react-native                                  │
 │                                                                            │
 └────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘
Looking for JS files in
   /Users/drew/sites/WelcomeToVR

Loading dependency graph...
React packager ready.

ERROR: Unknown option --no-pretty

Watchman:  watchman --no-pretty get-sockname returned with exit code=1, signal=null, stderr= ERROR: Unknown option --no-pretty

jest-haste-map: Watchman crawl failed. Retrying once with node crawler.
  Usually this happens when watchman isn't running. Create an empty `.watchmanconfig` file in your project's root folder or initialize a git or hg repository in your project.
  Error: watchman --no-pretty get-sockname returned with exit code=1, signal=null, stderr= ERROR: Unknown option --no-pretty

jest-haste-map: @providesModule naming collision:
  Duplicate module name: View
  Paths: /Users/drew/sites/WelcomeToVR/node_modules/react-vr/Libraries/Components/View/View.vr.js collides with /Users/drew/sites/WelcomeToVR/node_modules/react-native/Libraries/Components/View/View.js

This warning is caused by a @providesModule declaration with the same name across two different files.
jest-haste-map: @providesModule naming collision:
  Duplicate module name: LayoutPropTypes
  Paths: /Users/drew/sites/WelcomeToVR/node_modules/react-vr/Libraries/StyleSheet/LayoutPropTypes.vr.js collides with /Users/drew/sites/WelcomeToVR/node_modules/react-native/Libraries/StyleSheet/LayoutPropTypes.js

This warning is caused by a @providesModule declaration with the same name across two different files.
jest-haste-map: @providesModule naming collision:
  Duplicate module name: NetworkOverlay
  Paths: /Users/drew/sites/WelcomeToVR/node_modules/react-vr/Libraries/VRReactOverrides/NetworkOverlay.vr.js collides with /Users/drew/sites/WelcomeToVR/node_modules/react-native/Libraries/Inspector/NetworkOverlay.js

This warning is caused by a @providesModule declaration with the same name across two different files.
jest-haste-map: @providesModule naming collision:
  Duplicate module name: AnimatedImplementation
  Paths: /Users/drew/sites/WelcomeToVR/node_modules/react-vr/Libraries/VRReactOverrides/AnimatedImplementation.vr.js collides with /Users/drew/sites/WelcomeToVR/node_modules/react-native/Libraries/Animated/src/AnimatedImplementation.js

This warning is caused by a @providesModule declaration with the same name across two different files.
jest-haste-map: @providesModule naming collision:
  Duplicate module name: NavigationExperimental
  Paths: /Users/drew/sites/WelcomeToVR/node_modules/react-vr/Libraries/VRReactOverrides/PlatformSpecific/NavigationExperimental.vr.js collides with /Users/drew/sites/WelcomeToVR/node_modules/react-native/Libraries/NavigationExperimental/NavigationExperimental.js

This warning is caused by a @providesModule declaration with the same name across two different files.
jest-haste-map: @providesModule naming collision:
  Duplicate module name: setupDevtools
  Paths: /Users/drew/sites/WelcomeToVR/node_modules/react-vr/Libraries/VRReactOverrides/setupDevtools.vr.js collides with /Users/drew/sites/WelcomeToVR/node_modules/react-native/Libraries/Core/Devtools/setupDevtools.js

This warning is caused by a @providesModule declaration with the same name across two different files.
jest-haste-map: @providesModule naming collision:
  Duplicate module name: processTransform
  Paths: /Users/drew/sites/WelcomeToVR/node_modules/react-vr/Libraries/VRReactOverrides/processTransform.vr.js collides with /Users/drew/sites/WelcomeToVR/node_modules/react-native/Libraries/StyleSheet/processTransform.js

This warning is caused by a @providesModule declaration with the same name across two different files.
jest-haste-map: @providesModule naming collision:
  Duplicate module name: Text
  Paths: /Users/drew/sites/WelcomeToVR/node_modules/react-vr/Libraries/VRReactOverrides/Text.vr.js collides with /Users/drew/sites/WelcomeToVR/node_modules/react-native/Libraries/Text/Text.js

