embark demo not working

Question

blockchain@blockchain-VirtualBox:~/embark$ embark demo
Initializing Embark Template....
Installing packages.. this can take a few seconds
Init complete

App ready at ./embark_demo
-------------------
next steps:
-> cd ./embark_demo
-> embark blockchain or embark simulator
open another console in the same directory and run
-> embark run
For more info go to http://github.com/iurimatias/embark-framework
blockchain@blockchain-VirtualBox:~/embark$ cd embark_demo/
blockchain@blockchain-VirtualBox:~/embark/embark_demo$ embark blockchain
===============================================================================
===============================================================================
Embark Blockchain Using: Go-Ethereum (https://github.com/ethereum/go-ethereum)
===============================================================================
===============================================================================
running: geth --networkid 12301 --datadir=".embark/development/datadir" --password config/development/password account list
WARN [04-18|17:44:26] No etherbase set and no accounts found as default
already initialized
/usr/local/lib/node_modules/embark/node_modules/solc/soljson.js:1
(function (exports, require, module, __filename, __dirname) { var Module;if(!Module)Module=(typeof Module!=="undefined"?Module:null)||{};var moduleOverrides={};for(var key in Module){if(Module.hasOwnProperty(key)){moduleOverrides[key]=Module[key]}}var ENVIRONMENT_IS_WEB=typeof window==="object";var ENVIRONMENT_IS_WORKER=typeof importScripts==="function";var ENVIRONMENT_IS_NODE=typeof process==="object"&&typeof require==="function"&&!ENVIRONMENT_IS_WEB&&!ENVIRONMENT_IS_WORKER;var ENVIRONMENT_IS_SHELL=!ENVIRONMENT_IS_WEB&&!ENVIRONMENT_IS_NODE&&!ENVIRONMENT_IS_WORKER;if(ENVIRONMENT_IS_NODE){if(!Module["print"])Module["print"]=function print(x){process["stdout"].write(x+"\n")};if(!Module["printErr"])Module["printErr"]=function printErr(x){process["stderr"].write(x+"\n")};var nodeFS=require("fs");var nodePath=require("path");Module["read"]=function read(filename,binary){filename=nodePath["normalize"](filename);var ret=nodeFS["readFileSync"](filena

TypeError: Cannot read property '1' of null
  at Blockchain.initChainAndGetAddress (/usr/local/lib/node_modules/embark/lib/blockchain.js:69:45)
  at Blockchain.run (/usr/local/lib/node_modules/embark/lib/blockchain.js:41:22)
  at Object.blockchain (/usr/local/lib/node_modules/embark/lib/index.js:195:16)
  at Command.<anonymous> (/usr/local/lib/node_modules/embark/lib/cmd.js:95:17)
  at Command.listener (/usr/local/lib/node_modules/embark/node_modules/commander/index.js:301:8)
  at emitTwo (events.js:106:13)
  at Command.emit (events.js:191:7)
  at Command.parseArgs (/usr/local/lib/node_modules/embark/node_modules/commander/index.js:615:12)
  at Command.parse (/usr/local/lib/node_modules/embark/node_modules/commander/index.js:458:21)
  at Cmd.process (/usr/local/lib/node_modules/embark/lib/cmd.js:19:11)
  at Object.process (/usr/local/lib/node_modules/embark/lib/index.js:35:9)
  at Object.<anonymous> (/usr/local/lib/node_modules/embark/bin/embark:4:8)
  at Module._compile (module.js:571:32)
  at Object.Module._extensions..js (module.js:580:10)
  at Module.load (module.js:488:32)
  at tryModuleLoad (module.js:447:12)
  at Function.Module._load (module.js:439:3)
  at Module.runMain (module.js:605:10)
  at run (bootstrap_node.js:420:7)
  at startup (bootstrap_node.js:139:9)
  at bootstrap_node.js:535:3

blockchain@blockchain-VirtualBox:~/embark/embark_demo$ ^C
blockchain@blockchain-VirtualBox:~/embark/embark_demo$ sudo apt-get update
Hit:1 http://ppa.launchpad.net/ethereum/ethereum/ubuntu xenial InRelease
Get:2 http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu xenial-security InRelease [102 kB]
Hit:3 http://ca.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu xenial InRelease                          
Get:4 http://ca.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu xenial-updates InRelease [102 kB]        
Get:5 http://ca.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu xenial-backports InRelease [102 kB]                
Fetched 306 kB in 0s (317 kB/s)    
Reading package lists... Done
blockchain@blockchain-VirtualBox:~/embark/embark_demo$ cd ..
blockchain@blockchain-VirtualBox:~/embark$ sudo rm -r embark_demo/
blockchain@blockchain-VirtualBox:~/embark$ embark demo
Initializing Embark Template....
Installing packages.. this can take a few seconds
Init complete

