Work Around or Fix for NPM lite-server on Linux error when running Angular 2 Quick Start

I am unable to start the lite-server 2.1.0 using npm on Ubuntu 14.04. I am trying to run the Angular2 Quick Start example.

This problem may be specific to Linux and only started to occur after a recent update to Ubuntu. I am able to run the Angular2 Quick Start successfully on Windows 8.1. I have tried various different versions of NPM and Node with no changes in my results. Running the Angular Heroes example also fails with the same issue.

Any solution or temporary work around would be greatly appreciated.

After successfully transpiling typescript to javascript, here is the result of attempting to start lite-server via npm:

npm run lite

events.js:154
      throw er; // Unhandled 'error' event
      ^

Error: watch node_modules/insight/node_modules/lodash/internal/baseForOwnRight.js ENOSPC
    at exports._errnoException (util.js:856:11)
    at FSWatcher.start (fs.js:1313:19)
    at Object.fs.watch (fs.js:1341:11)
    at createFsWatchInstance (/tf/sbtf/ang2-reg/node_modules/chokidar/lib/nodefs-handler.js:37:15)
    at setFsWatchListener (/tf/sbtf/ang2-reg/node_modules/chokidar/lib/nodefs-handler.js:80:15)
    at FSWatcher.NodeFsHandler._watchWithNodeFs (/tf/sbtf/ang2-reg/node_modules/chokidar/lib/nodefs-handler.js:228:14)
    at FSWatcher.NodeFsHandler._handleFile (/tf/sbtf/ang2-reg/node_modules/chokidar/lib/nodefs-handler.js:255:21)
    at FSWatcher.<anonymous> (/tf/sbtf/ang2-reg/node_modules/chokidar/lib/nodefs-handler.js:473:21)
    at FSReqWrap.oncomplete (fs.js:82:15)

npm ERR! Linux 3.19.0-49-generic
npm ERR! argv "/tf/node/bin/node" "/tf/node/bin/npm" "run" "lite"
npm ERR! node v5.6.0
npm ERR! npm  v3.7.2
npm ERR! code ELIFECYCLE
npm ERR! ang2-reg@1.0.0 lite: `lite-server`
npm ERR! Exit status 1

Here’s the package.json. I did upgrade lite-server to 2.1.0 to see if that would help, but it did not.

{
  "name": "ang2-reg",
  "version": "1.0.0",
  "scripts": {
    "postinstall": "npm run typings install",
    "tsc": "tsc",
    "tsc:w": "tsc -w",
    "lite": "lite-server",
    "start": "concurrent "npm run tsc:w" "npm run lite" ",
    "typings" : "typings"
  },
 "license": "ISC",
 "dependencies": {
    "angular2": "2.0.0-beta.6",
    "bootstrap": "^3.3.6",
    "systemjs": "0.19.20",
    "es6-promise": "^3.0.2",
    "es6-shim": "^0.33.3",
    "reflect-metadata": "0.1.2",
    "rxjs": "5.0.0-beta.0",
    "systemjs": "0.19.17",
    "zone.js": "0.5.14"
  },
  "devDependencies": {
    "concurrently": "^1.0.0",
    "lite-server": "^2.1.0",
    "typescript": "^1.8.0",
    "typings":"^0.6.8"
  }
}

Here’s the typescript config:

{
  "compilerOptions": {
    "target": "es5",
    "module": "system",
    "moduleResolution": "node",
    "sourceMap": true,
    "emitDecoratorMetadata": true,
    "experimentalDecorators": true,
    "removeComments": false,
    "noImplicitAny": false
  },
  "exclude": [
    "node_modules",
    "typings/main",
    "typings/main.d.ts"
  ]
}

Here’s the error message portion from the npm-debug.log:

10 verbose lifecycle ang2-reg@1.0.0~lite: CWD: /tf/sbtf/ang2-reg
11 silly lifecycle ang2-reg@1.0.0~lite: Args: [ '-c', 'lite-server' ]
12 silly lifecycle ang2-reg@1.0.0~lite: Returned: code: 1  signal: null
13 info lifecycle ang2-reg@1.0.0~lite: Failed to exec lite script
14 verbose stack Error: ang2-reg@1.0.0 lite: `lite-server`
14 verbose stack Exit status 1
14 verbose stack     at EventEmitter.<anonymous>
 (/tf/node/lib/node_modules/npm/lib/utils/lifecycle.js:239:16)
14 verbose stack     at emitTwo (events.js:100:13)
14 verbose stack     at EventEmitter.emit (events.js:185:7)
14 verbose stack     at ChildProcess.<anonymous> 
 (/tf/node/lib/node_modules/npm/lib/utils/spawn.js:24:14)
14 verbose stack     at emitTwo (events.js:100:13)
14 verbose stack     at ChildProcess.emit (events.js:185:7)
14 verbose stack     at maybeClose (internal/child_process.js:827:16)
14 verbose stack     at Process.ChildProcess._handle.onexit
 (internal/child_process.js:211:5)
15 verbose pkgid ang2-reg@1.0.0
16 verbose cwd /tf/sbtf/ang2-reg
17 error Linux 3.19.0-49-generic
18 error argv "/tf/node/bin/node" "/tf/node/bin/npm" "run" "lite"
19 error node v5.6.0
20 error npm  v3.7.2
21 error code ELIFECYCLE
22 error ang2-reg@1.0.0 lite: `lite-server`
22 error Exit status 1

Answer

I had the same error and I can solve it in ubuntu with the next steps:

Edit the file /etc/sysctl.conf and add the next line:

fs.inotify.max_user_watches = 524288

Save the file and type:

sudo sysctl -p

And try again run npm start. 🙂