Error on Linux: "npm is not installed" Despite Node.jsNPM Being Detected in Project Validation

[Anass001]

Describe the bug 💬

I'm trying to install web project, but I'm encountering the following error:

npm is not installed - please install Node LTS first. Visit https://nodejs.org for more information. If you did install Nodejs and this message still appears please restart your computer.
UnityEngine.Debug:LogError (object)

I have two Node.js versions installed on my system:

• v18.20.5 (set as the default version)
• v20.13.1

In the Project Validation window, it detects Node.js v20.13.1 and NPM 10.5.2, but I still get the error in the console.

I'm new to Unity and Needle and i just started figuring things out, so I tried some suggested solutions found in the forum.

Steps I’ve tried so far:

• Added the second Node.js path to the additional NPM search paths in the Project Validation window (so now there are two paths).
• Changed default node version from 20.13.1 to 18.20.5
• Restarted Unity.
• Restarted my computer.

Unfortunately, none of these resolved the issue.

Operating System 👩‍💻

Linux

What browsers are you seeing the problem on? 🏄‍♂️

No response

Editor Version 🎲

2022.x

Needle Exporter version

3.51.0

Project Info (Unity only) 📜

{
  "ExportInfoGameObjectName": "Export",
  "ExportInfoGameObjectIsEnabled": true,
  "UnityProjectPath": "/home/../Needle4/Assets",
  "UnityVersion": "2022.3.54f1",
  "SceneName": "Sandbox",
  "ProjectPath": "Library/Needle/Sample",
  "ProjectDirectoryExists": true,
  "ProjectIsInstalled": true,
  "NeedleEngineInstalled": true,
  "HasNodeInstalled": false,
  "NodeVersion": null,
  "NpmVersion": null,
  "TypescriptVersion": null,
  "HasTokTxInstalled": true,
  "HasMinimumToktxVersionInstalled": false,
  "RenderPipeline": "Built-in",
  "GzipEnabled": false,
  "NeedleEngineExporterVersion": "3.51.0",
  "NeedleEngineVersion": "3.51.0",
  "NeedleEngineSamplesVersion": "0.18.0",
  "NeedleEngineExporterPath": "Packages/com.needle.engine-exporter/package.json",
  "NeedleEnginePath": "/home/../Needle4/Assets/../Library/Needle/Sample/node_modules/@needle-tools/engine/package.json",
  "FileStats": null,
  "NeedleComponentsInScene": [
    "Needle.Engine.ExportInfo",
    "Needle.Engine.Codegen.ComponentGenerator",
    "Needle.Engine.Shaders.SkyboxExportSettings",
    "Needle.Engine.Deployment.DeployToFTP",
    "Needle.Engine.HtmlMeta",
    "Needle.Engine.Components.GltfObject",
    "Needle.Engine.Components.SyncedRoom",
    "Needle.Engine.Components.Networking",
    "Needle.Engine.WebXR",
    "Needle.Engine.Components.XR.XRControllerModel",
    "Needle.Engine.Components.SpectatorCamera",
    "Needle.Engine.Components.SyncedCamera",
    "Needle.Engine.Components.AvatarBlink_Simple",
    "Needle.Engine.Components.PlayerColor",
    "Needle.Engine.Components.WebARSessionRoot",
    "Needle.Engine.Components.ObjectRaycaster",
    "Needle.Engine.Components.TeleportTarget",
    "Needle.Engine.Components.XRRig",
    "Needle.Engine.Components.OrbitControls",
    "Needle.Engine.Components.XRFlag",
    "Needle.Engine.Components.Deletable",
    "Needle.Engine.Components.SyncedTransform",
    "Needle.Engine.Components.DragControls",
    "Needle.Engine.Components.DeleteBox",
    "Needle.Engine.Components.BoxGizmo",
    "Needle.Engine.Components.Duplicatable",
    "Needle.Engine.Components.NeedleMenu",
    "Needle.Engine.Readme"
  ],
  "TypeCacheIsDirty": false,
  "TypeScriptTypes": []
}

Steps to reproduce 🔢

1. Create new unity project
2. Open Sample scene
3. Try to Install Web Project
...

Reproduction ♻

No response

Discord or Discussion link

No response

Validations 🩹

• Follow our Code of Conduct
• Read the docs.
• Check that there isn't already an issue that reports the same bug to avoid creating a duplicate.
• Make sure this is a Needle-Engine-specific issue. For example if it's a Unity related bug, it should be reported to Unity instead.
• Check that this is a concrete bug. For Q&A open a GitHub Discussion or join our Discord Chat Server.
• The provided reproduction is a minimal reproducible example of the bug.

