# Installation Error

**URL:** https://discourse.nodered.org/t/installation-error/94723
**Category:** General
**Created:** [19 January 2025 05:09 UTC](https://discourse.nodered.org/t/installation-error/94723 "2025-01-19T05:09:29Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1

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### Author: ![leftymuller](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex026/user_avatar/discourse.nodered.org/leftymuller/32/102326_2.png) [@leftymuller](https://discourse.nodered.org/u/leftymuller)
#### Post date: [19 January 2025 05:09 UTC](https://discourse.nodered.org/t/installation-error/94723/1 "2025-01-19T05:09:29Z")

</div>

Hello Good peoples,

Just tried to install an instance of node-red on Debian 12 under proxmox  
I have done this a heap of times and never any problems

However I get

root@debian:/etc# node-red  
Illegal instruction (core dumped)

Installation was

1. install npm with apt-get
2. Install node-red with npm  
root@debian:/etc# npm install node-red  
added 312 packages in 38s

Is the current installation broken or is something else?

Any help appreciated

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<div class="post-metadata">

### Author: ![Colin](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex026/user_avatar/discourse.nodered.org/colin/32/17040_2.png) [@Colin](https://discourse.nodered.org/u/Colin)
#### Post date: [19 January 2025 07:42 UTC](https://discourse.nodered.org/t/installation-error/94723/2 "2025-01-19T07:42:35Z")

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Did you install nodejs? Which version?

What do these command show?

```auto
node -v
npm -v

```

I don't know about proxmox. Are you not able to use the usual Debian/pi install script?

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<div class="post-metadata">

### Author: ![leftymuller](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex026/user_avatar/discourse.nodered.org/leftymuller/32/102326_2.png) [@leftymuller](https://discourse.nodered.org/u/leftymuller)
#### Post date: [19 January 2025 09:35 UTC](https://discourse.nodered.org/t/installation-error/94723/3 "2025-01-19T09:35:26Z")

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Hi Thanks for the replying  
root@debian:~# node -v  
v18.19.0

root@debian:~# npm -v  
9.2.0

Ive never used the debian/pi install script before?

It seems npm installs everything without any errors

Im really at a loss... ive put node-red on proxmox before without issues, however this is on a AMD turion on a HP N54L which I wouldnt of thought would make a difference.

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<div class="post-metadata">

### Author: ![bakman2](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex026/user_avatar/discourse.nodered.org/bakman2/32/6207_2.png) [@bakman2](https://discourse.nodered.org/u/bakman2)
#### Post date: [19 January 2025 09:42 UTC](https://discourse.nodered.org/t/installation-error/94723/4 "2025-01-19T09:42:23Z")

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The install script provides multiple benefits.

but you are running node-red from the etc directory, that is not really the way to do this, as it reads/writes various files when starting in the .node-red dir, which should live in a user dir, ie. node-red is a global module that can be instantiated.

As per [documentation](https://nodered.org/docs/getting-started/local), or using [the script](https://nodered.org/docs/getting-started/raspberrypi)

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<div class="post-metadata">

### Author: ![leftymuller](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex026/user_avatar/discourse.nodered.org/leftymuller/32/102326_2.png) [@leftymuller](https://discourse.nodered.org/u/leftymuller)
#### Post date: [19 January 2025 09:54 UTC](https://discourse.nodered.org/t/installation-error/94723/5 "2025-01-19T09:54:26Z")

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Thanks.  
Removed node-red with npm --uninstall  
run the script  
completed installation  
Result.... Illegal instruction (core dumped)

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<div class="post-metadata">

### Author: ![gregorius](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex026/user_avatar/discourse.nodered.org/gregorius/32/73816_2.png) [@gregorius](https://discourse.nodered.org/u/gregorius)
#### Post date: [19 January 2025 09:55 UTC](https://discourse.nodered.org/t/installation-error/94723/6 "2025-01-19T09:55:18Z")

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> [@bakman2](#):
>
> when starting in the .node-red dir,

doesn't node-red use the home directory of the user to create the .node-red directory? I.e. `~/.node-dir` is created/used regardless of the directory the user starts node-red.

