How to install properly nodejs in snapcraft?

Question

https://ubuntu.com/tutorials/electron-kiosk#4-converting-the-electron-snap-into-a-kiosk-snap

Hello !

I have followed this tutorial but I don't manage to have it work properly, my probleme is that nodejs 8.10.0 is install when I need 10.12 at least. I have tryed to add node-version or node engine or other params but it donwload the version that I want after installing 8.10.0.

If someone can help me !!

[EDIT]

Some logs when I run snapcraft with nodejs-version: "12.18.3" added after plugin: nodejs

Launching a VM.
snap "snapd" has no updates available                                           
Running with 'sudo' may cause permission errors and is discouraged. Use 'sudo' when cleaning.
Skipping pull desktop-gtk3 (already ran)
Skipping pull xwayland-kiosk-helper (already ran)
Hit http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu bionic InRelease                                                                                                                                                             
Hit http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu bionic-updates InRelease                                                                                                                                                     
Hit http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu bionic-security InRelease                                                                                                                                                   
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Get:1 libxdmcp6_1.1.2-3_amd64.deb [10.7 kB]                                                                                                                                                                       
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Get:1 gconf2-common_3.2.6-4ubuntu1_all.deb [700 kB]                                                                                                                                                               
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Get:1 libdbus-1-3_1.12.2-1ubuntu1.2_amd64.deb [175 kB]                                                                                                                                                            
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Get:1 libasound2-data_1.1.3-5ubuntu0.5_all.deb [38.7 kB]                                                                                                                                                          
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Get:1 libsqlite3-0_3.22.0-1ubuntu0.4_amd64.deb [499 kB]                                                                                                                                                           
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Get:1 libbsd0_0.8.7-1ubuntu0.1_amd64.deb [41.6 kB]                                                                                                                                                                
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Get:1 libx11-6_1.6.4-3ubuntu0.3_amd64.deb [571 kB]                                                                                                                                                                
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Get:1 libxau6_1.0.8-1ubuntu1_amd64.deb [7556 B]                                                                                                                                                                   
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Get:1 libxcb1_1.13-2~ubuntu18.04_amd64.deb [45.5 kB]                                                                                                                                                              
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Get:1 libxtst6_1.2.3-1_amd64.deb [12.8 kB]                                                                                                                                                                        
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Get:1 ucf_3.0038_all.deb [50.5 kB]                                                                                                                                                                                
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Get:1 libdbus-glib-1-2_0.110-2_amd64.deb [58.3 kB]                                                                                                                                                                
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Get:1 libx11-data_1.6.4-3ubuntu0.3_all.deb [114 kB]                                                                                                                                                               
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Get:1 libasound2_1.1.3-5ubuntu0.5_amd64.deb [360 kB]                                                                                                                                                              
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Get:1 libnss3_3.35-2ubuntu2.12_amd64.deb [1220 kB]                                                                                                                                                                
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Get:1 libffi6_3.2.1-8_amd64.deb [17.9 kB]                                                                                                                                                                         
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Get:1 x11-common_7.7+19ubuntu7.1_all.deb [22.5 kB]                                                                                                                                                                
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Get:1 libgconf-2-4_3.2.6-4ubuntu1_amd64.deb [84.8 kB]                                                                                                                                                             
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Get:1 libxss1_1.2.2-1_amd64.deb [8582 B]                                                                                                                                                                          
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Get:1 libglib2.0-0_2.56.4-0ubuntu0.18.04.6_amd64.deb [1171 kB]                                                                                                                                                    
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Get:1 libnspr4_4.18-1ubuntu1_amd64.deb [112 kB]                                                                                                                                                                   
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Get:1 libx11-xcb1_1.6.4-3ubuntu0.3_amd64.deb [9628 B]                                                                                                                                                             
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Get:1 libxext6_1.3.3-1_amd64.deb [29.4 kB]                                                                                                                                                                        
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Cleaning later steps and re-pulling electron-helloworld ('nodejs-version' property changed)
Cloning into '/root/parts/electron-helloworld/src'...
remote: Enumerating objects: 688, done.
remote: Total 688 (delta 0), reused 0 (delta 0), pack-reused 688
Receiving objects: 100% (688/688), 445.19 KiB | 1.31 MiB/s, done.
Resolving deltas: 100% (365/365), done.
Downloading 'node-v12.18.3-linux-x64.tar.gz'[================================================================================================================================================================] 100%
Downloading 'latest.tar.gz'[=================================================================================================================================================================================] 100%
Skipping build desktop-gtk3 (already ran)
Skipping build xwayland-kiosk-helper (already ran)
Building electron-helloworld 
▐ ╢░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░╟
WARN engine electron-packager@15.1.0: wanted: {"node":">= 10.12.0"} (current: {"node":"8.10.0","npm":"3.5.2"})
loadDep:global-tunnel-ng  ▀ ╢█████████████████████████████████████░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░╟
loadDep:serialize-error → ▀ ╢███████████████████████████████████████░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░╟
WARN engine semver@7.3.2: wanted: {"node":">=10"} (current: {"node":"8.10.0","npm":"3.5.2"})
WARN engine serialize-error@7.0.1: wanted: {"node":">=10"} (current: {"node":"8.10.0","npm":"3.5.2"})
loadDep:serialize-error → ▐ ╢███████████████████████████████████████░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░╟
loadDep:type-fest → reque ▀ ╢███████████████████████████████████████░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░╟
loadDep:pend → resolveWit ▀ ╢███████████████████████████████████████████████████░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░╟
WARN engine extract-zip@2.0.1: wanted: {"node":">= 10.17.0"} (current: {"node":"8.10.0","npm":"3.5.2"})
loadDep:yargs-parser → ge ▄ ╢█████████████████████████████████████████████████████░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░╟
WARN engine electron-notarize@1.0.0: wanted: {"node":">= 10.0.0"} (current: {"node":"8.10.0","npm":"3.5.2"})
npm ERR! Linux 4.15.0-1072-kvm
npm ERR! argv "/usr/bin/node" "/usr/bin/npm" "install" "electron" "electron-packager"
npm ERR! node v8.10.0
npm ERR! npm  v3.5.2
npm ERR! code EMISSINGARG