[hybridherbst]

Thanks for the report - can you please try updating nodejs manually to latest 20 LTS?

[Anass001]

Hey, I already tried Nodejs v20.18.1 (LTS) but still facing the same problem.

[marwie]

Are you using nvm or something similar by any chance?

What do you get when you run npm --version in your commandline?

[Anass001]

When I initially encountered this issue, I was not using nvm. I installed nvm afterward to see if it would resolve the problem, but it made no difference.

Running npm --version outputs 10.8.2.

[marwie]

Can you try running the same command in Unity using the commandline helper (via menu item "Needle Engine/Internal/Command Tester")

[Anass001]

running npm --version in the command tester outputs:
/usr/bin/sh: 1: --version: not found

[marwie]

Hello @Anass001 do you still experience this issue? If yes could you send a Bugreport in Unity via the menu item "Needle Engine/Report a bug" ?

[Anass001]

I switched to Windows, so I no longer experience this issue.

[AronSchaub]

I'm commenting, because I still have this or a very similar problem and I'm running Linux and I can't just switch to Windows to fix it.

The first thing is, that the Project Validation Window doesn't show the NPM version, but still says it is installed:

needle doesn't actually detect it being installed it is still waiting (indefnitely) for the background task to return.

So i hopped into the C# code in the back and there are a couple of weird things happening.
first is, that it shows ... & pause in the task. pause is not a valid command under Linux if this really runs pause after the other command then it won't run sucessfully.

the second thing is, that it jumps into the else in ProcessHandler.cs

which will change the processInfo to run osascript, which is a macOS command. I don't know why the process hangs though and just not returns with unknown command, but I hope this helps. When I get the time I will try to get you more info, but I have to work on the actual project and will work blind on it until this is fixed.

my info:
OS: Kubuntu 25.04
node --version: v22.18.0
npm --version: 11.5.2 (updated from the default installed 10.x.x for this test, but it must be something with the command wrapper in Unity anyway and the way the shell is called.)

{
  "ExportInfoGameObjectName": "Export Info",
  "ExportInfoGameObjectIsEnabled": true,
  "UnityProjectPath": "/home/a-schaub/Projekte/XRCityPlanning/Assets",
  "UnityVersion": "6000.0.53f1",
  "SceneName": "DeviceSensors",
  "ProjectPath": "Library/Needle/Sample/DeviceSensors",
  "ProjectDirectoryExists": true,
  "ProjectIsInstalled": true,
  "NeedleEngineInstalled": true,
  "HasNodeInstalled": false,
  "NodeVersion": null,
  "NpmVersion": null,
  "TypescriptVersion": null,
  "HasTokTxInstalled": true,
  "HasMinimumToktxVersionInstalled": true,
  "RenderPipeline": "PC_RPAsset (UnityEngine.Rendering.Universal.UniversalRenderPipelineAsset)",
  "GzipEnabled": false,
  "NeedleEngineExporterVersion": "4.7.4",
  "NeedleEngineVersion": "4.7.4",
  "NeedleEngineSamplesVersion": "0.20.1",
  "NeedleEngineExporterPath": "Packages/com.needle.engine-exporter/package.json",
  "NeedleEnginePath": "/home/a-schaub/Projekte/XRCityPlanning/Assets/../Library/Needle/Sample/DeviceSensors/node_modules/@needle-tools/engine/package.json",
  "FileStats": null,
  "NeedleComponentsInScene": [
    "Needle.Engine.ExportInfo",
    "Needle.Engine.Codegen.ComponentGenerator",
    "Needle.Engine.Deployment.DeployToFTP",
    "Needle.Engine.HtmlMeta",
    "Needle.Engine.Gltf.NeedleCompressionSettings",
    "Needle.Engine.Readme",
    "Needle.Engine.Components.OrbitControls",
    "Needle.Typescript.GeneratedComponents.SensorAccessSample",
    "Needle.Engine.Components.NeedleMenu",
    "Needle.Engine.WebXR"
  ],
  "TypeCacheIsDirty": true,
  "TypeScriptTypes": []
}