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### Author: ![bakman2](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex026/user_avatar/discourse.nodered.org/bakman2/32/6207_2.png) [@bakman2](https://discourse.nodered.org/u/bakman2)
#### Post date: [19 January 2025 09:56 UTC](https://discourse.nodered.org/t/installation-error/94723/7 "2025-01-19T09:56:45Z")

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Yeah that could be, but OP is running this as root, he may not have a homedir.

@leftymuller you ran the script as a user, not root ?

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### Author: ![gregorius](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex026/user_avatar/discourse.nodered.org/gregorius/32/73816_2.png) [@gregorius](https://discourse.nodered.org/u/gregorius)
#### Post date: [19 January 2025 09:57 UTC](https://discourse.nodered.org/t/installation-error/94723/8 "2025-01-19T09:57:10Z")

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> [@bakman2](#):
>
> root, he may not have a homedir.

root has the `/root` directory as home

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<div class="post-metadata">

### Author: ![leftymuller](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex026/user_avatar/discourse.nodered.org/leftymuller/32/102326_2.png) [@leftymuller](https://discourse.nodered.org/u/leftymuller)
#### Post date: [19 January 2025 09:57 UTC](https://discourse.nodered.org/t/installation-error/94723/9 "2025-01-19T09:57:59Z")

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@bakman2 ran as a normal user

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<div class="post-metadata">

### Author: ![bakman2](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex026/user_avatar/discourse.nodered.org/bakman2/32/6207_2.png) [@bakman2](https://discourse.nodered.org/u/bakman2)
#### Post date: [19 January 2025 10:02 UTC](https://discourse.nodered.org/t/installation-error/94723/10 "2025-01-19T10:02:20Z")

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Sounds like an architecture issue - are you running it as a lxc or vm ? possibly it needs certain architecture flags enabled in the proxmox vm settings (if using vm).

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<div class="post-metadata">

### Author: ![dceejay](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex026/user_avatar/discourse.nodered.org/dceejay/32/38_2.png) [@dceejay](https://discourse.nodered.org/u/dceejay)
#### Post date: [19 January 2025 10:02 UTC](https://discourse.nodered.org/t/installation-error/94723/11 "2025-01-19T10:02:34Z")

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"Illegal instruction" is usually more down to some hardware/os/architecture mismatch eg running intel code on an arm processor, or 64bit code on 32 bit architecture, or incompatible libc libraries eg debian vs alpine etc

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<div class="post-metadata">

### Author: ![leftymuller](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex026/user_avatar/discourse.nodered.org/leftymuller/32/102326_2.png) [@leftymuller](https://discourse.nodered.org/u/leftymuller)
#### Post date: [19 January 2025 10:05 UTC](https://discourse.nodered.org/t/installation-error/94723/12 "2025-01-19T10:05:11Z")

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@bakman2  
running it as a VM

I did notice that when I installed it via npm for an instant it said "blah blah-android-arm64"

I even tried npm --install --cpu x64 but it didnt make any difference

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<div class="post-metadata">

### Author: ![dceejay](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex026/user_avatar/discourse.nodered.org/dceejay/32/38_2.png) [@dceejay](https://discourse.nodered.org/u/dceejay)
#### Post date: [19 January 2025 10:07 UTC](https://discourse.nodered.org/t/installation-error/94723/13 "2025-01-19T10:07:41Z")

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sounds like you have the incorrect base VM then... what does `uname -a` and/or `cat /etc/issue` return ?