npm ERR! typeerror Error: Missing required argument #1
npm ERR! typeerror     at andLogAndFinish (/usr/share/npm/lib/fetch-package-metadata.js:31:3)
npm ERR! typeerror     at fetchPackageMetadata (/usr/share/npm/lib/fetch-package-metadata.js:51:22)
npm ERR! typeerror     at resolveWithNewModule (/usr/share/npm/lib/install/deps.js:456:12)
npm ERR! typeerror     at /usr/share/npm/lib/install/deps.js:457:7
npm ERR! typeerror     at /usr/share/npm/node_modules/iferr/index.js:13:50
npm ERR! typeerror     at /usr/share/npm/lib/fetch-package-metadata.js:37:12
npm ERR! typeerror     at addRequestedAndFinish (/usr/share/npm/lib/fetch-package-metadata.js:82:5)
npm ERR! typeerror     at returnAndAddMetadata (/usr/share/npm/lib/fetch-package-metadata.js:117:7)
npm ERR! typeerror     at pickVersionFromRegistryDocument (/usr/share/npm/lib/fetch-package-metadata.js:134:20)
npm ERR! typeerror     at /usr/share/npm/node_modules/iferr/index.js:13:50
npm ERR! typeerror This is an error with npm itself. Please report this error at:
npm ERR! typeerror     <http://github.com/npm/npm/issues>

npm ERR! Please include the following file with any support request:
npm ERR!     /root/parts/electron-helloworld/build/npm-debug.log
cp: cannot stat './electron-quick-start-linux-x64': No such file or directory
Failed to run 'override-build': Exit code was 1.
Run the same command again with --debug to shell into the environment if you wish to introspect this failure.

( sorry for maybe poor english )

Answer 1

You are right, the nodejs runtime in the snap packages is quite outdated even when using core18 as base via base: core18 in the snapcraft.yaml . The solution is not using the snapcraft nodejs plugin but to download the provided binaries directly from the nodejs distributions archive: https://nodejs.org/dist/ .

This can be made very conveniently via snapcrafts dump plugin which supports downloading and extracting archives (even the efficient xy compression) with only one line of code: To get the newest nodejs version of 12.18.x for 64 bit (AMD) linux this parts definition gets it into the snap:

parts:
  node:
    plugin: dump
    source: https://nodejs.org/dist/v12.18.4/node-v12.18.4-linux-x64.tar.xz

Nodejs will than be available in the snaps bin directory. The command for starting a javascript app can than look like:

command: bin/node $SNAP/app/index.js

Answer 2

Okey, I finaly found how to do it

I just needed to add

    build-snaps:
    - node/12/stable

in the electron-helloworld part

( note that I have others problem after that, but it's an other subject )

Answer 3

At first remove nodejs from your computer:

sudo apt remove nodejs

Then, Run the following commands one after another:

cd ~

curl -sL https://deb.nodesource.com/setup_10.x -o nodesource_setup.sh

sudo apt install nodejs