Error loading node-red-mcu-plugin

[tve]

Linux Arch x64, running node-red in docker, only installing node-red-mcu-plugin:

Welcome to Node-RED
===================

12 Dec 21:28:15 - [info] Node-RED version: v3.0.2
12 Dec 21:28:15 - [info] Node.js  version: v18.7.0
12 Dec 21:28:15 - [info] Linux 5.15.76-1-MANJARO x64 LE
12 Dec 21:28:16 - [info] Loading palette nodes
*** Error while loading node-red-mcu-plugin:
Failed to calculate correct patch path.
Please raise an issue @ our GitHub repository, stating the following information:
> require.main.path: /usr/src/node-red/node_modules/node-red
> utils.js: /usr/src/node-red/node_modules/node-red/node_modules/@node-red/registry
TypeError [ERR_INVALID_ARG_TYPE]: The "id" argument must be of type string. Received
 null
    at new NodeError (node:internal/errors:387:5)
    at validateString (node:internal/validators:116:11)
    at Module.require (node:internal/modules/cjs/loader:1015:3)
    at require (node:internal/modules/cjs/helpers:102:18)
    at Object.<anonymous> (/usr/src/node-red/node-red-mcu-plugin/mcu_plugin.js:129:2
2)
    at Module._compile (node:internal/modules/cjs/loader:1120:14)
    at Module._extensions..js (node:internal/modules/cjs/loader:1174:10)
    at Module.load (node:internal/modules/cjs/loader:998:32)
    at Module._load (node:internal/modules/cjs/loader:839:12)
    at Module.require (node:internal/modules/cjs/loader:1022:19) {
  code: 'ERR_INVALID_ARG_TYPE'
}

The script to launch the container is below. I have the modaable SDK installed and node-red-mcu-plugin checked out and I map both of these into the docker container.

#! /usr/bin/env bash
MOD=/home/sw/moddable
cd $MOD
CMD="set -x; npm i ./node-red-* --omit=dev --no-fund --no-audit"
CMD="$CMD; npm start --cache /data/.npm -- -v --userDir /data"
exec docker run --rm -ti -p 1770:1880 \
  -v $PWD/nr-data:/data \
  -v $PWD/node-red-mcu-plugin:/usr/src/node-red/node-red-mcu-plugin \
  -v $PWD/moddable:/usr/src/moddable \
  -e TZ=America/Los_Angeles \
  -e MODDABLE=/usr/src/moddable \
  --entrypoint bash \
  --name node-red-mcu \
  nodered/node-red:3.0.2-18 \
  -c "$CMD"

[tve]

Looking in the container:

bash-5.1$ pwd
/usr/src/node-red
bash-5.1$ find . -name registry
./node_modules/@node-red/registry

I ended up patching get_require_path to simply return:

    let rm = require.main.path;
    rm = rm.replace(/node_modules.*/, '')
    return rm + req_path

This got me through the require issue and now NR starts fine.

[ralphwetzel]

A few comments - without being sure they're truly relevant:

-v $PWD/node-red-mcu-plugin:/usr/src/node-red/node-red-mcu-plugin \

This looks like node-red-mcu-plugin is not installed (or mapped) into the <userdir>/node_modules folder - despite it should be.

bash-5.1$ pwd
/usr/src/node-red
bash-5.1$ find . -name registry
./node_modules/@node-red/registry

The location of the registry folder as well looks "non-standard". How did you install node-red ... and how did you determine the path to map it to for the container?

require.main.path: /usr/src/node-red/node_modules/node-red

Your system expects to exists under the shown require.main.path - whereas it looks like it is mapped to /usr/src/node-red.

[tve]

I'm using the official docker images. Node-RED is installed in /usr/src/node-red and that's ~node-red ($HOME). The user dir is /data. Node-RED has two node_modules directories: the one where it itself is installed (/usr/src/node-red/node_modules) and in the user dir (/data/node_modules). For a npm install it's common to use the home dir. If you install something within the node-red flow editor using the palette manager then it goes into the user dir's node_modules.

The installation of Node-RED is basically:

• cd /usr/src/node-red
• plop down package.json from https://github.com/node-red/node-red-docker/blob/master/docker-custom/package.json
• npm install

Maybe what causes the problem is the way node-red is started:

node $NODE_OPTIONS node_modules/node-red/red.js $FLOWS

See the package.json file's start command.
Just in case it's not clear, node-red-mcu-plugin ends up in /usr/src/node-red/node_modules/@ralphwetzel/node-red-mcu-plugin

[ralphwetzel]

Thank you for this data.
I'll update the plugin so that this standard container should be recognized & supported by default.
This yet doesn't solve the issue w/ xsbug & the sim.