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<div class="post-metadata">

### Author: ![leftymuller](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex026/user_avatar/discourse.nodered.org/leftymuller/32/102326_2.png) [@leftymuller](https://discourse.nodered.org/u/leftymuller)
#### Post date: [19 January 2025 10:09 UTC](https://discourse.nodered.org/t/installation-error/94723/14 "2025-01-19T10:09:14Z")

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Linux debian 6.1.0-13-amd64 #1 SMP PREEMPT\_DYNAMIC Debian 6.1.55-1 (2023-09-29) x86\_64 GNU/Linux

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<div class="post-metadata">

### Author: ![dceejay](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex026/user_avatar/discourse.nodered.org/dceejay/32/38_2.png) [@dceejay](https://discourse.nodered.org/u/dceejay)
#### Post date: [19 January 2025 10:11 UTC](https://discourse.nodered.org/t/installation-error/94723/15 "2025-01-19T10:11:58Z")

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This is inside the guest vm ?... If so that looks ok - so I've no idea where that Android reference came from... but that is the issue.. need to totally remove nodejs and npm and somehow get the correct (x86\_64) ones installed... (which the install script should do)

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<div class="post-metadata">

### Author: ![leftymuller](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex026/user_avatar/discourse.nodered.org/leftymuller/32/102326_2.png) [@leftymuller](https://discourse.nodered.org/u/leftymuller)
#### Post date: [19 January 2025 10:20 UTC](https://discourse.nodered.org/t/installation-error/94723/16 "2025-01-19T10:20:01Z")

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(###############⠂⠂⠂) ⠙ reify:@node-rs/bcrypt-android-arm-eabi: timing reifyNode:node\_modules/@node-rs/bcrypt-android-arm64 Completed in 31ms

managed to capture it

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<div class="post-metadata">

### Author: ![leftymuller](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex026/user_avatar/discourse.nodered.org/leftymuller/32/102326_2.png) [@leftymuller](https://discourse.nodered.org/u/leftymuller)
#### Post date: [19 January 2025 15:09 UTC](https://discourse.nodered.org/t/installation-error/94723/17 "2025-01-19T15:09:36Z")

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Something weird here gents

root@debian:/usr/local/lib/node\_modules/node-red# js red.js  
Illegal instruction (core dumped)

but when i run

> .load red.js  
> it Lists contents of red.js with error

```
                                                              return;
                                                              ^^^^^^

```

Uncaught SyntaxError: Illegal return statement

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<div class="post-metadata">

### Author: ![jbudd](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/5f8ce5/32.png) [@jbudd](https://discourse.nodered.org/u/jbudd)
#### Post date: [19 January 2025 16:06 UTC](https://discourse.nodered.org/t/installation-error/94723/18 "2025-01-19T16:06:55Z")

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> [@leftymuller](#):
>
> Something weird here gents

On the face of it, something is wrong either with your installation of Node.js or Node-red or else at a lower level of the OS.

And it seems that you have installed it without using the ["official" script,](https://nodered.org/docs/getting-started/raspberrypi) as the user root and from the directory /etc.  
I think it's unlikely anyone else will be able to diagnose the precise issue.

Is it practical to start again with a clean OS?  
Try using the install script, from the home directory of a non-privileged user account (though they should be able to use sudo).  
I don't know if this is possible with Proxmox.

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<div class="post-metadata">

### Author: ![Colin](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex026/user_avatar/discourse.nodered.org/colin/32/17040_2.png) [@Colin](https://discourse.nodered.org/u/Colin)
#### Post date: [19 January 2025 17:24 UTC](https://discourse.nodered.org/t/installation-error/94723/19 "2025-01-19T17:24:50Z")

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> [@jbudd](#):
>
> though they should be able to use sudo

Don't run the install script with sudo.

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<div class="post-metadata">

### Author: ![jbudd](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/5f8ce5/32.png) [@jbudd](https://discourse.nodered.org/u/jbudd)
#### Post date: [19 January 2025 17:37 UTC](https://discourse.nodered.org/t/installation-error/94723/20 "2025-01-19T17:37:46Z")

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Thanks @Colin. I should have been more explicit.

The script should be run as a non privileged user, though it will prompt for the sudo password as necessary.

[Next page](https://discourse.nodered.org/t/installation-error/94723.md?page=2)
