[BUG] - r2modman 3.2.13 fails to build on Arch (electron-builder JSON parse error)

[BlueShadowVirus]

Describe the bug
r2modman 3.2.13 fails to build on Arch Linux when installed via yay (AUR) or when built manually with makepkg. The failure occurs during the electron-builder packaging step.

The root cause is that r2modman 3.2.13 upgraded to electron-builder 26.x, which now requires a zipped Electron distribution. Arch Linux ships Electron as an unpacked directory in /usr/lib/electron38, without the metadata files electron-builder expects.

This causes electron-builder to attempt to read a non‑existent metadata file and crash with:

SyntaxError: Unexpected end of JSON input

r2modman 3.2.11 builds successfully, because it uses electron-builder 24.x, which still supports system Electron.

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To Reproduce
Steps to reproduce the behavior:

1. On Arch Linux, run:

   yay -Syu r2modman
   

   or:

   git clone https://aur.archlinux.org/r2modman.git
   cd r2modman
   makepkg -si
   

2. Build proceeds normally until the electron-builder step

3. electron-builder logs:

   custom electronDist provided but no zip found; assuming unpacked electron directory.
   electronDist=/usr/lib/electron38 expectedFile=electron-v38.7.2-linux-x64.zip
   

4. Build fails with:

   SyntaxError: Unexpected end of JSON input
   

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Expected behavior
The package should build successfully on Arch Linux, as r2modman 3.2.11 does.

---

Screenshots
Relevant excerpt from the yay build log:

• electron-builder  version=26.0.12 os=6.18.6-arch1-1
• packaging       platform=linux arch=x64 electron=38.7.2
• custom electronDist provided but no zip found; assuming unpacked electron directory.
  electronDist=/usr/lib/electron38 expectedFile=electron-v38.7.2-linux-x64.zip

SyntaxError: Unexpected end of JSON input

App • ⚠   FAIL  App build failed
==> ERROR: A failure occurred in build().

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Additional context

• Arch Linux ships Electron as an unpacked directory, not a zip file

• electron-builder 26.x requires zipped Electron distributions

• The AUR PKGBUILD injects:

  electronDist="/usr/lib/electron38"
  electronVersion="$(<$_electronDist/version)"
  

  This worked with electron-builder 24.x but is incompatible with 26.x.

• This affects all Arch users installing via yay or building from source

• Downgrading electron-builder to 24.x or allowing electron-builder to download its own Electron zip resolves the issue

---

Environment

• OS: Arch Linux (rolling release)
• Install method: yay (AUR)
  The failure also occurs when building manually with makepkg.
• Package version: r2modman 3.2.13-1 (AUR)
• Working previous version: r2modman 3.2.11-1
• Kernel: 6.18.6-arch1-1
• Electron (system): electron38 (38.7.2) installed from Arch repositories
  → Arch ships Electron as an unpacked directory in /usr/lib/electron38
• Node: 20.x (from Arch repos)
• Yarn: 4.11.0 (via corepack)
• electron-builder version used by r2modman 3.2.13: 26.0.12
• Build environment:
  • yay build directory: ~/.cache/yay/r2modman
  • PKGBUILD unmodified
  • Build fails during the electron-builder packaging step

[Tovaryon]

Same problem here with CachyOS (based on Arch.)

[Tovaryon]

@BlueShadowVirus If you need a workaround right now, i uninstalled r2modman (it should not delete configuration data, a backup is still recommended) and then install the r2modman-bin, which is the prebuilt version of r2modman. This should fix it atleast for this version

[Reiss-Cashmore]

Had this issue on CachyOS upgrading from r2modman 3.2.15 to r2modman 3.2.16 today too. It's not a specific issue to do with r2modman 3.2.13