App ready at ./embark_demo
-------------------
next steps:
-> cd ./embark_demo
-> embark blockchain or embark simulator
open another console in the same directory and run
-> embark run
For more info go to http://github.com/iurimatias/embark-framework
blockchain@blockchain-VirtualBox:~/embark$ cd embark_demo/
blockchain@blockchain-VirtualBox:~/embark/embark_demo$ embark blockchain
===============================================================================
===============================================================================
Embark Blockchain Using: Go-Ethereum (https://github.com/ethereum/go-ethereum)
===============================================================================
===============================================================================
running: geth --networkid 12301 --datadir=".embark/development/datadir" --password config/development/password account list
WARN [04-18|17:45:59] No etherbase set and no accounts found as default
already initialized
/usr/local/lib/node_modules/embark/node_modules/solc/soljson.js:1
(function (exports, require, module, __filename, __dirname) { var Module;if(!Module)Module=(typeof Module!=="undefined"?Module:null)||{};var moduleOverrides={};for(var key in Module){if(Module.hasOwnProperty(key)){moduleOverrides[key]=Module[key]}}var ENVIRONMENT_IS_WEB=typeof window==="object";var ENVIRONMENT_IS_WORKER=typeof importScripts==="function";var ENVIRONMENT_IS_NODE=typeof process==="object"&&typeof require==="function"&&!ENVIRONMENT_IS_WEB&&!ENVIRONMENT_IS_WORKER;var ENVIRONMENT_IS_SHELL=!ENVIRONMENT_IS_WEB&&!ENVIRONMENT_IS_NODE&&!ENVIRONMENT_IS_WORKER;if(ENVIRONMENT_IS_NODE){if(!Module["print"])Module["print"]=function print(x){process["stdout"].write(x+"\n")};if(!Module["printErr"])Module["printErr"]=function printErr(x){process["stderr"].write(x+"\n")};var nodeFS=require("fs");var nodePath=require("path");Module["read"]=function read(filename,binary){filename=nodePath["normalize"](filename);var ret=nodeFS["readFileSync"](filena

TypeError: Cannot read property '1' of null
  at Blockchain.initChainAndGetAddress (/usr/local/lib/node_modules/embark/lib/blockchain.js:69:45)
  at Blockchain.run (/usr/local/lib/node_modules/embark/lib/blockchain.js:41:22)
  at Object.blockchain (/usr/local/lib/node_modules/embark/lib/index.js:195:16)
  at Command.<anonymous> (/usr/local/lib/node_modules/embark/lib/cmd.js:95:17)
  at Command.listener (/usr/local/lib/node_modules/embark/node_modules/commander/index.js:301:8)
  at emitTwo (events.js:106:13)
  at Command.emit (events.js:191:7)
  at Command.parseArgs (/usr/local/lib/node_modules/embark/node_modules/commander/index.js:615:12)
  at Command.parse (/usr/local/lib/node_modules/embark/node_modules/commander/index.js:458:21)
  at Cmd.process (/usr/local/lib/node_modules/embark/lib/cmd.js:19:11)
  at Object.process (/usr/local/lib/node_modules/embark/lib/index.js:35:9)
  at Object.<anonymous> (/usr/local/lib/node_modules/embark/bin/embark:4:8)
  at Module._compile (module.js:571:32)
  at Object.Module._extensions..js (module.js:580:10)
  at Module.load (module.js:488:32)
  at tryModuleLoad (module.js:447:12)
  at Function.Module._load (module.js:439:3)
  at Module.runMain (module.js:605:10)
  at run (bootstrap_node.js:420:7)
  at startup (bootstrap_node.js:139:9)
  at bootstrap_node.js:535:3

I am running this on an Ubuntu VM.

Does anyone have any idea why this might be breaking? I cannot find any examples of this kind of problem, anywhere. I am using a VM provided by my class and it doesn't seem like anyone else has run into this problem.

Are there any resources for fixing problems like this?

Answer 1

I got the same problem.

The error is due to Blockchain.initChainAndGetAddress (/usr/local/lib/node_modules/embark/lib/blockchain.js:69:45) as shown in your error message.

Solution: 1. sudo gedit /usr/local/lib/node_modules/embark/lib/blockchain.js

2. Find line 69 and you can see where the problem is. As you can see in line 56 '// check if an account already exists, create one if not, return address', if you don not have any account, it should fall into the condition in line 58. However, in your case, the result after running line 57 is 'WARN [04-18|17:45:59] No etherbase set and no accounts found as default' and it doesn't match the no account condition. So you just have to change the condition in line 58 from 'if (result.output === undefined || result.output === '' || result.output.indexOf("Fatal") >= 0)' to 'if (result.output === undefined || result.output === '' || result.output.indexOf("Fatal") >= 0 || result.output.indexOf("No etherbase set and no accounts found as default") >= 0)'.

Hope this helps.