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[Ubuntu] An unknown error occurred while installing React Native DevTools #54906

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[Ubuntu] An unknown error occurred while installing React Native DevTools#54906
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DebuggingIssues related to React Native DevTools or legacy JavaScript/Hermes debuggingNeeds: AttentionIssues where the author has responded to feedback.Needs: ReproThis issue could be improved with a clear list of steps to reproduce the issue.

Description

@birdofpreyru
birdofpreyru
opened on Dec 16, 2025

Description

After migration of an existing RN app (no framework) to RN@0.83.0 I get this when yarn start on Ubuntu build host:

Image

Not a hard error though — the app installs, the Metro service serves the bundle, and DevTools open and seemingly work.

Tried to change the ownership, file mode of the folder... does not seem ho help.

No such issue when building the same app on macOS build host.

Steps to reproduce

Above.

React Native Version

0.83.0

Output of npx @react-native-community/cli info

N/A

Screenshots and Videos

No response

Activity

  1. birdofpreyru
    added
    DebuggingIssues related to React Native DevTools or legacy JavaScript/Hermes debugging
    Needs: Triage 🔍
    on Dec 16, 2025
  2. react-native-bot
    added
    Needs: Author Feedback
    Needs: ReproThis issue could be improved with a clear list of steps to reproduce the issue.
    on Dec 16, 2025

  3. react-native-bot commented on Dec 16, 2025

    @react-native-bot
    react-native-bot
    on Dec 16, 2025
    Collaborator

    Warning

    Missing reproducer: We could not detect a reproducible example in your issue report. Reproducers are mandatory and we can accept only one of those as a valid reproducer:


    You can read more about about it on our website: How to report a bug.

  4. react-native-bot
    removed
    Needs: Triage 🔍
    on Dec 16, 2025

  5. cortinico commented on Dec 29, 2025

    @cortinico
    cortinico
    on Dec 29, 2025
    Contributor

    cc @huntie

  6. huntie commented on Jan 2, 2026

    @huntie
    huntie
    on Jan 2, 2026
    Collaborator

    @birdofpreyru Yup, you're right in spotting that this isn't a hard error.

    This error happens during a preparation step when we attempt to eagerly install the RNDT desktop app. If this step fails (which it seems to have), we'll fall back to the previous browser launch flow (which I expect you are getting). No other impact on the dev server. (Maybe we could clarify this message to sound less scary!)

    We usually expect this error to show in rare cases such as a download being blocked by a corp firewall. In this case however, there some configuration issue with your Ubuntu install.

    We do support Linux, so I'm curious if you could share more info about your system setup, that can help us improve this.

  7. birdofpreyru commented on Jan 2, 2026

    @birdofpreyru
    birdofpreyru
    on Jan 2, 2026
    ContributorAuthor

    I'm curious if you could share more info about your system setup, that can help us improve this.

    @huntie I have a very boring system setup, pretty much the default Ubuntu 24.04.3 installation (to be exact, I first installed Ubuntu 22 without any customization of default options I can think of, then over time it upgraded to 24). No firewall.

  8. github-actions
    added
    Needs: AttentionIssues where the author has responded to feedback.
    and removed
    Needs: Author Feedback
    on Jan 2, 2026

  9. exneval commented on Mar 4, 2026

    @exneval
    exneval
    on Mar 4, 2026

    Just uprade to react native 0.83 through expo sdk 55 and find exact same issue like author, my development setup

    Distributor ID: Ubuntu
    Description: Ubuntu 24.04.4 LTS
    Release: 24.04
    Codename: noble

  10. phipma commented on May 13, 2026

    @phipma
    phipma
    on May 13, 2026

    I have just set up my first expo project (with the help of Cursor AI) and get this:

     ERROR  An unknown error occurred while installing React Native DevTools. Details:

LaunchProcess: failed to execvp:
/home/mark/.cache/dotslash/cb/2a59c5919ce27ef30b55119edf89e556e015ef/React
[2194152:0513/160026.905822:FATAL:content/browser/zygote_host/zygote_host_impl_linux.cc:211] Check failed: . : Invalid argument (22)

    Evidently caused by spaces in the path:

    ls /home/mark/.cache/dotslash/cb/2a59c5919ce27ef30b55119edf89e556e015ef 
'React Native DevTools-linux-x64'

  11. Riczer commented on Jul 12, 2026

    @Riczer
    Riczer
    on Jul 12, 2026

    I have just set up my first expo project (with the help of Cursor AI) and get this:

     ERROR  An unknown error occurred while installing React Native DevTools. Details:

LaunchProcess: failed to execvp:
/home/mark/.cache/dotslash/cb/2a59c5919ce27ef30b55119edf89e556e015ef/React
[2194152:0513/160026.905822:FATAL:content/browser/zygote_host/zygote_host_impl_linux.cc:211] Check failed: . : Invalid argument (22)

    Evidently caused by spaces in the path:

    ls /home/mark/.cache/dotslash/cb/2a59c5919ce27ef30b55119edf89e556e015ef 
'React Native DevTools-linux-x64'

    I have this same problem

  12. birdofpreyru commented on Oct 19, 2026

    @birdofpreyru
    birdofpreyru
    on Oct 19, 2026
    ContributorAuthor

    Now, as of RN@0.88 (and some previous versions) and Ubuntu 26.04.1, DevTools don't launch for me with about the same error:
    Image

    The problems seems to stem from electron/electron#42510 (known since June, 2024), and this is the workaround that works for me:

    1. Give to chrome-sandbox binary from the error message 4755 mode and root owner, i.e.

      sudo chown root /path/to/React Native DevTools-linux-x64/chrome-sandbox
sudo chmod 4755 /path/to/React Native DevTools-linux-x64/chrome-sandbox

    2. Rename React Native DevTools-linux-x64 folder in that error message to ReactNativeDevTools-linux-x64, then rename React Native DevTools binary inside that folder into ReactNativeDevTools (i.e. remove whitespaces from the path).

    3. Then inside node_modules folder of your project rename all mentions of React Native DevTools into ReactNativeDevTools (i.e. again, remove all white spaces).

    Now dev tools work launch for me.

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