Dashboard 2.0 sidebar is blank

Dashboard
1

I have 2 long running instances of NR. One on a Pi3b, the other on a Pi5. I tried working with DB2.0 a couple of years ago (I think), but felt it was be too much work to migrate everything, too many bugs at that time etc.

So I decided to keep the working DB1.0 but add new functionality using DB2.0 pages. This has been successful, and I am currently trying to add new DB2.0 widgets to the Pi3b.

The issue I have is that while the DB2.0 pages still work, the DB2.0 sidebar is blank.
I am using NR 4.0.5 on both Pis, but the Pi5 has DB2.0 1.18.1, and the Pi3b has 1.30.2

AI searches offered some workarounds, but they all seemed a bit extreme, especially since the code still works. It seemed to come back to saying don't use DB1.0 and 2.0 in the same project.
I can still manage the DB2.0 to some degree, using the Configurations Nodes, but I feel like I'm working blind.

It all points to the issue occuring between 1.18.1 and 1.30.2 so I would appreciate any help to either move forward (both 1.0 and 2.0 working concurrently) or backward to 1.18.1.
Thanks in advance.

2

There is no fundamental issue using the two dashboards together.

What browser are you using? Can you try a different one?

Open the developer tools console in the browser when the panel is missing, refresh the page and check for errors.

3

Does the pi3B have a 64 bit processor? (I can't recall).

Are you running the 64 bit OS?

What does node-red --version show you?

Are you using a browser on the Pi or another device such as a PC?

4

Also, have you got any locked flow tabs with dashboard nodes on them? If so then try unlocking them.

5

I don't. I cleared out everything that isn't in current use.

6

Thanks to yourself and Colin for your responses. I think I can answer them both here...

I normally use the Chrome browser on a Chromebook, but I tried using Edge on a Windows 11 machine, and the Chromium extension browser on the Pi3b itself and Chrome on my Android phone. Same result. Note that I use the same browser for my Pi5 setup, with both DB1.0 and 2.0, and this continues to work as usual, the difference being the older version of DB2.0.

Using the console as you suggested, I got this message after refresh:

Node-RED: 4.0.5
red.min.js?v=e2866b8ed460:16 Versions
red.min.js?v=e2866b8ed460:16 jQuery 3.5.1
red.min.js?v=e2866b8ed460:16 jQuery UI 1.13.2
red.min.js?v=e2866b8ed460:16 ACE 1.4.12
red.min.js?v=e2866b8ed460:16 MONACO 0.49.0
red.min.js?v=e2866b8ed460:16 D3 3.0.3
VM213:1722 Uncaught TypeError: Cannot read properties of undefined (reading 'surface')
    at Object.addItem (<anonymous>:1722:113)
    at V.<computed>.<computed>.insertItemAt (red.min.js?v=e2866b8ed460:18:29178)
    at a.<computed> [as insertItemAt] (vendor.js?v=e2866b8ed460:10:1122)
    at V.<computed>.<computed>.addItem (red.min.js?v=e2866b8ed460:18:29377)
    at a.<computed> [as addItem] (vendor.js?v=e2866b8ed460:10:1122)
    at HTMLOListElement.<anonymous> (vendor.js?v=e2866b8ed460:10:2133)
    at S.each (vendor.js?v=e2866b8ed460:2:2976)
    at s.fn.init.each (vendor.js?v=e2866b8ed460:2:1454)
    at V.fn.<computed> [as editableList] (vendor.js?v=e2866b8ed460:10:1951)
    at <anonymous>:1735:22

node-red status returns the following versions.

23 Jun 10:49:56 - [info] Node-RED version: v4.0.5
23 Jun 10:49:56 - [info] Node.js  version: v20.18.0
23 Jun 10:49:56 - [info] Linux 6.6.51+rpt-rpi-v8 arm64 LE
23 Jun 10:49:57 - [info] Loading palette nodes
23 Jun 10:50:06 - [info] Dashboard version 3.6.6 started at /ui

The pi3B does appear to have a 64 bit OS, but I saw a comment about NR5.0 which indicated that the pi3B is not supported due to node.js not having a compatible 64 bit version for ARM processors.

Any ideas?

7

Pi3b should work just fine with nodesjs24.

8

Thanks. I may have misunderstood this extract from "Version 5.0 released..." from June 9th. Actually I wouldn't want to head into V5.0 just yet, as it might open up other cans of worms and still not fix this particular issue. BTW the Pi5 is running node-red v4.0.5 and v20.20.2 of node.js:

Node-RED 5.0 requires a minimum of Node.js 22.9.0 to run - it will not run anything earlier.

However, keeping in mind the Node.js support scheduled, we recommend using Node.js 24, and this is what our Docker images are based on.

As the Node.js project no longer create 32bit ARM (arm/v7) based images, we are no longer able to support running on older Raspberry Pis (3b or earlier) as they cannot run the required 64bit OS.

9

There has been some confusion over which pies and what versions of nodejs play nicely together.

I think if I had this problem I would burn a fresh SD card for the Pi 3 and install Node-red 4.1.11 and node.js 22.

Install Node-red using the command line flags to force nodejs 22 and node-red 4.1.11, install the latest version of both dashboards.
Do both work?
Now import your flows.

If this works then try a reinstall on your existing card or sd, using the same command line flags.

Note that the NR install script seems to have changed it's name recently. Check with the documentation.

10

I think that is incorrect.

11

It’s true if you use docker. If running natively on the bare os then there are still v7 builds available that work.