Skip to main content

NPM Install Failing with EROFS in npm-debug.log on VirtualBox shared Drive [Updated for ETXTBSY]

I have a set up where I use my IDE on my host system and build my code on an Ubuntu server and deploy there.

To achieve this I have used virtual box to install and run Ubuntu as a guest system. My host system is Windows.  I have shared a drive across to the guest. Every time my ubuntu comes up, I mount the drive using the command:

sudo mount -t vboxsf SHARE_NAME folder_to_mount_on

Things were working fine, with my Java server development. Now I decided to move my js and node environment to the same set up and BOOM! it failed.

Only hint was EROFS error on the npm-debug.log. Some googling and I find out that VirtualBox has a bug and it does not support sysmlink and since ubuntu by default support symlink creation, npm was failing at the time of creation of sysmlink.

My initial solution was to write a build script which rsynced my working directory to a level above and run the build command there. I worked but was slow and hacky.

Then I found out that we can switch on symlink on VirtaulBox and windows: To do so:

VBoxManage setextradata YOURVMNAME VBoxInternal2/SharedFoldersEnableSymlinksCreate/YOURSHAREFOLDERNAME 1

Verify by running:

VBoxManage getextradata YOURVMNAME enumerate

Restart VirualBox and run it as administrator, and things starts working :)

UPDATE:
Another new error I cam across in the similar environment was stack: 'Error: ETXTBSY, 
for this I have to end up adding  --no-bin-links so that no soft links are created.


Popular posts from this blog

Why India Hasn’t Built Its GPT Moment (Yet)

India has the world’s third-largest startup ecosystem, a thriving developer base, and a mobile-first population larger than the US and Europe combined. Yet, no GPT-4. No DeepMind. No Amazon-style platform. Why? Innovation Isn’t Accidental—It’s Engineered The Zerodha Daily Brief recently asked why India hasn’t built a global product company like Apple. The key argument: India isn’t building for the world. It’s solving for local constraints, scale, and affordability—but global scale requires deep IP, design, and tech differentiation. It’s not just about software, it’s about systems thinking. More importantly, it answers the question: Why do countries innovate? The answer isn’t just genius or ambition—it’s incentives and ecosystems. The U.S. Defense Department, for example, accounted for nearly 70% of federal R&D funding during the Cold War. China has pumped billions into semiconductors and AI with long-term national alignment. These aren’t short-term bets—they are strategic, delibe...
Read more

Problems with mysql.sock

Sometimes while working on Linux, mysql.sock may get deleted by mistake due to some softwares.. in such cases any access to mysql wont be possible as the sock file defines the socket connection for mysql. It will give an error of the following type: ERROR 2002 (HY000): Can't connect to local MySQL server through socket '/var/lib/mysql/mysql.sock' (2) In such cases follow these steps to reconfigure mysql: Delete the log files with the names: ib_logfile0, ib_logfile1 and ibdata1 in the /var/lib/mysql directory Then type: "mysqld_safe --user=mysql &" This will automatically create mysql.sock file and even the new logs files. This is a very simple solution which I used recently and decided to share with you people.
Read more

Universal Xp serial key

The key given below is the universal serial key for Windows Xp.. It can by pass any windows xp cd and make your copy genuine. Do try it!!! V2C47-MK7JD-3R89F-D2KXW-VPK3J
Read more