This warning is caused by a @providesModule declaration with the same name across two different files.
jest-haste-map: @providesModule naming collision:
  Duplicate module name: ReactNativeViewAttributes
  Paths: /Users/drew/sites/WelcomeToVR/node_modules/react-vr/Libraries/VRReactOverrides/ReactNativeViewAttributes.vr.js collides with /Users/drew/sites/WelcomeToVR/node_modules/react-native/Libraries/Components/View/ReactNativeViewAttributes.js

This warning is caused by a @providesModule declaration with the same name across two different files.
jest-haste-map: @providesModule naming collision:
  Duplicate module name: YellowBox
  Paths: /Users/drew/sites/WelcomeToVR/node_modules/react-vr/Libraries/VRReactOverrides/YellowBox.vr.js collides with /Users/drew/sites/WelcomeToVR/node_modules/react-native/Libraries/ReactNative/YellowBox.js

This warning is caused by a @providesModule declaration with the same name across two different files.
jest-haste-map: @providesModule naming collision:
  Duplicate module name: TransformPropTypes
  Paths: /Users/drew/sites/WelcomeToVR/node_modules/react-vr/Libraries/VRReactOverrides/TransformPropTypes.vr.js collides with /Users/drew/sites/WelcomeToVR/node_modules/react-native/Libraries/StyleSheet/TransformPropTypes.js

This warning is caused by a @providesModule declaration with the same name across two different files.
ERROR: Unknown option --no-pretty

Watchman:  watchman --no-pretty get-sockname returned with exit code=1, signal=null, stderr= ERROR: Unknown option --no-pretty

 ERROR  watchman --no-pretty get-sockname returned with exit code=1, signal=null, stderr= ERROR: Unknown option --no-pretty

Error: watchman --no-pretty get-sockname returned with exit code=1, signal=null, stderr= ERROR: Unknown option --no-pretty

    at ChildProcess.<anonymous> (/Users/drew/sites/WelcomeToVR/node_modules/fb-watchman/index.js:198:18)
    at emitTwo (events.js:125:13)
    at ChildProcess.emit (events.js:213:7)
    at maybeClose (internal/child_process.js:927:16)
    at Socket.stream.socket.on (internal/child_process.js:348:11)
    at emitOne (events.js:115:13)
    at Socket.emit (events.js:210:7)
    at Pipe._handle.close [as _onclose] (net.js:545:12)

See http://facebook.github.io/react-native/docs/troubleshooting.html
for common problems and solutions.
npm ERR! code ELIFECYCLE
npm ERR! errno 11
npm ERR! WelcomeToVR@0.0.1 start: `node -e "console.log('open browser at http://localhost:8081/vr/\n\n');" && node node_modules/react-native/local-cli/cli.js start`
npm ERR! Exit status 11
npm ERR!
npm ERR! Failed at the WelcomeToVR@0.0.1 start 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!     /Users/drew/.npm/_logs/2017-08-28T19_21_57_788Z-debug.log

[breadadams]

I've ran into this on RN in the past (the watchman errors in your latest comment), there's an issue with a fix, hope it helps!

[drwpow]

@breadadams That worked, thanks!

My issue was a corrupted or old watchman (not sure which) installed on my machine with Homebrew I must have forgotten about. Uninstalling watchman completely seems to have fixed this issue for me:

brew uninstall watchman
npm r -g watchman

Conversely, re-installing watchman (4.9.0) seems to be OK, too. The strange part for me was it wasn’t being vocal.

[drwpow]

To get that output above, I installed watchman with npm i -g watchman. That must have triggered the conflicting watchman bug from that RN issue @breadadams referenced. But again, whatever watchman version I had installed with Homebrew (I didn’t catch what version it was when it uninstalled) was silently failing.

I believe the issue is fixed.