[Ubuntu] An unknown error occurred while installing React Native DevTools

[birdofpreyru]

Description

After migration of an existing RN app (no framework) to RN@0.83.0 I get this when yarn start on Ubuntu build host:

Not a hard error though — the app installs, the Metro service serves the bundle, and DevTools open and seemingly work.

Tried to change the ownership, file mode of the folder... does not seem ho help.

No such issue when building the same app on macOS build host.

Steps to reproduce

Above.

React Native Version

0.83.0

Output of npx @react-native-community/cli info

N/A

Screenshots and Videos

No response

[react-native-bot]

Warning

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[cortinico]

cc @huntie

[huntie]

@birdofpreyru Yup, you're right in spotting that this isn't a hard error.

This error happens during a preparation step when we attempt to eagerly install the RNDT desktop app. If this step fails (which it seems to have), we'll fall back to the previous browser launch flow (which I expect you are getting). No other impact on the dev server. (Maybe we could clarify this message to sound less scary!)

We usually expect this error to show in rare cases such as a download being blocked by a corp firewall. In this case however, there some configuration issue with your Ubuntu install.

We do support Linux, so I'm curious if you could share more info about your system setup, that can help us improve this.

[birdofpreyru]

I'm curious if you could share more info about your system setup, that can help us improve this.

@huntie I have a very boring system setup, pretty much the default Ubuntu 24.04.3 installation (to be exact, I first installed Ubuntu 22 without any customization of default options I can think of, then over time it upgraded to 24). No firewall.

[exneval]

Just uprade to react native 0.83 through expo sdk 55 and find exact same issue like author, my development setup

Distributor ID: Ubuntu
Description: Ubuntu 24.04.4 LTS
Release: 24.04
Codename: noble

[phipma]

I have just set up my first expo project (with the help of Cursor AI) and get this:

 ERROR  An unknown error occurred while installing React Native DevTools. Details:

LaunchProcess: failed to execvp:
/home/mark/.cache/dotslash/cb/2a59c5919ce27ef30b55119edf89e556e015ef/React
[2194152:0513/160026.905822:FATAL:content/browser/zygote_host/zygote_host_impl_linux.cc:211] Check failed: . : Invalid argument (22)

Evidently caused by spaces in the path:

ls /home/mark/.cache/dotslash/cb/2a59c5919ce27ef30b55119edf89e556e015ef 
'React Native DevTools-linux-x64'

[Riczer]

I have just set up my first expo project (with the help of Cursor AI) and get this:

 ERROR  An unknown error occurred while installing React Native DevTools. Details:

LaunchProcess: failed to execvp:
/home/mark/.cache/dotslash/cb/2a59c5919ce27ef30b55119edf89e556e015ef/React
[2194152:0513/160026.905822:FATAL:content/browser/zygote_host/zygote_host_impl_linux.cc:211] Check failed: . : Invalid argument (22)

Evidently caused by spaces in the path:

ls /home/mark/.cache/dotslash/cb/2a59c5919ce27ef30b55119edf89e556e015ef 
'React Native DevTools-linux-x64'

I have this same problem